Cervical scarring

[aidanraynesmom]

My first birth so horribly long and intense. I couldn't dilate. No one tried to figure out why it took me 20 hours of incredibly hard labor to get to just a few centimeters. I was on pitocin, no pain meds and flat on my back for 30 hours of what felt like transition. All because of what I later found out was cervical scarring due to my cryo surgery some years back.

I want nothing more than a beautiful home birth. I want my dh to catch our baby on my kitchen floor. I want to be surrounded by loved ones and have my baby in the tub. I also am terrified to go through what I went through last time. I'm terrified that a hospital birth will end in a C/S. I was lucky to avoid one last time, and here, I won't be. I'm sure of that. I also would rather have surgery than experience that again. Is there anything I can do? Anyone have this happen, and birth without pain meds? I mean, is massaging the cervix very painful? Does Evening Primrose Oil work well enough to allow progress?

Wow, that's a lot of questions! Thanks for reading!

[SnglAPmama]

I have not been through an experience like yours, but one of my dearest friends has. She was in labor with pitocin for 36 hours (her water had broken at home and they delayed telling the dr that for a long time). She had placenta previa, but it wasn't completely covering her cervix so that meant she had to give birth in the hospital (she really wanted a home birth). The scar on her cervix wasn't discovered until mid-labor. She ended up with a cs because by the time she could push, she was having horrible side effects from the pain meds and epidural that she had finally asked for. However, her ob said that the scar on her cervix "fell off" during labor and she should have no trouble having a vbac. I don't know if that's something that might have happened in your situation, but i hope you can find out.

[AutumnW]

my sister has five children. After her third she had cervical surgery like you describe and had cervical scarring for her fourth labor. The doctor "popped" it open with his finger while doing an exam and she dilated quickly after that. She had no problems with her fifth labor and it went more quickly than most of her other labors.

I only have one child but during the first of my two cervical checks in labor at home my midwife said I had a "purse-string" which was holding back dilation so she did the same snapping thing that my sister's doctor did (which hurt like heck) and I instantly dilated from four to seven centimeters (which could have been some of the pain I felt, just the extra pressure). At my post partum visit my family doc said that I had cervical scarring from that so I hope I don't deal with any delayed dilation this time.

[rightkindofme]

Oh sister, I hear you. I had a lot of scarring from cryosurgery as well. By 36 hours of labor I was 100% effaced and 0% dilated. 30 hours of that I was having contractions every 6 minutes. Whoo boy. At 36 hours my midwife (I was shooting for a homebirth) was a bit more uhm aggressive about checking my cervix (basically she tried to force it open a bit) and I started making progress. By 40 hours I was 4cm. Unfortunately by that time I was hallucinating from sleep deprivation and I decided I needed some pain relief so we went to the hospital. While asleep thanks to lovely pain meds I went from 4 to 10 in another 4 hours. They were trying like mad to talk me into Pitocin and I just told them nope nope nope. I still had 3.5 hours of pushing though because I had to be flat on my back after the epidural. I'm completely convinced it would have gone faster in a different position.

I am reverting back to my Hypnobirth stuff in this pregnancy. My labor was very intense, but even with that much time spent and that much exhaustion there wasn't that much 'pain'. Just super intense body sensation. The more afraid you are of pain the more your body will tense up and it will hurt. My midwife has told me, "I don't make promises about labor but I can nearly guarantee that you won't have an experience like that again. Your cervix has been opened and your body has learned how to push." I love and trust my midwife and I love and trust my body. I'm spending a lot of time working on talking my body through, "Ok darling we know how to do everything this time around so now we can work on improving our time!"

I'm going for a homebirth again and I'm going to make it this time. If you convince yourself that you can too, I bet you can. Mind over matter. We are strong!

[donna-nb]

won't be an issue the 2nd time

i had a homebirth with no pain meds or pitocin and also dilated VERY slowly due to scar tissue on my cervix- 20+ hours before i was ready to push. my midwife did what someone else on this thread said -- she had to go in and "manually" push apart and break the scar tissue, twice. these two moments were the single most painful moments of my whole childbirth experience.

however, she told me that now that the scar tissue had broken, i won't experience this specific issue the next time i give birth, not that there won't be other pain, of course. i haven't done a lot of research on the issue, but i trust her comment. you may want to ask a professional you trust.

[poetgirl]

Not an expert here but I just spoke with a woman who had this issue. She said that inserting EPO into the vagina toward the end of pregnancy can help dilation. Her mw also gave her something homeopathic under the tongue but I don't know what that was. I'm going to try to find out because I had cryosurgery as well and once during a polyp removal surgery, they could not get the cervix to dilate, tried for 40 min. gave up and woke me up from the anesthesia. The next time they used a dilating stick the night before, so I have a feeling this could be a problem for me too.

Does anyone know if there is a way to have a vag. exam to assess if there is scar tissue now?