I love obstetrics and gynecology very much. I do not know why, but I feel there is a satisfaction feeling every time I am welcoming a newborn to this hectic world. Gosh! I just love the sensation. Once the baby starts crying, I always feel that I am the one who have been re-born. And I can feel that way, everyday in my obstetrics posting.

Pregnancy on the other is a different story. I understand the feeling of anxiety in a pregnant mother especially in primigravida mother (a jargon used for a mother who is pregnant for the first time). They have no experience in delivery; needless to say, they don’t even have the experience in pregnancy itself. LOL.

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I got this question on cord prolapse during my final professional semester exam last year. Unfortunately I screwed it up. However, I realize that it is an unforgiven mistake for any medical students – who will eventually become a doctor – for not knowing much about cord prolapse when the condition is one of the obstetric emergency. Being not able to diagnose and manage the condition accordingly must be considered as a big sin!

What is cord prolapse?

This is exactly the first question that we need to ask ourselves. If we do not know this, we will not able to answer the rest of questions regarding this matter.

Cord prolapse or presentation of the cord is the condition when the cord (thing that connect the placenta and the fetus) is presented below the presenting part. There are two types of cord prolapse.

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Back in February 2008, during my final professional examination for semester 7, I encounter this one obstetrics station during my Objectives Structured Practical Examination (OSPE) paper. I have been given a thing, looks like a transparent plastic straw, with some curly thing inside it. The length is about 30cm. At one end of the straw, I can see that it is thin and sharp. The plastic straw is not hard but not soft either. Suffice to say that it is fairly flexible.

Based on my limited experience, I know that I do not know what that thing is. It looks like an amniotic hook for me but I know that it is not. During my obstetrics posting, I have been assigned to the labor room for a week, but I never encounter any doctors or medical staffs using it (or may be they used it when I was not there).

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