If your baby needs help at birth
What resuscitation looks like, and what you can still ask for.
Sometimes a baby needs help to start breathing. A team arrives, the baby goes to a warmer, and the room fills with people. It is frightening to watch and it is usually brief.
Two things remain within your control even then. Someone can stay with you and tell you what is happening, and you can ask for it. And if your baby needs to go to the nursery or intensive care, you can ask to see and touch them before they go, and to be told where they are going and when you can follow.
Ask for a narrator"Can someone tell me what is happening?" Silence in that moment is what women remember, and it is the easiest thing in the room to fix.
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This page is educational. It supports the conversation with your own clinicians. It is not consent to any treatment, and it cannot assess you. If you are worried about a symptom now, see urgent warning signs.