Labor/Delivery & Hospital Stay
I went in for a routine appointment, on a Tuesday, at 36 weeks 5 days, and was told I had gestational hypertension and should go to the hospital immediately for further testing. By Saturday morning, I had been in and out of the hospital three times for testing and monitoring, and my OB suggested that I be induced that evening, around 8pm.
I decided to pamper myself that day and go to the nail salon for a manicure/pedicure around 4pm. I started feeling contractions at the nail salon and called my husband when I left at 5:30pm to tell him I thought I was going into labor. As soon as I got home, I called my OB and measured my blood pressure, and was on my way to the hospital by 6:30pm.
As soon as I was checked into my room in Labor & Delivery my water broke; I was given antibiotics immediately, as I was group B strep positive. I was only dilated a few centimeters but I was in so much pain already I asked for an epidural. Although the epidural slightly relieved my pain, I still had to breathe through every contraction and kept begging them to give me more.
Timelines get fuzzy here, but I know that I spiked a fever and almost went in for a c-section, but was administered antibiotics which helped lower the fever and regulate my baby’s heart rate. I was administered Pitocin, because I was stuck at 7 centimeters for 5 hours, and soon after my baby’s heart rate spiked. Again, I almost went in for an emergency c-section, but they lowered the Pitocin which regulated my baby’s heart rate, again. Finally, I was at 9.5 centimeters and my OB asked if I wanted to push or go in for a c-section. I opted to push, but my contractions slowed down to 5 minutes apart. I pushed for an hour with little progress, and I asked my OB what my options were – we decided to try the vacuum. As soon as we opted for the vacuum, what seemed like 20 more people rushed into my room which caught me off guard. As I tried concentrating on pushing, a nurse hopped on top of me and started pushing on my stomach. Little did I realize, my baby was stuck for 90 seconds, and was finally delivered at 1:18pm on a Sunday. As soon as she came out, I noticed she wasn’t crying – I panicked and screamed “why isn’t she crying?” – I pleaded with my husband to check on our baby. Finally, after an excruciating few minutes, we heard a cry. They brought my baby over, and I held her as my OB stitched me up for nearly an hour, as the epidural slowly wore off. Unfortunately, I had a third-degree tear that would require physical therapy to help fully heal. We were told that my daughter had suffered from a shoulder dystocia and had Erb’s Palsy as a result; she was taken to be x-rayed shortly after we held her for the first time. There was no break, but her arm was completely limp.
Again, everything seems so hazy after these moments – I tried to breastfeed and immediately had difficulty, as my daughter had severe tongue tie. A baby nurse came in to help, and gave me a nipple shield, but we ended up giving her formula as the breastfeeding was deemed unsuccessful.
The following days, we tried to piece together what happened. My husband and I both felt traumatized and wondered if our experience was “normal”. We soon found out that our experience was no where near normal and felt completely clueless as to what to do next, and what our daughter’s diagnoses meant.
The doctors were very casual about our daughter’s Erb’s Palsy diagnoses – they downplayed the severity and told us that it would heal on its own, and to take her to an orthopedic doctor to be examined. She had an issue with Jaundice, and they also thought she may have a heart murmur, so her arm took a temporary back-burner while we watched our daughter receive an echocardiogram before being discharged that day. Thankfully, her heart was healthy and we breathed a sigh of relief.
Dealing with Erb’s Palsy
My husband and I arrived at our first pediatrician appointment, frazzled, but excited that we had figured out how to get her there in one piece. The nurse came into the exam room, and immediately brought up my daughter’s Erb’s Palsy diagnosis. She mentioned that her nephew also suffers from Erb’s Palsy, and at 22 years old he is still disabled. She told us stories of how he could barely crawl, but seemed to manage, and showed us pictures of him as a child, post-surgery, with a large cast on his arm. She told us that her information was “off the record” and how we should speak to a lawyer. My husband and I were distraught, to say the least. We felt completely blindsided, and as I sat there sobbing in the doctor’s office, they handed me a postpartum depression survey to complete.
A few days later, we had our initial appointment with the orthopedic doctor that was recommended to us – he was very casual about her diagnoses and said that we should “let her be a baby” for the next 3 months and follow up. My husband and I both felt very uncomfortable about how to proceed, as our baby had no movement in her arm, and decided to get a second opinion. I did my research and found that Lurie’s Children’s Hospital had a Brachial Plexus program for babies and children with this type of injury. I tried getting an appointment, but was turned down; thankfully, I had some connections through work and was able to get an appointment within a few weeks.
At the initial appointment at Lurie’s, we were told that our daughter should begin physical therapy immediately to help heal her arm. They told us that the orthopedic doctor was incorrect, and that “doing nothing” would not help her heal faster. We were told that her progress would be monitored over the next few months to determine if she will need surgery.
At our weekly physical therapy appointments, I would ask the physical therapists a slew of questions to understand this diagnoses and what our future may look like to set expectations for us. I was told that if her injury did not heal itself within the first 2 weeks of life, that she would most likely not fully recover. I asked extensive questions about what her life would be like when she was older, how it would affect her daily life, and her physical abilities. My daughter just turned 4 months and is absolutely thriving, and healing more every day.
As frightening as our first pediatrician appointment was, I am happy that I was finally told how severe this injury could be if you are not proactive. I am thankful for our due diligence to do research, get second opinions, and fight for the very best care, but I often wonder what would have happened had we listened to that first doctor. I hope that my story inspires expecting moms to advocate for themselves, and for their babies as much as possible, to do their own research, and get multiple opinions.
Bio
My name is Maggie Daniels Dankler, and I am a Chicagoan, mama to my daughter Nellie Grace, wife, dog-mom, and in technology sales.
