A serious question about a heart breaking event: stillbirth

I don't have anything to offer as far as an answer, but this is making me remember someone elses tragedy.

Miscarriage...it's always a sad event. However, it would seem that if you miscarry shortly after finding out you were pregnant, you have the slight comfort of knowing that much of the time something was wrong, and the baby would/could not have come to term.

The thought of loosing the person that you had come to know already, Separated only by an inch of skin and muscle, is impossibe

Forgive me boom, I certainly don't want to turn this into an abortion thread. However, the thought that a person can claim that this totally formed being, just getting the last few finishing touches, is not a person is beyond me.

I'm confused by the need to carry the baby "to term" since the baby would cease growing.

Why not induce labor?

Why not offer the choice of C-section?

I agree; it seems there should have been other options.

I'm confused also. I know a situation where this happened and labor was induced. They had to get the fetus out so it would not cause infection. I have never heard of a deceased baby being left in the mother for the complete term. Are you sure the child was dead? In what is incorrectly termed a "partial birth abortion" a baby that they know cannot live is removed early, perhaps this was the case and the mother chose to have the baby full term knowing it could not live once born.

I'm sure that the baby was already dead. She woke up one morning and the baby wasn't moving.

She was very close to her delivery date when the baby died - i think just weeks away. Maybe that had something to do with it.

I don't want to turn this into an abortion thread at all either but her baby could have survived outside the womb at this level of development.

I don't know. Maybe I've got some part of the story wrong. Maybe they did induce labor. I do know that there was a period of time between when they learned that the baby was dead and the time it was delivered.

It could have been some sort of scheduling thing too.

There was a heartbreaking article in the New Yorker about this recently (honestly, not sure if the subject can be anything other than heartbreaking), it included a lot of those kinds of details, let me see if I can find it...

Dammit, another one not available anywhere online, though this site says "contact us and we'll send you a copy," and has some quotes.

It's a stunner.

Irene Raeburn: Born December 28th 2004, Died December 24th 2004

Hey thanks, soz.

That looks like a great article.

I asked to have a copy sent but I got some kind of error message. If someone here gets it will they forward it on to me or post it here?

I got my paper version, here's a pertinent quote:

That certainly expains a lot.

In the realm of "I just can't imagine" this stands out.

A serious question about a heart breaking event: stillbirth
I have read medical reasons for this, including the avoidance of a Caesarian. I believe that there are other, hormonal advantages. Of course, the parents have to weigh the physiological advantages against the psychological disadvantages.

What an awful situation to be in, and what a horrible choice to have to make.