"As Esau Lopez was asphyxiated for the first 17 minutes of his life on Earth, the atmosphere in the room remained serene, even ecstatic. Acoustic music crooned from a speaker in a modest two-bedroom apartment in a suburb of Pennsylvania. You are a queen, murmured one of three friends in the room. Only Esau's mother, Gabrielle Lopez, felt something was wrong. She was pushing hard, but her son would not be born. Can you help [him] out? she asked."
"Esau was experiencing shoulder dystocia, meaning his head was born, but his body did not follow. Midwives and obstetricians are trained in how to resolve this complication, which occurs in up to 1% of births, but as Lopez was freebirthing, meaning giving birth without any medical providers present, no one in the room understood that, with every minute that passed, Esau was sustaining an irreversible brain injury."
"With a superhuman effort, Lopez bore down, and Esau was born at 10pm on 9 October 2022. He was limp and floppy and lifeless. His body was white and his legs were purple, both signs of acute oxygen deprivation. The only noise he made was a faint gurgle. His father Rolando handed Esau to his mother. Do you think he needs air? she asked. He's good, her friend replied. Lopez cradled her unmoving son, her eyes huge."
Esau Lopez was born after a 17-minute delay between his head and body emerging due to shoulder dystocia during a freebirth in a Pennsylvania apartment. No medical providers were present and none in the room recognized or resolved the complication. Midwives and obstetricians are trained to handle shoulder dystocia, and a five-minute delay would normally trigger emergency intervention; prolonged delay caused acute oxygen deprivation. Esau was limp, pale, and had purple legs at birth, signs of severe hypoxia. Family members misinterpreted signs and reassured each other while irreversible brain injury accrued. The prolonged asphyxia produced devastating neonatal injury.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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