Asphyxia is a medical condition of deficient supply of oxygen to the body that arises from abnormal breathing. Neonatal asphyxia, on the other hand is a medical condition resulting from deprivation of oxygen to a newborn infant. Too little oxygen in the mother’s blood could cause this condition. Cesarean session could tame the cause of this condition to immediately attend to the risks.
In the given situation, the neonate weighs 2.9 kilograms, a little lower than the normal neonate weight which is 3.5 kg. Furthermore, in an online article by Asian Journal of Transfusion Science, low birth weight babies (P 0.009) and babies born with mother having hypertension (P0.04) showed significant thrombocytopenia. Neonates with intrauterine growth retardation (IUGR) diagnosed during antenatal screening showed lower platelet count (P0.022). Neonates having associated illness, such as sepsis, gastrointestinal, and respiratory problems, and on vasopressor drugs were found to be associated with low platelet count. In this case, the baby was given vancomycin antibiotic for 1 week before being discharged for further measures to prevent infection.
Based on an online article from Seattle Children’s Hospital, babies with mild or moderate asphyxia may recover fully. If cells did not get enough oxygen for a longer time, a baby may have permanent injury. This could affect their brain, heart, lungs, kidneys, bowels or other organs. Similar to the given situation, this is where the baby had weak cry, a cause of almost severe outcomes if not prevented by the immediate cesarean procedure.
There are also other ways to prevents neonatal asphyxia such as body cooling (therapeutic hypothermia) where it can improve outcomes for babies born at full term or near term. But babies born 5 or more weeks early cannot have body cooling. In the most severe cases, asphyxia can lead to organ failure and death.
In the given situation, the neonate immediately went platelet transfusion.
There are stages to birth asphyxia; first stage happen within minutes if blood flow is low and cells do not get enough oxygen and the second stage is called reperfusion injury and can last for days or weeks it happens after brain starts getting normal levels of blood and oxygen. Toxins released form damaged cells cause this injury.
Giving birth certainly has its risks, despite it being the start of a new life; a blossom of another life from another life-provider. There are a lot of risks associated with giving birth that is why pregnancy and childbirth is in need of adequate and thorough procedure and proper care.
