Please help baby Vincent and family during these tough times

The big day was finally here; it was baby day. The day was filled with excitement, as she was already over 41 weeks, approaching 42 weeks. My son and his wife decided to use a midwife for this delivery, as her first delivery was in a hospital and did not go as planned. Sydney started having contractions on September 19th, very close to midnight, so we'll say September 20th. We messaged the midwife multiple times due to her contractions being every 45 seconds and lasting for a minute to a minute and a half. The midwife assured us that this was normal and that she still had a long way to go, so stay at home until she couldn't talk through the contractions anymore, which we did.

We left to go to the midwife's around 3 am. The midwife still did not think that this was active labor, so she gave her 2 Benadryl, out of a Ziploc bag, and told her to take them and rest. Well, rest was not an option, as the contractions did not stop. Sydney was in and out of the tub, the shower, used the labor ball—everything she could do, she did. They had her on the toilet around 9:45 am, and her water broke, which was very green and obvious meconium. They assured us that this was also normal, and they would suction him when he was born. They checked her at 10:45 am and said she was dilated to a 9 with a small “lip.” They allowed her to start pushing at 11:30 am; still had a “lip” present, but they said she could push past that. She pushed until almost 2:00 pm—that's over 3 hours of pushing—and baby was not descending any further. Baby's heart rate was only checked between contractions. When checking during a contraction, the handheld monitor was turned way down, and they put it up to their ear (which I happened to catch on video). We were unable to hear it, but they assured us that everything was fine. But it was not fine; it was far from it.

At one point, Sydney decided it was time to go to the hospital, and we all agreed with her. The midwife came into the room and kicked everyone out so she could talk to Sydney. She talked her into staying, assuring her that all of this was normal. She labored for approximately another hour, then Sydney decided it was time to go to MU, no matter what the midwives had to say. She told her something was wrong. I asked about transporting her via ambulance; he was very low, and you could feel his head. I didn't feel as though it was a good idea to go via personal vehicle, but I was told that we could just use a personal vehicle instead. So, per the midwife's request, we used a personal vehicle. When I asked about an ambulance, I was told, "No, an ambulance is nothing more than a 'glorified Uber,'" their words, not ours. They made the long trip from Tipton to Columbia in their personal vehicle, and the midwife got lost going to the hospital, so they went almost 20 minutes out of their way.

After they finally made it to the hospital, mom was hooked up to monitors, which kept showing large decelerations in baby's heart rate during a contraction due to the baby's cord being compressed with each contraction. She was rushed into an emergency C-section after being sedated. **Vincent Andrew McDowell, “Lil” Bink, came into this world limp and blue.** He was resuscitated and intubated. He remains intubated at this time, and they have him on a cooling pad to preserve brain tissue. They are currently running an EEG on him to monitor his brain activity, and they will start rewarming him Tuesday, but we will not get results of the EEG until after Tuesday. **We are hoping and praying with everything that we have, that he does not have permanent brain damage due to lack of oxygen and lack of monitoring on the midwife's behalf.** Sydney has multiple infections, for which she is receiving IV antibiotics. Mom nor Dad have gotten to hold little Bink yet; all they can do is look at him and pray for his healing.

This should have NEVER happened. There should have been monitoring during the contractions, especially after seeing the meconium in the water. Mom's lactic acid was 3.6 upon arriving at the hospital, and her blood pressure was 67/27. Midwives might be a good decision for some people, but not this midwife and not all pregnancies. She has many complaints filed on her, and the hospital that she said she was affiliated with, she is not. So, I'm reaching out to the community for help. **Help for mom and dad, as life still goes on and so do the bills.** They also have a 3-year-old at home that Nana, Papa, and Auntie are caring for. Help for medical bills, as we have no idea how much that's going to be. Mom and dad need help with gas money to travel to see Little Bink once mom is released and to help with bills to keep the bills paid at home and try to keep on top of the medical bills. We aren't just asking for help financially; we want to spread the word so that we can also get as many prayer chains going as we possibly can. Please help if you can. I know times are hard right now for everyone, so if you can't help with donations, we will take all the prayers we can get. Thank you to anyone that took the time to read this and share it; it's greatly appreciated. Please pray for Jeffery, Sydney, Maddi, and little Bink and keep sharing. Thank you guys, and God bless you ❤️