Operative or Instrumented Delivery

If at some point of the delivery, the baby’s head is low enough in the birth canal and the doctor believes that the baby needs to be born immediately or if you are not able to give birth vaginally without help, he or she might recommend using forceps or an extractor to help. When any of these instruments are used the labor is denominated as operative or instrumented vaginal labor. This procedure is usually done when:

• The mother has been pushing for a long time and is too tired to continue with the necessary force in order to give birth.

• The mother has been pushing for a long time and the doctor does not believe she will be able to give birth vaginally unless she receives this kind of assistance.

• The pattern of the baby’s heartbeat indicates that it is necessary to speed up the delivery.

• The position the baby is in makes it difficult for the mother to push alone.

• The mother has cardiac diseases that do not allow her to push.

Forceps are two instruments that are curved in the form of a spatula that is placed on the sides of the baby’s head to help guide it through the birth canal. The aspirating extractor is a suction element that is placed on the top of the baby’s head to allow the doctor to pull the baby out softly from the birth canal.

Both techniques are safe if the baby has descended enough through the birth canal and if the instruments are used appropriately. As a matter a fact, there has been many times in which these techniques have helped to avoid the mother to have to go through a cesarean, although it is not always the case. The decision to use forceps or the extractor many times depends on the criteria of the doctor as well as the experience and the position in which the baby is at the time.

If you have not gotten an epidural, you will probably need local anesthesia if the forceps or extractor is used, besides this, almost all doctors perform an epsiotomy before doing this procedure in order to open up more space. After the doctor has placed the forceps or the extractor into place, he will ask you to continue pushing until the head of the baby shows up. At this moment, the doctor will then be able to remove the forceps or extractor and the rest of the baby comes out by the mother pushing.

Many times babies are born with the marks of the forceps on their faces, but these marks disappear in a couple of days. The extractor can also make the baby be born with a slightly rounded and lifted head, but this also goes away in a few days.