My Uterine Rupture

This is the story of a uterine rupture, explained by the woman whom it happened to and told by her older daughter. Very important information in here about uterine rupture and the drug that caused it.

What is a Uterine Rupture?

That’s a question I had to ask myself. I had five perfect births and thought I knew everything about pregnancy, labor, and delivery. I had the biggest shock of my life back in November of 1998. Something that would change the course of mine and my families lives forever.

The Answers

After my Uterine Rupture, I started doing a lot of research. I wanted to know what happened? What Causes Uterine Rupture in a healthy unscarred Uterus? What I have discovered the drug Cytotec (misoprostol) they used to induce my labor caused my Uterine Rupture. This drug is not FDA approved to use on pregnant women. I’m so upset that my Midwife used this drug on me, without my consent. There are women out there that are dying and their babies are dying because of this drug. What is it going to take for them to stop using this drug? The company that makes this drug sent out 200,000.00 letters to Doctors telling them that, this drug is not to be used on pregnant women. We have recently received the leaflet that comes with this drug. It shows a pregnant woman on the front with a red circle and line through it (the sign for no).

This is my birth story written by our oldest Daughter.

THE MIRACLE OF A MOTHER AND DAUGHTER

Emily November 13, 1998

Hi, my name is Alicia. I want to share a traumatic birth story with you. This is one of my mothers:

My parents have been married all of my life, and I’m the oldest of 6 girls. The ages are; me-19, Heather-16, Brittany-15, Ashley-11, Tiffany-8, and the new addition, Emily, who is now 4 & 1/2 months old. My mother was 35 when she gave birth to Emily on November 13, 1998. My parents were hoping to have one more. I wanted to be the one to tell you this story because I know it would be too hard for my mother or father to even think of those 2 &1/2 long, painful weeks. This is a story I’d love to be able to forget. It runs through my head morning, noon, and night. I can’t stop thinking about how my sisters and I almost lost our mother, and my father; his wife:

NOVEMBER 12 – Mom’s 39 weeks pregnant. The doctor told her that the baby was getting too big and that she was going to have to be induced. They induced her with Cytotec. 1 hour later, mom’s having contractions. The contractions are 2 &1/2 minutes apart, and 1 minute long. Mom’s in pain, but of course handling it very well.

NOVEMBER 13 – 7:00 PM- Mom’s been in labor now for 30 hours. She’s 4 centimeters dilated, 80% effaced, and at -2 station. Contractions are every 2 minutes. Fetal heart sound is between 130-140. So far so good. Mom asks for something to relax her. The nurses gave her Nubain.

7:15 PM – Mom gets up, walks around, water breaks. About an hour later she hears a pop. The midwives check her; 5 centimeters dilated. She then tells the midwives what she heard. They tell her that the pop sound was the baby coming down. (Boy were they ever so wrong). The baby’s heart rate is now down to 40 beats per minute.

7:35 PM – The midwife puts both hands up my mother and stretched open her cervix. She then made my mother push and pulled the baby out in less than 5 minutes.

7:40 PM – Baby is delivered followed with a huge gush of blood. Baby is not breathing and is blue. Her APGAR score was 3. They intubated her. Mom is bleeding; hemorrhaging. She’s continuing to tell the midwives that something is wrong, over and over, but they didn’t care to listen and acted as if this was completely normal. Mom’s blood pressure was now 40/20; almost dead. She’s as white as a ghost, and her bodily functions start to shut down rapidly, to where she could hardly even breathe. My mother has literally almost bleed to death. As my father is pleading with the midwives to get a doctor, my mother is now almost dead. My father is now screaming for a doctor. Please he begs, if you get fired for calling in a doctor, I will pay your wages for the rest of your life. Just please help and save my wife! Dad’s so scared, he has no idea what to do, so he picks up his cell phone and starts to dial 911 in a hospital because no one would help. They just stood still and stared at my mother fighting for her last breath as if someone had hypnotized them. They just seemed to not even care that my mother’s life was fading away. They allowed my mother to bleed for nearly 2 hours. Then finally one of the nurses could not bare to see my mother dying, and the midwives doing absolutely nothing about it, so she called for a doctor; any doctor. A doctor who was not even not affiliated with her OB-GYN, came to my mother’s rescue. He could not believe what he saw. He yelled at all the midwives and nurses to call the other doctors. He told them that this lady is dying, I’m taking her to the O.R.! He then rushed my mother to the OR on the delivery bed. He said there was no time to put her on a gurney, and that she would have been dead by that time. My father and the doctor are rushing my mother to the OR We thank god for that doctor.

In the Operating Room – The surgeons did a D&C. first, nothing was helping. She was still bleeding, and still hemorrhaging. Her heart stopped twice, and both times they revived her back to life. There was still little hope. So little in fact, that the doctor came out once and told my dad that she probably wouldn’t survive. What had happened was her uterus ruptured from the top, and all the way down to her cervix? They then performed a Total Abdominal Hysterectomy with a Left Salpingo-oophorectomy. (she had her uterus, 1 ova, and 1 fallopian tube removed ).

After 7 hours in the O.R., 37 units of blood, and God’s miracle, She was put in the intensive Care Unit, and on Life Support. A few days later, she was taken off Life Support; she could now breathe on her own. Mom was now recovering very fast. But it wasn’t fast enough to satisfy her. She just wanted to see her baby, and she knew they wouldn’t let her see her baby girl until she was well. She was in ICU for 14 days. She finally got to see her baby after she was almost a week old. I believe that was the one thing that helped her to get better faster than normal. She was progressing very fast, and soon returned home very sore, but of course, more beautiful than ever.

Afterward – My little sister Emily was born November 13, at 7:40 P.M. She weighed 8 pounds, 13 ounces. When she was discharged from the hospital, she weighed 6 pounds, 2 ounces. The dramatic drop in weight was caused by her care. They fed her with a tube in her stomach. Emily couldn’t breastfeed for the longest time because she could not breathe out of her nose. This was caused by the delivery team. When born, they shoved tubes that were way too big for her, down her little nostrils, causing the fine, delicate tissues to be nicked, scraped, irritated, and inflamed. Mom had to pump her milk, and feed her through an SNS feeder for a long time.

Emily is now 13 pounds, 4 & 1/2 months old. She is now breastfeeding very well, and that is how she gets all of her food. She may have to have surgery in the near future because of her nose, but other than that, she’s happy and very beautiful. My mother is recovering very well with her new beautiful baby girl but still suffers from the fact that she will never again be able to conceive. The rest of us are doing fine, but the memory of that horrible night still runs through our heads and seems to never let up.

Thank you for taking the time to read my mothers birth story, I have hoped to make this one that you will never forget. I know we never will.

Sincerely,

Alicia

Why Should I Donate Blood?

Have you ever asked yourself this question? I have, and my question was answered. As a husband and father of six daughters, I found out how important it is to donate blood.

In November of 1998, while giving birth to our sixth daughter, my wife’s uterus ruptured. After this near death experience, hours of surgery, and 37 units of blood, she and baby are doing fine. If that blood was not available my wife would not be here today. This is why I donate blood every eight weeks. I’m sure as you are reading this, you can think of a loved one that may need blood someday. Please Donate blood, it may be their life you*re saving.

To the 37 Donors out there,

Our family says thank you. You are now apart of our family.

Grateful