As I write this post, I can’t stop the tears from pouring down my cheeks. My dear friends Leilani Luna and her husband, peaceful parenting advocates, experienced a stillbirth.
From the beginning her little baby was welcomed into the family.
But on June 15th, 2011, her precious son, Liam Dietrich Luna, was born still at 12:05AM. He weighed 10lbs, 5oz and was 22 inches long. He was chubby and perfect, with reddish brown hair and blue eyes like his daddy.
Leilani’s tragedy was rare and an extreme emergency whether at home or in the hospital. She had several hours of very hard labor with little progress when a severe pain across the middle of her abdomen appeared. It was extremely painful and did not go away.
The doctors verified she had experienced uterine rupture. This caused another rare emergency, a placental abruption, and this is what took Liam's life. Her waters had broken and leaked into her abdominal cavity. It is a miracle that she is alive today. The doctors proceeded with a c-section after verifying that little Liam had passed on from this world. They had to clean out her abdominal cavity. Her uterus was shredded and the doctor spent a long time repairing it, but she will no longer be able to have biological children.
The doctors also diagnosed her with severe pre-eclampsia although she did not have that diagnosis during pregnancy, nor did she have symptoms.
Leilani’s tragedy was rare and an extreme emergency whether at home or in the hospital. She had several hours of very hard labor with little progress when a severe pain across the middle of her abdomen appeared. It was extremely painful and did not go away.
The doctors verified she had experienced uterine rupture. This caused another rare emergency, a placental abruption, and this is what took Liam's life. Her waters had broken and leaked into her abdominal cavity. It is a miracle that she is alive today. The doctors proceeded with a c-section after verifying that little Liam had passed on from this world. They had to clean out her abdominal cavity. Her uterus was shredded and the doctor spent a long time repairing it, but she will no longer be able to have biological children.
The doctors also diagnosed her with severe pre-eclampsia although she did not have that diagnosis during pregnancy, nor did she have symptoms.
A few days after coming home from this tragic experience, she developed a fever with chills and had to be hospitalised again. The doctors thought it was something serious and death was mentioned. They couldn't find the cervix or even the top of the vagina & had a hard time finding the uterus. They had put her under anesthesia for an exam.
Thankfully, it was only her bladder. It wasn't emptying and was distended from the urine. After all that was emptied, they were able to find everything in its place. Even though it was "only" that, the second experience left her very ill. She has been on countless narcotics, antibiotics, contrasts, etc over the last 10 days.
Please send a prayer or healing vibe as she and her family work through this dark journey not only of physical healing, but also of grieving for Liam. Leilani has experienced a loss that no mother wants to think of and has still found the strength to take time to share Liam with us. He is beautiful and has truly impacted the lives of many people.
Thankfully, it was only her bladder. It wasn't emptying and was distended from the urine. After all that was emptied, they were able to find everything in its place. Even though it was "only" that, the second experience left her very ill. She has been on countless narcotics, antibiotics, contrasts, etc over the last 10 days.
Please send a prayer or healing vibe as she and her family work through this dark journey not only of physical healing, but also of grieving for Liam. Leilani has experienced a loss that no mother wants to think of and has still found the strength to take time to share Liam with us. He is beautiful and has truly impacted the lives of many people.
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| Rest in peace, dear Liam. You have touched many hearts. |
What is a uterine rupture?
”Uterine rupture in pregnancy is a rare and often catastrophic complication with a high incidence of fetal and maternal morbidity. Several factors are known to increase the risk of uterine rupture, but, even in high-risk subgroups, the overall incidence of uterine rupture is low. From 1976-2009, 20 peer-reviewed publications that described the incidence of uterine rupture reported 1,864 cases among 2,863,330 pregnant women, yielding an overall uterine rupture rate of 1 in 1,536 pregnancies (0.07%).”
http://emedicine.medscape.com/article/275854-overview
http://emedicine.medscape.com/article/275854-overview
What can you or your provider do if a rupture occurs?
Similar to other severe emergencies such as placental abruption or cord prolapse, this is a true emergency that requires immediate action and often has poor outcomes regardless. :( This article talks about how a rupture is typically handled:
http://www.whattoexpect.com/pregnancy/pregnancy-health/complications/uterine-rupture.aspx
What is a placental abruption?
It is an uncommon complication where the placenta detaches from the uterine wall.
What is a placental abruption?
It is an uncommon complication where the placenta detaches from the uterine wall.
http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/placental-abruption/DS00623
What can you or your provider do if a rupture occurs?
Similar to uterine rupture, it is a severe emergency that requires immediate delivery.
http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/placental-abruption/DS00623/DSECTION=treatments-and-drugs
I am ceritanly sorry for your friend's loss. This is tragic.
ReplyDeleteThat is so incredibly sad. That poor family. How completely devastating. This family will be in my thoughts and prayers.
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing Leilani. I cannot imagine living through something like this, I send you love and healing thoughts and hope your body heals quickly and your heart finds some peace eventually. Hugs xxx
ReplyDeleteThis poor family... there's really nothing we can say to help them feel better, is there? It's just so unfair, for these horrible things to happen to people who are clearly so loving and good. This is so much more than heartbreaking, because it was so unexpected and there was no way to know just how quickly things would turn tragic. We'll hold this family up in our prayers, and hope that one day in the future they'll be able to use their story to educate others and help people be more compassionate toward those who have suffered such losses.
ReplyDeleteI love Lani, Troy and their daughters! I've known them for many years and all my love & prayers are with them now and always. ~Melanie L.
ReplyDeleteI am so sorry for your friend's loss. He is such a beautiful baby boy. My family and I will keep her and hers in our our prayers.
ReplyDeleteI'm so sorry for your loss. I'll add Liam's name to my candlelighting for my Rowan beginning this evening. Sending love and light to you for healing.
ReplyDeleteMy heart goes out to her and her family. I can't imagine having to go through all of that and not even be able to take my baby home or have any more children. =( I hope she can find the strength and courage to move on for her family. Much love to you and yours Leilani. <3
ReplyDeleteI'd love to have more children but things like this keep deterring me. I have to admit - I am going to be scared s***less if I get pregnant again.
How so very sad. I lay here nursing my sweet child not being able to imagine the grief and pain this mother feels. My thoughts go out to her and her family. :*(
ReplyDeleteoh dear <3 sad
ReplyDeleteWhat a beautiful, sweet angel of a boy. My thoughts are with your friend. A loss is something no mother ever fully recovers from, but her beautiful son is there with her, watching over her. I wish her nothing but the best and speedy physical healing so she can begin to try to put her life back together again. I have been there, I know it's something that is all too hard to do. Blessings to her and hugs from afar.
ReplyDeleteFirst of all, most of those evil doctors you're always talking about would have wanted to schedule a c-section for this woman at 39 weeks ***for this very reason.*** Two prior c-sections significantly increases risk for uterine rupture. If she'd done that instead of listening to all the natural childbirth caterwauling on the internet, she'd be holding her son in her arms today.
ReplyDeleteNot only that, but your implication that this would have happened in the hospital too ("Leilani’s tragedy was rare and an extreme emergency whether at home or in the hospital.") is patently false.
The medscape article to which you link says the fetus has "only 10-37 minutes are available before clinically significant fetal morbidity becomes inevitable." The hospital where I volunteer as a doula can do an emergency section in 8 minutes. Not only that, but this journal article (http://www.aafp.org/afp/2002/0901/p823.html#afp20020901p823-b13) says the latest research shows that the neonatal mortality rate is 2.6% when a uterine rupture takes place in the hospital with the risk increasing 231% for ruptures that take place outside of the hospital. TWO HUNDRED AND THIRTY ONE PERCENT!!! Did you get that? You and your ilk are killing babies with your misinformation, misunderstanding of scientific literature, and outright lies. I hope you're proud of yourself.
This is beyond frustrating. If mom had just had a repeat c/s, she'd be snuggling a newborn while you bemoaned her "unnecessarian." If mom had just had continuous monitoring in the hospital, they would have picked up trouble with his heart rate (one of the first signs of impending UR) and almost certainly would have gotten him out in time to save him. (Most hospitals can do a crash c/s within 10 minutes if they need to). If she had just had prenatal care, she might have known she was having blood pressure problems.
ReplyDeleteAre you proud of the fruits of your labors, Guggie? Do you see now why doctors do what they do? They don't make the recommendations they do and use the interventions they do for the majority of babies who will be born without complication. They do what they do for babies like Liam. Because believe it or not, they don't like delivering dead babies. All those evil "unncessarians" and interventions are done precisely to save the lives of babies like Liam who are going to fall on the wrong side of the statics.
My heart is broken for the loss of a precious little baby. It's compounded by the fact that this did not have to be. This baby should be alive. This mother should have her warm and cooing newborn snuggled at her breast. I sincerely pray that this gives you pause in the future before encouraging women to take risks with their babies. Things like UR might be rare, but they happen to real women and real babies pay the price.
so sad
ReplyDeleteOh, this is tragic beyond words. My heart goes out to this grieving family. Sending thoughts and prayers their way.
ReplyDelete(I do have to make a factual clarification, sorry. Although the risk of uterine rupture overall is low, 0.07% of ALL pregnancies - ie, this includes women who have NEVER had a cesarean section, the risk is increased to 0.2-1.5% after ONE cesarean section, and about 3.7% after TWO cesarean sections - important information for women to have when considering their options. http://www.sogc.org/guidelines/public/155E-CPG-February2005.pdf )
Which is why HBAC is not recommended, especially for a macrosomic infant.
ReplyDeleteI am terribly sorry for your friend, but she gambled and lost.
That is awful. Was this an attempted home birth?
ReplyDeleteYou are not a medical professional - just a silly housewife. You should not advocate homebirth for previous c-section woman. Was this poor sweet woman your blog reader? She is now forever devastated. Had she had this baby in a hospital none of this would have happened. (and don't say babies die in hospitals - this one would not have)
ReplyDeleteDid you encourage this stunt birth. In a way Guggie, you are responsible for the death of this sweet baby's death. (along with any other babies who die of whooping cough, measles, polio, etc.
Yours in Christ,
John
Praying for her recovery and the consolation of the entire family. What a tragedy.
ReplyDeleteI wonder what she is thinking now. "Had I gone to the hospital I would be holding that sweet baby boy right now. Had I not listen to the likes of Guggie I would be breast feeding my sweet baby boy right now."
ReplyDeleteIn front of God and all of the internet you now need to say, you were wrong. Babies die because of stunt birth, not following standard medical care and reading stuff on the internet from silly housewives who think because they were lucky enough to not kill their babies in a home birth.
Please stop the madness before another baby dies.
Yours in Christ
What' it like to have killed someone? Especially a baby? Now I know you really didn't kill a baby. No not really kill. Kind of like how the train engineer with load of Jews did not kill anyone per se. Or say one of those wives of a Nazi did not really kill anyone - no not really "all I did was just march in time with everyone else...it is not my fault that some people got killed."
ReplyDeleteOh I guess you could shrug it all off and say - "babies die in childbirth...even in hospitals.." But when you advocate this kind of homebirth point of view, give out medical advice, make recommendations, and someone gets hurt or dies, maybe you should take responsibility.
What would Jesus want you to do? Say its God's will - that a preventable death happened because I have some sort of agenda, because I am a silly housewife and just read stuff on the internet and preach it as Gospel truth or would he want you to say, enough is enough, I am responsible for the death of a baby and I retract all of this garbage.
We are waiting for your retraction.
Yours in Christ
Were you there when they took his little body from my arms,
ReplyDeletewere you there when he died inside of me,
were you there egging me on to not see a doctor,
were you there when they cut my womb in two,
were you there when I sat alone without him,
were you there when I returned to an empty nursery,
were you there when they put him in the cold cold ground,
it causes me to tremble, tremble, tremble...
Just heart breaking. So much lost. Peace be with you.
ReplyDeleteNo, actually, I take care not to hand out any medical advice.
ReplyDeleteNor do I ever tell women that babies do not die. A baby can die in any location, at the hands of any care provider (or none).
It concerns me how much that Easter post has impacted you, that you follow my blog posts so consistently and feel the need to publicly hurt a woman who just lost her child. Please seek professional assistance.
Anonymous, enough the yours in Christ crap after spewing such hatred..you look like a hypocrite. To the nurse who seems to feel the need to vent her spleen, and clearly ADORES hospitals for women to give birth in, I know many MANY women, including myself, who have had children severely brain damaged from those WONDERFUL doctors you espouse...I would take my 'chances' with a home birth anytime. Hospitals look out for #1: themselves. Women and babies come last. As for the pointless "you make babies die from measles and polio" garbage, you have got to be kidding me. Guggie has enlightened many of us to the dangers that hospitals and health care 'professionals' dictate...thank YOU Guggie!!
ReplyDeleteYour friend, Julie
It truly disturbs me the comments on here that blame the mother or Guggie for the death of that baby. You want to talk about irresponsible??? How distasteful to take someone else's tragedy and use it so disrespectfully. And all of these posts are ended with "yours in Christ" which boggles my mind. My heart goes out to this family for what they have lost. My prayers for anonymous is that they can learn compassion without ever having to suffer a similar tragedy and that if they have already and this ugliness is how they are lashing out... that there be comfort for them soon. As a mother who has lost two of my beautiful babies shortly after their birth IN A HOSPITAL let me say that it can happen anywhere. NO matter where it happens it is DEVASTATING and it rips a mother, father, and family apart.
ReplyDeleteMy sincerest condolences to this family.
And unlike anonymous I am not afraid to put my name on this comment
Melissa Ryall Haynie
Anonymous,
ReplyDeleteI can't say what Jesus would want to say to Guggie, or what he would think of her mission, but I can say this with all confidence, he would be very disappointed in your behavior on this post. There is no need to bully another person for having a different view than yours, and there is no need to place the blame on a grieving mother.