C sec stories

[Maccysmum]

Hi there as you can see I have kids already and have posted a similar question elsewhere. I am looking for c sec stories good and bad I really cant decide if its a route I want to go down.

My history is 3 beutiful children all born naturally one preemie one 10lb 7 chunker (induced at term) got a little stuck but doc managed to manouver him through and one 8lb 3 (induced 2 weeks early due to SPD PGP and size).

We did not plan this pregnancy and in fact my hubby had the snip but it seems that it was not as sucsessful as the hospital informed us.

I want to be steralised and have spd (not so much pgp this time) so hips and distance I can open my legs is an issue. the reg at the hospital that I should consider an elective c sec and get it all done in one go rather than coming back for an op in 3 months.

I am especially interested in how you coped with siblings and recovery and if you were steralised at same time and what difference it made? but in general I just want to hear peoples experiances (both good and bad) I have a few weeks yet to make up my mind but want to go back with a good idea of what I want before I see my consultant.

 

[Banshee]

I have had two emergency c sections. My recovery from the first was not good as I had wound breakdown so ended up with the district nurse coming in for weeks afterwards to check my wound etc. Because of this experience I tried for a vbac with my second but it didn't go to plan - hence my second c section. My recovery this time was very good. I was mobile very soon after ds2's birth and have had no complications. I was advised by the physio not to lift anything heavier than my baby for 2-3 months but with a toddler to look after I found that to be not possible. Fortunately for me lifting my toddler doesn't seem to have had any impact on my recovery.

In short I've had one good experience and one bad. That probably doesn't help very much - lol - but thought I'd share my experiences

 

[shambaby]

i had a c-section with my first, and am now ttc my second baby. my section was for failed induction at 8 days overdue, for excessive fluid and oblique presentation. i am really hoping that if / when #2 comes along things go differently as i would NOT choose to have another c-section if i didn't have to. basically, it got him out safely, but that's about all i can say in favour of the c-section. i was way more scared of it than i was of a natural birth, so it was stressful before it started. i'm not great with needles etc and it didn't help when my iv drip was not in properly and was very painful when they tried to start it, then had to resite it. the birth felt like a bit of an anti-climax and i felt kind of detached from it, as i couldn't feel anything and didn't do anything. it was impossible for me to hold hayden in theatre, so several people got to cuddle him before i did. then, after he was out but before i was sewn up, the doctor examined my ovaries and i felt it. it's really very unusual to feel anything, and that was all i felt, but it was excruciating! i also lost quite a lot of blood - not enough to need a transfusion, but enough to make me feel crappy for weeks afterwards.

my wound healed ok, but at 8 days post-natal i started to feel really unwell and feverish. my bleeding increased and my tummy grew. i was admitted to hospital with an intra-uterine infection, where i spent a week on iv antibiotics (also very painful, and i had to have the cannula resited every couple of days because they would just stop working).

after that, recovery was slow, difficult and painful, and i had many low days when i just felt like crying, because i felt like a failure, as i hadn't been able to give birth to my baby properly (i no longer feel that way, and i certainly don't believe that having a c-section means failure, but it felt like it at the time and made those first weeks very hard). for weeks i couldn't sit up in bed without a terrible, tearing pain in my scar. now, almost 21 months on, i still have quite a bit of discomfort and sometimes pain in the area of my scar. apparently, it is probably caused by adhesions, which basically means that when i healed, my insides kind of stuck together and that causes the pain. there is nothing they can do about it, as if you do surgery to release them, it would probably just cause more adhesions.

at the end of it all, though, i have my wonderful, beautiful boy, and if that is what it took to get him, then so be it. but i only agreed to the section because he wasn't coming out any other way, and to wait longer would potentially have put him at risk.

i had spd / pgp and know that it's likely to happen again if i have another. but there are ways around not being able to open your legs so far (all-fours / squatting positions) and wouldn't choose a section for that.

i also wouldn't choose it in order to be sterilised - sterilisation is a much smaller op than a c-section, so i would rather wait and have it done seperately. maybe you could request to be sterilised if you need an emergency c-section for any reason? check failure rates, though - i heard it's higher if it's done at the same time as a c-section.

sorry this sounds like such a negative story - it really has been worth it to have hayden, but i really wish it hadn't been necessary. there are plenty of people who have good c-section experiences, but if you do decide to take that option you need to understand that it isn't always that way. there are many risks with c-sections, and you need to be sure that for you the benefits out-weigh them.

good luck for the birth, whichever way you decide to go x

 

[lewood88]

hi i had a c section due to induction failure and ill be honest i was gutted 18hrs of painful labour to be told i gotta be cut open devastated me

i didnt feel when they cut me open i felt alot of pressure when they got LO out its was uncomfortable, then when they was i pressume takin placenta and that away i felt it i was screaming by that point and they had to pump the pain relife in me and i felt every stitch

recovery was awful too cud barely walk and when i was able to go home i slept on my settee for 2 weeks as at the time i was a single mom and my mom wasnt much help could carry a new born up the stairs wen at the time if i needed the loo which was upstairs i crawled up there

but on the plus i healed good and my scar is really neat

ive been told i would have to have another c section

not trying to put you off but for me i didnt like it and its my honest opinion xx