Baby born on the 8s

From The Advertiser:

New birth at 8:08 a.m. on Aug. 8, 2008

It wasn’t sheer chance that Charles Amir Fontenot was born at 8:08 a.m. on Aug. 8, 2008 (8-8-08).
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It was a well-orchestrated event.

“I liked that number,” said his mother, Mehe Lambert, a reference clerk for the St. Landry Parish School Board in Opelousas. “It’s just a good number. I asked the doctor if it’s OK, if I could have him on the eighth, instead of the 16th.”

Aug. 16 was her due date, added Lambert, who was born in Tunisia, North Africa, went to school in Germany, and speaks English, French, German, Italian and four Arabic dialects.

Dr. Kenneth Christrup, a local obstetrician, agreed to perform the Caesarean section at the appointed time at Women’s and Children’s Hospital.

The plan was perfectly safe for all concerned, he said. “Everybody was on board. We wouldn’t put the child in jeopardy to get it accomplished.”

It had been decided earlier that the baby would be born by Caesarian section, said his father, Charles Fontenot, a Schlumberger employee. “Everybody thought he would be over 10 pounds,” Fontenot said. “They thought he would be a double-digit baby.”

It seemed a logical assumption. Fontenot is 6 feet 8 inches tall and little Amir measured 19 1/2 inches long before he was born. Add to that the fact that Amir’s older brother, 6-year-old Conner Omar Lambert, weighed 12 pounds 13 ounces at birth.

Everyone was surprised that Amir weighed only 6 pounds 6 ounces.

“After a while, we thought I would have a bigger baby,” Lambert said. “I didn’t even try to have him naturally.”

Just as the Olympics began at that auspicious time and date in Beijing and couples clamored to be married to take advantage of the numerical combination that is considered by many to be lucky, so did Amir come into the world.

It took a little advance planning, Fontenot said.

Lambert was originally in the care of one doctor, then she switched to a second obstetrician, but there was a problem.

“The second doctor couldn’t come in on 8-08-08,” to perform the Caesarian section, Fontenot said. “So, she switched again. Dr. Christrup works on Fridays and he said he would come in and do it.

“She had it set in her mind she wanted it that way and she did it.”

August 10, 2008 | Filed Under Cesarean Birth | 2 Comments 

WebMD: C-Section Tied to Childhood Asthma?

From WebMD: Children Born Via Cesarean Section May Be More Likely to Develop Asthma, Allergies

Cesarean section rather than vaginal deliveries may raise the risk of childhood asthma and allergies by interfering with the child’s immune system development, according to a new study.

Researchers say previous studies have suggested that babies born via C-section are more likely to develop childhood asthma and allergies, but the reasons are unclear.

This study suggests that babies born via C-section have impaired immune cell function because of suppression of regulatory T cells, which regulate the development and function of the immune system.

“This finding is exciting because it suggests that the mode of delivery may be an important factor influencing immune system development,” researcher Ngoc Ly, MD, MPH, assistant professor of pediatrics at the University of California, San Francisco, says in a news release.

C-Section & Asthma Link Explained

In the study, presented at the American Thoracic Society’s 2008 Conference in Toronto, researchers compared T cell suppression in a group of inner city newborns with a family history of asthma that put them at increased risk for childhood asthma.

Fifty of the children were born via C-section, and 68 were born vaginally. T cell suppression was measured by analyzing the child’s cord blood.

The results showed that children born by cesarean section had a reduction in T cell suppression function compared with the other children. For example, the average T cell suppression index was 0.78 for children born via C-section and 1.11 for those born vaginally.

Ly suggests that the stress and process of labor itself or exposure to specific microbes through the birth canal in vaginal rather than C-section delivery may influence neonatal immune responses.

“These findings are preliminary and further work is needed to explore potential mechanisms for the association between mode of delivery and neonatal immune responses,” Ly says. But researchers say this study provides a possible biological explanation for previous reports of the association between cesarean section and asthma.

For more health and baby news, follow the link above to WebMD.

May 21, 2008 | Filed Under Cesarean Birth, In the News | Leave a Comment 

Review of Data: Vaginal Birth Still Best

This article appeared in the African newspaper Cape Argus as breaking news (why isn’t it breaking news in America?):

Dr. Brian M. Mercer, of Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio, and colleagues studied the impact of prior vaginal birth after cesarean on outcomes of attempted vaginal births in subsequent pregnancies in 13 532 women.

For 9 012 women (67 percent), this was their first vaginal birth after cesarean - what doctors call “VBAC.” Twenty-nine hundred women (21 percent) had a history of one prior VBAC, 1 058 (7,8 percent) had a history of two, 371 (2,7 percent) had a history of three, and 191 (1,4 percent) had a history of four or more VBACs.

Results showed that the frequency of VBAC success rose with increasing number of prior VBACs, from 63 percent with no prior VBACs to 88 percent for women with one and 91 percent for those with two or more prior VBACs.

The corresponding incidence of uterine rupture, a serious complication of labour, declined from 0,87 percent to 0,45 percent and 0,43 percent. The rates of other complications followed similar patterns with increasing number of prior VBACs.

In contrast, the investigators note, repeated cesarean deliveries are associated with higher risks of complications like placenta accreta (when the placenta implants too far into the uterus) and trauma to internal organs in the mother, as well as more frequent hysterectomies and blood transfusions.

“Women planning large families… should be reassured by the increasing success rates and decreasing risks associated with VBAC attempts in successive pregnancies,” Mercer and his associates conclude.

March 31, 2008 | Filed Under Cesarean Birth, VBAC | Leave a Comment 

ORLive Presents: Cesarean Section Birth

From Yahoo Finance: (hmm, why is this listed under finance?)

REMINDER: ORLive Presents: Cesarean Section Birth Procedure Used to Deliver Baby Through Incision During Complicated or High-Risk Births

Live Webcast: From Shawnee Mission Medical Center: March 13, 2008 at 7:00 PM CDT (March 14, 2008 at 00:00 UTC)

MERRIAM, KS–(MARKET WIRE)–Mar 13, 2008 — Experience the miracle of birth during a live broadcast from Shawnee Mission Medical Center. Leah D. Ridgway, MD, of Women’s Health Associates, PA, will perform a Cesarean Section birth during a live surgery Webcast on Thursday, March 13 at 7 p.m. on www.OR-Live.com. Read more

March 13, 2008 | Filed Under Cesarean Birth | 3 Comments 

Planned caesareans linked to breathing difficulties

From the Guardian:

Babies born through a planned caesarean section are up to four times more likely to suffer from breathing problems in the first days of life, according to a study today.

The research, published online by the British Medical Journal, shows that the earlier the caesarean is carried out, the higher the risk. Many caesareans are timetabled to take place after 37 or 38 weeks of pregnancy so that the woman does not go into spontaneous labour at 39 or 40 weeks. Read more

December 12, 2007 | Filed Under Cesarean Birth, In the News | 2 Comments 

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