A strong heartbeat is music to this expectant mother's ears. "Sounds very good." But there are other worries lingering in Jen Harley's mind. "You have a 10 percent chance of having a repeat shoulder dystocia."
Thirty-thousand babies in the U.S. are born each year with shoulder dystocia. That's one out of every one-hundreds births. It happens when the baby gets stuck in the birth canal. In extreme cases it causes permanent nerve damage. "The baby is unable to use its arm or hand for the rest of that child's life."
Jen is at high risk because her second child had shoulder dystocia and she tends to carry larger babies. "The thought of something happening to them as I am trying to bring them into the world is certainly scary." A new software program is bringing peace of mind by calculating the risk of shoulder dystocia with permanent injury. "It aids tremendously. In the past, one of the problems that bedeviled doctors and midwives is that there is no way to predict who would be at risk for shoulder dystocia."
The software uses the mom's height and weight along with other factors to calculate risk. A read-out indicates the probability of the baby getting into trouble during birth. It spots the condition up to 60-percent of the time. "It is better for the doctor. It is better for the patient, and most of all, it's better for the baby." Armed with this information the doctor recommended Jennifer have a c-section, taking away some of the worry that goes along with being a mom.
Doctor Lerner says originally there was fear the software would cause more c-sections but he says that hasn't happened. Besides having larger babies, having diabetes is also a risk factor for shoulder dystocia.
