question about delivery

[applicant2002]

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Why is the rule during delivery to suction the mouth first before the nose?

i was asked this and was confused because i never thought about it, but i know from my peds reading that babies are obligate nose breathers (why they can still breathe during feeding ), so I didn't answer, but then my resident said it's cause babes are obligate mouth breathers, but i don't think that's true, so now i'm confused as to the actual reason.

my school library's website is down, so i can't look in the ob text online right this second, so i'm posting here in the hope that someone can help me out..

thanks

 

[Heathcliff]

Had to google this one. Turns out a similar question was asked in an EMT Forum (http://www.emtcity.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=13709).

I think the best response was given by ERDoc:

"I agree that infants are nose breathers, but at birth they use their mouth. Why do we stimulate a baby to cry when they are born? We want them to take that first deep breath and the best way to take a deep breath is to cry. These deep breaths are what open up the lungs that have been useless for the last 9 months. The airways open up and the vascular resistance drops, allowing a full supply of blood to enter them. We suction the mouth first because we don't want the little buggers to inhale all of that goop when they take that deep breath."

 

[deeq]

Had to google this one. Turns out a similar question was asked in an EMT Forum (http://www.emtcity.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=13709).

I think the best response was given by ERDoc:

"I agree that infants are nose breathers, but at birth they use their mouth. Why do we stimulate a baby to cry when they are born? We want them to take that first deep breath and the best way to take a deep breath is to cry. These deep breaths are what open up the lungs that have been useless for the last 9 months. The airways open up and the vascular resistance drops, allowing a full supply of blood to enter them. We suction the mouth first because we don't want the little buggers to inhale all of that goop when they take that deep breath."

i agree. i just took the neonatal advanced life support coarse two weeks ago in preparation for my obgyn internship and if i remember correctly, suctioning the nose first will stimulate the baby to take a big breath. and if you haven't suctioned the mouth first the baby will potentially aspirate all that amniotic fluid or meconium.

 

[Justin4563]

to suction out the meconium.. if any