In January 2024, I had an uncomplicated, five-hour labor on my due date. Immediately after handing my baby off, a nurse applied a standard procedure intervention known as controlled cord traction. I instantly felt sick and demanded she stop, but it was too late. My baby’s placenta was shredded and forcibly ripped out of my body.
Within four minutes, I lost half of my blood (an amount that is often lethal) and went into a coma. After this massive blood loss I suffered a little-known complication called trauma induced coagulopathy, a response to physical trauma that can cause blood clots.
Basically, I lost so much blood that what was left solidified because it was trying to stay in my body.
These blood clots traveled to my lungs, and we suspect a small one made it to my brain. This is known as bilateral pulmonary embolism and stroke, two separate possible outcomes of dislodged clots.
My PE was substantial. A good portion of my left lung was infarcted, my right lung collapsed, and the right side of my heart threatened to fail.
The “mini stroke” took place within 24 hours of my hemorrhage. I woke up blind and unable to speak. The clots that traveled to my lungs presented weeks later. The first large clot in my right lung caused a sharp pain high up on the back of my neck. It felt like a severe pinched nerve, so bad that I couldn’t turn my head.
The pain worsened with every breath and spread across my chest and back. When my lung collapsed, it became unbearable. The only way to describe the pain was to say a nail had been driven through my chest, that I was hanging on that nail. I kept thinking of my coworker who passed away at work of a pulmonary embolism. My thoughts got increasingly darker.
I found myself once again unable to speak, this time because I could not breathe. I spent about a week in the ICU.
I lost a year of my life, but more importantly I traumatized my family and missed a year of their lives. I had to be cared for 24/7 for months, and nearly a year later I can barely consider myself independent.
I had asked my midwife if there was anything I could do to prevent blood clots and she said I had no reason to worry that I would develop a clot. The most shocking thing I learned is that in many states, including mine, midwives do not have to carry liability insurance.
Every pregnant mother should be aware of the risks of cord traction and the inherent risk of blood clots during and after pregnancy.
