#237 | On Life Support During Birth: Tess Frame Describes Waking Out of a Coma Postpartum

Down to Birth

Cynthia Overgard & Trisha Ludwig

Pregnancy, Childbirth, Postpartum, Midwives, Alternative Health, Home Birth, Society & Culture, Newborn, Documentary, Hypnobirthing, Kids & Family, Health & Fitness, Breastfeeding, Pregnant, Birth, Maternity, Motherhood

4.8 • 586 Ratings

🗓️ 1 November 2023

⏱️ 46 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Tess Frame is a mother of two who experienced severe pneumonia in late pregnancy after contracting the flu. Her condition became septic, resulting in organ failure and premature labor. She gave birth by cesarean at thirty-five weeks while comatose, and was intubated in critical care for several weeks after. While in a coma, she experienced and/or perceived traumas she could only begin to unwind after becoming conscious, trying to unravel what experiences were real and what were only ima...

Transcript

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0:00.0	Did anyone show you a picture of your baby? Did anybody bring you the baby?
0:07.1	My sister brought me pictures so that I could see him. I couldn't see him until I had been
0:14.8	downgraded out of and was no longer critical. At what point was that? Maybe day like 24 or 25 and the day after I met him for the first
0:25.5	time, my blood oxygen improved so much that I was discharged that day. So you gave birth with absolutely
0:35.5	no awareness of giving birth and the moments before they put you under
0:40.9	anesthesia where they had explained, we need to give you an emergency C-section, those moments were
0:45.6	probably just lost and swept into the anesthesia. Right. I mean, did any of that come back to you?
0:49.5	Like, oh, right, we came to the ER. And then they told me my oxygen level was low. No. Did that all...
0:54.5	So you're not writing long-term memories.
0:56.8	Your body's surviving.
1:00.4	I'm Cynthia Overgard, owner of hypniburthing of Connecticut,
1:03.8	childbirth advocate, and postpartum support specialist.
1:07.3	And I'm Trescia Ludwig, certified nurse midwife and international board certified lactation consultant.
1:13.4	And this is the down-to-birth podcast.
1:18.0	Childbirth is something we're made to do.
1:20.4	But how do we have our safest and most satisfying experience in today's medical culture?
1:25.0	Let's dispel the myths and get down to birth.
1:35.4	Hi, I'm Tess Frame, and I am a mom of three little boys in San Diego, California.
1:41.5	And I'm here to share my book story with my youngest. It happened four years ago. So I'm here to share my book story with my youngest.
1:45.0	It happened four years ago.
1:47.0	So I'm, you know, there's some distance between me and the trauma now and I'm able to tell it with a sense of a broader vision.
1:55.0	But when I was about seven and a half months pregnant with him, I got sick with the flu, just the old
	...

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