Uterine Tachysystole During Labor and Delivery
Uterine Tachysystole is a medical term for extraordinarily powerful and frequent contractions during labor. During childbirth, the uterus contracts to push the baby from the uterus and out of the birth canal. Extremely strong, long, and frequent contractions jeopardize the baby’s oxygen supply. Powerful, excessive, and irregular contractions can also harm the mother, making her too exhausted to deliver her baby. So, healthcare providers must monitor contractions and the fetus during labor. A fetal monitor can aid in detecting fetal distress due to lost oxygen, which happens when contractions occur.
Distinguishing Between Normal and Abnormal Contractions
Normal contractions may temporarily prevent the fetus from getting oxygen, but the rest in between contractions gives the fetus a chance to replenish its placental oxygen supply. When contractions come hard, long, and fast, the fetus may not be able to recuperate and, as a result, suffer from oxygen deprivation. Normal contractions are regularly paced and progressively get stronger over the course of labor. Abnormal ones are erratic and last a long time.
Comprehensive Look at Potential Contributors to Uterine Tachysystole
The risk factors and causes of uterine tachysystole are vast and varied. The following explains some of the leading contributors that may compel excessive contractions during labor.
- A common cause of the condition is induced labor. When labor slows or contractions are not productive in moving the labor forward, a physician may recommend Pitocin (oxytocin), prostaglandins, or other labor-inducing drugs. The purpose of these medications is to induce contractions that help dilate the cervix and clear the way for a baby’s birth. However, the drugs may overly stimulate uterine contractions, causing uterine tachysystole, especially when the patient receives too much of the drug, or the patient has a bad reaction to it.
- A mother’s condition can also affect the frequency and intensity of contractions. For example, maternal dehydration also contributes to abnormal uterine activity.
- Surprisingly, the fetus may also bring on the condition. Fetal distress may cause abnormal contractions when it releases stress hormones that affect contractions. A fetus can also cause uterine stimulation when it is in the wrong position for birthing, like backward facing instead of forward.
- A mother’s medical history may contain red flags. One risk factor that increases the likelihood of excessive uterine activity is being a woman who has preeclampsia or hypertension.
- The presence of uterine fibroids can also make contractions worse. Uterine growths alter the uterus’s muscle and blood flow activity, which can trigger uterine tachysystole.
- Improper monitoring may also lead to complications associated with severe uterine contractions when a healthcare professional does not monitor the mother and fetus during induced labor to prevent harm to both.
What Injuries can Occur with Uterine Tachysystole?
How Mothers May be Injured with Extreme Contractions
Potential risks and complications for mothers with uterine tachysystole involve serious damage to their bodies. Extreme uterine activity can lead to uterine rupture. A uterus can tear from excessive contractions, especially if the woman has had abdominal surgeries, like cesarean births, that left scars. Similarly, placental abruption is a risk when violent contractions cause the placenta to dislodge from the uterine wall before the baby is born. An abruption can cause maternal hemorrhaging. Postpartum bleeding is also a risk after uterine damage. Finally, extreme maternal exhaustion is a risk after enduring violent and frequent contractions for a length of time. A woman may not have the strength to push the baby out in second-stage labor or contract worse conditions with a weak and depleted body.
How Babies May be Injured by Tachysystole During Birth
The baby is also at risk for serious complications from unusual uterine contractions. The most serious complication is hypoxia or oxygen deprivation from frequent contractions that block the oxygen-carrying blood from the placenta to the fetus. A lack of oxygen can lead to other problems, too, like excessive buildup of lactic acid in the fetus. Acidosis can result in brain damage, seizures, and cognitive delays when too much acid is in the blood for too long.
Cerebral palsy and hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy (HIE) are two conditions caused by hypoxia. Cerebral palsy affects the muscles and nervous system, leaving victims unable to coordinate movement, among other sensory and neuromuscular disorders. HIE can leave a baby with seizures, respiratory problems, deafness, irritability, and organ failure. Newborns who have been deprived of blood and oxygen are susceptible to HIE.
Vigilant Medical Professionals Spot Uterine Tachysystole
Ultimately, the exhausting labor resulting from uterine tachysystole may likely end in an emergency C-section to save the infant or mother. This may be the urgently necessary intervention due to various complications, whether it be because the fetus is essentially suffocating prior to delivery or the mother is hemorrhaging. All of these potentially dangerous effects must be avoided at all costs by qualified, experienced, hypervigilant, and prepared physicians and other medical professionals.
Medical professionals can detect the signs of debilitating contractions through vigilance. Nurses and doctors observe labor, gauging contractions and cervical dilation to track the labor progress. They can manually measure uterine activity, determining the strength, length, and frequency of contractions. Electronic devices are also available to record uterine activity and fetal distress, which is a sign of uterine overactivity. A healthcare team should recognize the symptoms of uterine tachysystole when contractions are more frequent and intense than normal, more than five in 10 minutes over 30 minutes, each lasting longer than a minute.
Exploring the Different Management and Treatment Options for Uterine Tachysystole
Management and treatment of the condition come down to knowing how labor progresses, from more manageable contractions to more intense contractions, and monitoring that progress. Medical professionals know what to look for to monitor normal labor contractions so abnormalities are detectable with frequent monitoring of the mother and fetus. Manual or electronic monitoring can determine contraction strength. Careful monitoring ensures that the medical team notices when the mother has more than five contractions in ten minutes for too long. Once observed, the team can treat and manage the condition.
Additionally, monitoring the effects of ripening agent medications, which cause abnormally strong and frequent contractions, is crucial. The solution to these wild contractions is to decrease the amount of Pitocin or other medicines to ease uterine activity, only increasing the amount when contractions return to normal for the phase of labor. A physician may decide to discontinue the medication altogether under certain circumstances, such as severe fetal or maternal distress.
Tocolytics, like magnesium sulfate, oxytocin antagonists, and calcium channel inhibitors, are often administered to slow down fast-moving labor by decreasing contractions. Doctors may prescribe tocolytic medications to prevent uterine tachysystole.
Non-medical treatment and management include changing the laboring mother’s position to the left lateral side and hydrating her. Concurrent with other medications, a woman should have sufficient fluids, whether intravenously or otherwise, to promote blood flow essential for the mother and baby. However, if either the mother or the fetus is in too much distress, a treating physician may resort to a cesarean section birth. An emergency c-section can save the health of the mother and newborn when labor complications threaten the health and safety of either or both.
Legal Considerations and Claims for Negligence with Uterine Tachysystole
The worst outcome for a laboring woman with uterine tachysystole happens when her medical team overlooks or misses the symptoms. When she endures excruciating and abnormal contractions for too long, she and her baby can suffer grave harm, including severe blood loss to the mother and brain damage to the child. She may even lose the baby and suffer permanent harm after a uterine rupture.
Failure to diagnose the condition causes great harm, but treatment failures related to uterine tachysystole can also be extremely detrimental. Not taking the right steps or making the correct decisions in time can lead to disaster. So, when induced labor results in extreme contractions, a doctor must know when to lower the medication dose at the right time and when to cease inducing labor.
Importantly, prescribing too much Pitocin for too long can also induce uterine tachysystole, leading to life-threatening complications. Giving a patient too much Pitocin can lead to highly abnormal uterine contractions that threaten the pregnancy. Failing to dose the expectant mom properly is an inexcusable error. However, before deciding to induce labor or prescribe medication, physicians must know the patient’s risk factors for possible complications. Applying medications that increase contractions without knowing the woman’s history and potential risks is likely negligence.
Moreover, the balance between ensuring that labor progresses typically by medical intervention and easing off the medication when problems arise is delicate, and a medical team must be extremely vigilant, monitoring the mother and fetus diligently. Waiting too long to perform a cesarean section can risk the life of both, so the timing of crucial decisions matters.
Simple failures to keep a woman hydrated and oxygenated, in the optimal position to promote labor progression or ease excessive contractions can also be considered negligence, just like giving the wrong medication or dosage. Labor and childbirth are typically intense and potentially complicated. So much can go wrong when a hospital and its healthcare team are not prepared to respond.
Wondering if You Have a Uterine Tachysystole Malpractice Claim? Talk to An Attorney Without Delay
Negligent diagnosis and treatment of uterine tachysystole may provide the foundation for a medical malpractice claim, so it is critical to speak with an experienced birth injury lawyer to ensure you are aware of your rights and all of your options. If you or someone you love suffered physical and emotional harm leading to economic and noneconomic damages during childbirth, you may be able to hold the negligent parties responsible through legal action and ultimately, to recover the compensation you and your family deserve. Rely on our accomplished team of birth injury attorneys to inform you about what is necessary to file a claim, how medical malpractice lawsuits proceed, and what we can do to help investigate, prepare, and position your case for success.
Our team will conduct a thorough investigation to have a full understanding of what happened through medical records, documentation, and other evidence. We also consult with renowned medical experts who assist in supporting the contention that medical negligence occurred in your uterine tachysystole case. There is much to do to review and gather evidence and substantiating information, negotiate, and litigate a birth injury action so get the help you need from our medical malpractice legal team. We are highly qualified professionals in the field of birth negligence law and have dedicated our careers to helping mothers, babies, and those who love them who have suffered harm. Call us at (866)-708-8617 to speak with an attorney or request a free consultation about your painful, dangerous, and harmful labor due to uterine tachysystole by sending us a message today.