Elective C Section - birth plan & questions

[CrazyMumma]

Due to a severely munted pelvis I have decided on an elective c section.

What should I be asking the consultant?

Can I still have some control with a birth plan? What options would I have for the procedure? Eg can hubby still cut cord? Delayed clamping? Etc

I am also having a tubal ligation at the same time - not sure if that changes things?

 

[minties]

I suppose it all depends on the usual regulations that your hospital and medical team use, but I had an elective section with Sophie (in New Zealand) and I had a few things I insisted on, and everyone was more than happy to comply with:

1: I wanted my partner to be in the room when the spinal was being inserted
2: I wanted immediate skin to skin
3: My OH did not want to see the placenta or touch the cord
4: I wanted my midwife to be in charge of taking pictures for us
5: I wanted no nappy to be put on Sophie (I wanted to do the first one)
6: I requested that Sophie's after birth check was very brief and that everyone was gentle with her and that my OH record it.
7: I requested a medical personal to replace OH sitting at my head. I felt very alone after Thomas was born during an emergency section and didn't want a repeat of that abandoned feeling. So when he went to film her checkover a nurse sat by me for that minute or two.

Husbands/partners are only allowed to trim the cord and not cut it here as the operation requires a sterile environment and they don't like non-medical staff to be over the mothers open belly. Not sure if it is that way elsewhere.

We have our own dedicated midwife that we choose here in New Zealand and my last one was a dream come true, she made sure everything was done the way I wanted.

This is her post birth check which was very brief.

https://youtu.be/Q6D4_Qr3wMQ

 

[m nonie]

I'm in the same boat, no idea what to ask.
I know I want OH there throughout as tbh I'm terrified, gonna ask about what happens during the procedure and about skin to skin. However I know nothing really of options or what can be in the birth plan.

 

[CrazyMumma]

Thanks minties! I am in NZ too so hopefully things will be similar for me. Although my midwife has said she can't attend the c section? But there will be hospital midwives there.

M nonies I hope you get some answers too!

At my last midwife appt she said the hospital had sent through a plan and said they were planning to do a c section under general anaesthetic?? They never mentioned a general at my appt so I will defiantly be asking about that as I really do not want to be put to sleep!

 

[minties]

How strange, I had my own midwife for both c-sections, they would miss out on being paid for your birth if they didn't attend which seems silly on their behalf. They do get paid less for a c-section but she should definitely be there for you and baby.

 

[julesjules100]

With my elective C section it was definitely a medical procedure and I was happy to do whatever made the medical team happy TBH (I know some women want candles lit and music on - clearly that's not something I wanted but I find it hard to imagine that they would have consented!). It didn't appear to be much of an option around who was in the room for the spinal. My mum and husband were waiting in a little room outside the op theatre while that was done. TBH again I'd rather have the medical team focussed on what they were doing and if that was no distractions from two additional people then that's fine with me. I did say to my obgyn that I wanted to do skin to skin while they patched me up and that was lovely. This time though I'm going to ask if she can come straight on me as she was checked out first. Not sure if they will let me do that or not but I'm going to ask.

Just before the spinal in theatre the consultant asked me if I wanted DH to cut the cord. I didn't even ask DH as I just wanted him out of the way plus he's pretty clumsy so it was another thing I didn't want to worry about! That was definitely an option though.

This time too I'm going to think about cord blood banking so it's something else that I'm going to ask about.