hey ladies, mind if i ask you a question? :)

[krwh]

i had a really bad experience delivering my son and the hospital advised to me to have a planned c-section this time. the thing is....i really dont want to do that. my birth plan last time kind of started as i had planned with a water birth at the hospital (my husband and i even took advantage of the hospitals offer for soon to be mothers to come tour the hospital before the birth) but from there on out, things pretty much ended up being the exact opposite of what i wanted. heres a quick explanation: i went into labor a day after my son was supposed to be due, went to the hospital, was sent home because i wasnt far along enough to stay at the hospital, came back, they put me in the room with the birthing pool and i still wasnt advancing far enough so they moved me to the maternity ward....then i still wasnt moving along quickly enough and was told to use the bath tub but i refused to go home again. they transferred me to one of the one of the patient rooms because the ward was getting full and i was in there for ages before they moved me to a birthing room. i wasnt advancing, they finally gave me an epidural, and was told to use the bath tub again to help with contractions. they broke my water because he was turned around backwards and wasnt able to come down far enough to start the cycle of water breaking and contractions so i pushed, they tried vontouse, forceps and then an emergency c-section because his heart rate was dropping and meconium (sp??) came out when they broke my waters. i do NOT want that again. im so thrilled that oliver was delivered safely but i really wish it could have been done in a different, or more comforting, environment (hence why i opted for the waterbirth at the hospital-though id like a waterbirth at home this time). im so sorry for the long explanation but i really want to have a home birth this time with a pool and the doctor told me i should have a planned c-section. my husband said he's concerned about anything like that happening again but going through that again or seeing my husband that distressed (he knows labor and pregnancy is all about making sure mum and baby are alright but after nearly four days, he needed some reassurance too!!) was really traumatic.

i understand when the doctor says that my scar could rupture and it could be dangerous but i do wonder if the chances of anything actually happening again are that high or if its just to scare me...i know most births dont end up with a labor that is as long as the one i had the first time around but surely the chances of what happened the first time happening again are smaller....right? and surely not all mothers that have a c-section the first time all give birth by c-section again so why do i feel like im being told i should go in next time to have it done on a certain date? or am i being really naive here? i feel like im a bit on the fence about this anyway (really wanting a home birth with a pool but feeling scared based on my previous experience) but i just dont see why having a c-section the first time means i absolutely MUST have a hospital birth with a planned c-section the second time around....i guess id just like to know if anyone else out there has been through something similar and what their experience was likee so i dont feel like im just being swayed in one direction or the other thanks!

 

[chuck]

ok hun, I would take some time to get a debrief with a MW over your last experience.

It'll help you get a little closure and understanding over what happened last time.

Secondly it is ok in fact it is normal to feel the way you do. A healthy baby isnt always enough - ultimately it is the goal and I cannot comprehend how horrifying it must be to not have a healthy baby BUT it doesn't change the fact you wanted something different from the last birth.

I wont lecture you in here but I have put together a VBAC info thread with TONS of links to info from all over.

Lets just say the risks of Uterine Rupture are TINY - the stats given are around 1 in 200 for UR but that includes ALL UR's even those due to accident and those in unscarred uteriii!, there are more common risks in every birth yet you dont opt for section merely because you're giving birth OMG it MIGHT happen.

Check the link in my sig and do some reading.





...my 2 penneth...tell your OB to do one. VBAC baby w0000000p!

You need to make the choices best by YOU not your OB!

 

[chuck]

To add...I had a labour with DS1 over 24 hours, transffered from teh lovely birth centre and pool to a hospital synto drip and an epi all around long and horrible. Ended up with EMCS never even go to push.

DS2 9 hours long labour planned home birth, gas and air only we did transfer to hospital as I was bleeding a bit too much for comfort but had a lovely natural vaginal birth in hospital no fuss no muss not a single stitch...calm collected good. Not exaclty what I wanted but I'll compromise now LOL.

 

[krwh]

chuck-thank you so much for your post. everything you said is so absolutely true-you feel so lucky you have a healthy baby but you're right...it doesnt change that fact that what you got in terms of how the baby arrived is the polar opposite from how things actually happened. i didnt realize the odds for uterine rupture were so....small.

also, my midwife that i saw at the doctors throughout my pregnancy is the same one i will have this time around. i requested to have her as my mw for this pregnancy and i have my first appointment in a couple weeks. she did a fantastic job of keeping me calm at the appointments when i would freak out over everything i thought was wrong. she was not at the birth though (nor would i have expected her to have been--i mean, my goodness, i saw all the shifts of hospital staff and even saw some of them multiple times i was there for so long) but she knows exactly what happened with the birth.

thank you so much for all the vbac info and so sorry you had to go through c-sections and stuff as well. im glad to hear that even though you had to compromise a bit for your second birth that it turned out at least a bit better than the first!

ps-hope you dont mind me saying but i like your tattoo! i have a few of them and im just a littttle bit addicted to them (unfortunately, tattoos really aren't in the budget at the moment ).

 

[chuck]

lol I know the feeling I havent had new ink in ages!

Do some reading talk to your MW, if you find any health care provider unsupportive then change!

Where are you in Devon by the way? My old neck of teh woods was South Dartmoor (Bovey Tracey) nr Exeter.

 

[krwh]

just wanted to add im pretty sure my midwife would support me in doing a homebirth (or i hope she would anyway) because she knows how anxious i felt about the birth anyway and that i wanted to do a waterbirth at the hospital so i'd feel more relaxed and "at home" there...well actually, i compromised with my husband on this one-yes, it was my birth, and i initially wanted a water birth at home, but he said he would really like to put in his input which was please consider having it at the hospital birthing pool...so i tried to do that..but you know what happened...and it was the doctors and the people at the hospital to said i should schedule an c-section next time. all i could think was that i wanted to do it at home next time instead

 

[krwh]

sending you a pm!