Bec, with DD she went into distress 1 push before she was born, and i was lucky i was that close that i didn't end up with any intervention TBH. Labour progressed beautifully, everything was perfect. Waters were broken at 9cm (but even if i hadn't agreed to that, realistically they would have broken very soon after), third stage began 10 mins later (2 contractions, but there weren't monitoring her, so not sure what HR was doing in that time). My DD had an extremely long cord (infact, the longest they had seen in a very long time), which was wrapped incredibly tightly around her neck, twice. They couldn't get it off her neck, and said to me that i needed to get her out that push. (i also felt them using the doppler i think??) Luckily i mis-heard them, and thought they were telling me "common, you can get her out this push", because i didn't freak out (well, any more than normal), and she was ok. She pooed all over me straight away, and was born very gray and looked like she was dead.

I was lucky she had the waters cushioning her, because i believe i would have (and probably rightly), ended up with a c/s for feotal distress. And if i didn't get her out that push they would have done an episiotomy and whatever else they needed to, to get her out quickly.
But her head was already born right, or how could they see the cord? And if her head was already born then none of the 3 listed interventions would have been of use, see what i mean?

Your waters DID protect her until they were ruptured for you, and probably that is what they are there for (those small number of babies who need the extra protection for labour) and perhaps if they hadn't been broken she would have had no issues whatever - think of the number of women who have a c/s after AROM because baby is in severe distress - clearly birth works better when not messed with for the majority. Many women's waters break as the head descends and rotates through the pelvis just before birth, and it's possible that they are designed to do so (mine broke 15 hours before DD was born, but i'm sure the 5 stretch and sweeps i had had over the previous 10 days contributed and i know better for next time).

I'm not dismissing your experience, i just don't see how intrumental or surgical assistance would have helped at all. The only thing that could have been done differently is not to have the AROM and that's a lessening of intervention, not an increase.

Bx