She felt jealous, ashamed and disgusted. Now her younger brother who is two years old only can do so many things. He can say words, he can run without falling, he can throw balls. But despite crossing 6 years, still struggling to stand and run!!! Her cousin, who is the same age, already started going to school. Children like her, play, run, laugh all day. But she had to face difficulty to utter her beautiful name. Papa said her name was the most beautiful one. But when someone asks she had to spell it by every letter like ‘lo-ve-ley’. As if her tongue is becoming tight. She also wanted to play and run with friends. But she has no friends. The other day her cousin brother came home and sang a rhyme. But lovely only can speak words. Mama says she has convulsions so she has to take those bitter medicines everyday. Sometimes she feels, no one is loving her like they love her younger brother, because of these problems. Her father, though become irritable and frustrated sometimes, has taken good care of her and taken her to the famous brain-doctor (Neurologist). He also asked the same question to her mother, which every doctor asked. ‘Did the baby cry after birth’ and her mother had the same answer, ‘no’. Then he told many things to her mother. He gave those bitter medicines and told, that she must take them everyday. Everyday she hopes to be normal. But the reality is different. Everyday she thinks why she didn’t cry after birth, like every other child?……………
A story form to highlight the problems of babies who didn’t cry after birth, any relation to real life person is complete coincidence.
Every day we see numerous children with similar problems. In Medical terms we tell it Birth Asphyxia or Perinatal Asphyxia.
The baby has to change so much when they are born. Inside the mother, it was an aquatic parasite. It depends on the mother for food and oxygen. But after birth, it has to breathe and make her own lungs work. So birth is the most crucial time in our life. And the first cry, helps our lungs to inflate. And that oxygen will go to the brain. Our brain can’t withstand the deficiency of oxygen for minutes. Now due to any cause if the baby doesn’t cry then it can’t use the lungs and the brain doesn’t get oxygen and some part of it is damaged. Another condition, If the womb brain is not developed well, then it will not work profoundly and it will not start breathing (first cry), which will cause more damage to the brain. It is one of the most common causes of developmental delay.
So we divide it into two types.
Before birth ( prepartum): The problems in the mother like anemia, infection, nutrition deficiency etc along with some chromosomal diseases in the baby. Negligence in pregnancy, no checkups, deficiency of balanced diet, heavy work and stress in pregnancy – these are the causes which limit growth of baby inside the womb.
At the time of birth (intrapartum): It’s very common in India. Prolonged labour, home delivery, obstruction while delivery etc are common causes.
All these factors make problems in the first cry. Babies who don’t cry after birth, may go to serious consequences like seizure, development delay in motor,delay in speech development delay in language development delay in cognitive development, hearing loss, poor school performance etc. And the damage is permanent. It destroys the life of the child along with the family. Most of the parents waste their time and money in treatment of the child. The other siblings get neglected. Most of the children become handicaps for a lifetime. Many children also die due to this condition. It’s one of the most common causes of neonatal deaths in India.
Good care in pregnancy, frequent check ups, good diet to mother, stress free environment, hospital delivery can decrease the problem significantly. If the baby didn’t cry, an emergency pediatric consultation must be done. Emergency treatments are there to treat those patients in district level hospitals.
Birth asphyxia is a dreaded condition. Many people ask ‘is birth asphyxia curable’, ‘is birth asphyxia preventable’. Good pregnancy care and hospital delivery can be prevented significantly.
#happy_sunday
#birth asphyxia #developmental-delay #seizures
#happy_winters
#say_no_to_birth_asphyxia
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