Seth

Throughout my pregnancy with my son Seth, now 3 it was suspected by all medical professional that I was carrying a very large for dates baby.

At 38 week the decision was made to induce me as I was suffering from such pain and discomfort in my pelvis and hips that I could hardly walk.

The induction went as planned and I progressed into established labour quickly.  Seth was my second child so when things started to feel wrong I became very worried.  The staff whispered amongst each other and you could see from their faces that there was concern.  During my labour there was evidence on the CTG trace that my baby was in distress and eventually a decision was made to expedite delivery by ventouse delivery (basically a Dyson – and they suck and drag your baby out from you - it was absolutely barbaric).  When the head was delivered there was evidence that my baby was suffering from Shoulder Dystocia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shoulder_dystocia) (an emergency situation when after the baby’s head is delivered the baby’s shoulder becomes stuck and cannot pass below the pubic symphysis.

After emergency procedures were implemented my baby was finally delivered at 5.55am floppy, grey and lifeless with an Apgar score of 0.  My husband held me tight shielding my vision from the team working on Seth in the corner of the room trying to resuscitate him.

Thankfully he was resuscitated and ventilated and taken to the neonatal unit but the staff were unable to tell us how much damage if any he had  sustained other than it was thought he had suffered Hypoxic-Ischemic Encephalopathy Grade 2 (HIE) and the next 48 hours would be critical.  A doctor in the unit was aware of a trial taking place locally called the ‘Toby Trial’ were new born babies who had suffered hypoxic injuries are placed in a induced state of hypothermia for 72 hours.  There has been some evidence that this state of hypothermia delays the damage and dying of any brain cells which would happen during periods of starvation of oxygen.  Seth met the criteria for the trial and we were told he would go to either Manchester or Liverpool.  Within an hour a team from the Woman’s Hospital arrived and he was transferred by ambulance to the Liverpool Woman’s Hospital.

At the Women’s Hospital Seth was ‘cooled’ for 72 hours then gradually warmed.  During this time we were unable to even touch him in case our touch raised his temperature.  It was four days after his birth that I was finally able to hold him for the first time.

Seth continued to be ventilated and his brain was monitored.  The doctors confirmed that his brain was not behaving normally nor was it behaving symptomatic of brain damage but the good news was he had not suffered from any fits and his organs were functioning well.  There was talk of the possibility of Cerebral Palsy, but no one would give us an idea about whether Seth would be ok we were told it would be years until we would be able to see if he had sustained any long lasting damage and how if he did it would manifest itself but he would be monitored and reviewed frequently over the next few years to follow his development.  We didn’t care though, he was our baby no matter what and he was alive. 

After 4 days Seth started breathing for himself and after 10 days he came home.

The day we went to collect him from hospital was a crisp frosty December and as we drove through Liverpool to the hospital there were thousands of Santa running the ‘Santa Dash’ it was like all my Christmases had come at once our baby would be home for Christmas.

The special care baby unit was amazing, they even had a page where they would post pictures of Seth and updates on how he was doing so we could see and our friends and family could follow his progress.

Seth is now 3, the past 3 years have been a challenge to say the least and he is displaying some behaviour problems and has stiffness in one of his leg.

He is so different to any other child, he is so stubborn to the point that his health visitor thought he was deaf and had his ears tested.  They were fine he just chooses not to listen to you.  He is very unique and can literally in minutes reduce me to tears with his difficult behaviour then have me roaring with laughter with his strange ways and outlook on life.

We as a family have had major ups and downs with Seth and his behaviour but could never be without him in our life