לידה מוקדמת תוך סיכון האשה במקרה של סיכוי להצלת ולד

Dear Dr. Halpern:

Due to the clarification of some vital statistics the Sha'alah was delayed. Batsheva has been hospitalized in order to monitor her for the possibility for induced labor. She is 28 weeks pregnant with a small fetus whose development has been somewhat retarded. If she goes to term, then the baby in all likelihood will not live for more than 14 days, because there will no further growth in the womb. If the baby is delivered within the next 12 hours, then a classical (Up-down) c-section must be performed. Even then, there is a 25%-50% chance the baby will not survive and a 20% chance that stage 3 or 4 hemorrhaging to the baby will occur. Such hemmorhaging is serious and in 50% of the cases, fatal.

The crux of the problem is: that if she undergoes this procedure to save the fetus, then this type of c-section will subject her to the potential of rupturing of the womb in subsequent pregnancies. There is a 10% chance that after a classic (up-down) c-section, there will occur a rupturing of the womb, which is unpredictable and if it happens outside of the hospital could be fatal to Batsheva. If tis clear to me that the priority is to save the existing fetus regardless of future consequences. Nevertheless, the opinion of Rabbi Elyashiv would be very meaningful to Batsheva.

P.S. If she goes to term she will not require a classic (Up-down) c-section.