Baby James...REALLY SAD

This is a copy and paste from another board. Out of respect for the family, if you copy something, copy and paste the whole thing. There is a slide show link included. I used it myself and it is safe as of today. Have a box of kleneex ready and use caution...your heart will break. Peace be upon James and his family.


Please do not take this as alarmist, but this is coming from a mom who lost her perfectly healthy baby seven weeks ago to a cord accident and has just discovered there is something easy and free she could have done that MIGHT have saved him in time. That mom is me...

Practice kick counting!!! (link to instructions below) Even if your OB acts like it's not a big deal or doesn't mention it at all (I've delivered two babies now and no doctor ever mentioned it to me at all!). even if you are low risk and your baby moves a lot. it's free and easy and could save your baby.

Every pregnant woman should be counting her baby's kicks in a methodical way, not just generally counting kicks. it's knowing your baby's pattern that will help alert you to any problems.

here are great instructions on how to do it at what stage...
http://www.babykickalliance.org/kickCountChart.asp the main page of that site http://www.babykickalliance.org/index.asp is also a great resource.

70 babies die in the US each day stillborn (compared to 7 SIDS deaths daily -stillbirth is MUCH more common than SIDS)...many, many of those stillborns (perhaps half) could potentially be saved if the moms are aware of their babies' activities and pushed for medical investigation/intervention.

Please, for me, for my little baby who should be seven weeks old, please tell this to every pregnant woman you know.

It's a lot like the Back To Sleep thing with SIDS...most moms think long and hard before ignoring that advice and understand when they do they are accepting some risk. think long and hard about ignoring the advice to count and chart fetal movement. if you know about it and choose not to do it for whatever reason, you are accepting the risk of losing your baby needlessly.

If you need more convincing, download the photo essay of my son's stillbirth here http://www.blairblanks.com/jameshudson/james.exe it is very hard to watch and even harder when it is your life...

I found out when I went in to have him via scheduled c-section. I'd felt him kick at 2a.m. the night before (I was SO excited I couldn;'t get to sleep) He must have died just hours before I went to the hospital to have him. So, just because you feel your baby kick, don't think you are safe. He was still kicking to the very end, but much less. Had I been kick counting, I would have picked up on that. I thought it was because he was big (8lbs 12 oz at birth). But babies still should move as often at the end, it's just that they movements are not as sharp because they have less room to draw back to whack you! Also, epsiodes of hiccups lasting 15 mins or more can be a cause for concern, esp. if it happens four or more times in a 24 hr peroid.

If just 50 of you take this info to heart and do kick counts for this and all subesquent pregnancies, we can probably save at least one baby. I say 50 because it's about 1/100 deliveries that are stillborn, and most women have at least two babies.

And if all of you tell just ten friends who are pregnant,and impress upon them how important it is, we can save more.
A huge ripple started by one tiny pebble...