Cesarean Support Circle-June/July - Page 7

[eilonwy]

Originally Posted by prmom

Now...I still get annoyed when people talk about their labor and say " I would rather have had a c/b" as if it were a choice.

I said this over and over after my son's birth, and my c/s reaffirmed what I had known all along deep down: a cesearian would definately have been preferable to what I went through bringing him into the world vaginally. Absolutely. Even though I've had an infection, and my uterus has resettled in a strange position, and I can't quite say my daughter was "born", I still think I should have had a cesearian with Eli and that I would have been better off. The recovery this time has been so much easier, the two don't even compare. I'll be four weeks pp tomorrow; at this point with Eli, I was still unable to sleep because I was in so much pain, and I was unable to think straight or function well because I was so thoroughly traumatized by the labor. Mike brought up sex a few times and I looked at him like he was from Mars, and when he mentioned "the next baby" I looked him dead in the eye and told him that any subsequent babies would have to be adopted because I wasn't doing that again.

This time, I've been thinking about sex already for a good three weeks, I'm looking forward to the next baby, and I feel fabulous (except for my strangely positioned uterus, which kind of hurts a bit when I try to kegel). I've still got fluctuating hormones messing with my emotions, but all in all I feel a thousand times better than I did when Eli was a month old. I'd rather have delivered Rivkah vaginally, but if it looked like I was going to have to deal with the kind of agony and misery that accompanied Eli's birth, I'd have begged for a cesearian. Now that I've actually had one, I know for certain that I was right all along.

[mollyeilis]

I have a question about the 6 week PP visit to the surgeon. The OB didn't seem to be too concerned with me coming in for it (he didn't even know why I was there at 2 weeks, and he was the one who insisted I make the appointment for that visit), and I've cancelled twice and now they have me coming in for my "6 week" visit August 17, and Eamon was born May 26.

Do I even need this visit? I do NOT plan on him giving me any kind of internal exam, unless one is done to check for some kind of post-surgical something. But if it's just the pap, etc, no thank you, do not want that man's hands near me again.

Is there anything else that was done at your visit? I have little bits of pain leftover, but they mainly happen when I'm tired. My hips are out of whack and painful, but I think that's from the long labor and rotten-feeling transition, not from surgery. And he can't do anything for it, that's for my chiro to take care of (plus, I have a refill on the ibuprofen and he gave me a second scrip for percocet, should I choose to fill it and take it, though both of those are doubtful that I'd do for baby's sake!). I drove today and it went fine, I have no interest in sex whatsoever, so who really cares about that? The lochia stopped FINALLY at the middle of last week.

Is that worth going in to see him again? I know you guys aren't doctors, etc, but I'm asking for what happened at your 6 week checkup (or right around there), or if you went, and what I might miss out on, if I don't ever see the OB again.



Oh, and witchbaby, I'm right there with ya. I know almost no one in person who really cared how their babies were born, and they all did it vaginally, though not naturally. I've been dreaming about giving birth for all my life, and I end up with a surgical birth. Unwanted, unneeded (at least for the reasons they gave), and really sucky. : I know how you feel.


Thanks in advance!

[KKmama]

Witchbaby, I understand, too. Whenever I'm around "crunchy" women and birth comes up, I get a little jealous about other women's easy pregnancies, labors, births, whatever (but I seem to have fairly easy babies, so maybe I shouldn't complain). I sure as hell wanted them and prepared for them, but it doesn't seem to work that way for me. (Oh well. I'll keep the babies, though. ) And I also get annoyed about feeling like I need to "explain" stuff... Like yeah, my C with #1 *was* justified, and yeah, I *did* need to see an ob in the last pg, and yeah, I'm *so* glad I had a vbac, but it sure wasn't quick or easy!! And let's not even get started about how necessary I feel the epidural was for the success of my vbac...

The best thing to do is just to come here and tell us.

Molly, have you figured out what you're going to do for birth control? 'Cause that's an important thing that could happen at this visit.

[witchbaby]

she DID have a vaginal birth and i've been cranky all day.
thank you for the kind words, ladies, i needed it. i need to get into therapy and talk to someone about all these feelings (well, about other things, too!).
hey, kkmama, where in colorado are you? i'm in wash park in denver...

[mollyeilis]

KK, I shudder to imagine discussing birth control with the guy who was simply on call when the midwives dragged me in. But it's a good point! I also shudder to imagine discussing it with the midwives who I won't even speak to!

Luckily, I'm a simple gal who is anti-hormones, and we've got it all figured out.

So, anything else that went on at that visit that I'll miss out on, or feel less healthy for missing? Any ultrasounds of the uterus to visualize the internal scar, make sure it's OK? External palpation of the uterus to see if it's gone back down to proper size? Anything else?

(those could be done by my primary care physician, a naturopath who is also a non-practicing LM, I would imagine)



As to an epidural being necessary for a VBAC, I can see how that could be, now. I couldn't have even related to that before, but I think I'm seeing the trees in the forest, as well as the whole forest, now.

[jenniferB]

Originally Posted by mollyeilis

I have a question about the 6 week PP visit to the surgeon. ...Do I even need this visit? I do NOT plan on him giving me any kind of internal exam, unless one is done to check for some kind of post-surgical something. But if it's just the pap, etc, no thank you, do not want that man's hands near me again.

great question molly. i'm wondering the same thing myself. during my 6 week PP visit my ob wasn't so concerned that i come in. i did anyway and i got an internal exam. pap smear i think. it didn't seem so necessary so i'm hoping to skip it this time around.

question for everyone: how long was your post c/b recovery time in terms of when you could leave the hospital? i had a pretty easy time with my first c/b recovery but stayed int he hospital for a week because i wanted to be close to my baby who was still there. this time i want to get home as soon as possible.

[tammylc]

My c/s was scheduled for 11 am on Monday. We left the hospital around 6 pm on Wednesday (we could have left earlier, but we were waiting for some lab results that were delayed, and then decided to stay through dinner so we wouldn't have to worry about eating). We hated the hospital and were eager to get out.

[jenniferB]

wow. that was fast! only two nights. you must have been up and walking very soon after the delivery. hope my stay can be as short.

[mollyeilis]

Zoiks, I only stayed 42 hours, but I *wanted* to be there the whole 4 days my insurance allowed! Unfortunately, all the hospital's normal checks and balances for when you can go home fly out the window when they are packed for 2 solid days (I still blame the blackout last August for many of those pregnancies, even though I'm on the West Coast LOL) and have nowhere to put people with already-delivered women like me taking up space. :

I feel that my recovery has been slow for many reasons, not the least of which being that I was forced to go home, which meant climbing THREE flights of stairs just to get to our apartment, after 96 hours of labor and a c-section only 42 hours before.

[GatorNNP]

jenniferB, my c/sec was at 12noon and I went home on the 3rd day. I was up and walking at 4am the night of my c/sec. I decided the iv analgesia was making me loopy and it was only catching-up to my pain instead of keeping it in check. I switched to ibuprofen/ 1 perc at a time and was ok. The walking is good at first since I think it helps you feel better. Another thing I did to feel better was take comfy maternity clothes and got dressed during the day and took my own nursing nightgown for at night. Also those high waisted panties are nice for comfort. I started eating right away since I only had a spinal. My friend got me a milk shake from arby's and I had brought krispy kremes for the nurses and my family so I had one of those in recovery as well. I am not exactly a "compliant" patient, but my ob (who took me on at 41 weeks and 5 days) knows better than to expect too much. She was surprised that I showed up to my 6 weeks visit.
As for the visit, sometimes they check your bloodcount if you had any heavy bleeding at delivery.

My favorite day in the hosp was when my sister stayed the night with me. My dh just doesn't have natural "mothering" tendencies so it was nice to have someone there to help look after me. I highly recommend having a woman around to help out the first week-someone who will really help you.

[witchbaby]

k was born by c/b at 8:42 pm saturday and we went home around 3:30pm monday.
the nurses, the doc and the midwife were all very impressed by the speed of my recovery. apparently, it's not all that normal...

[its_our_family]

Tracy was born around 9:40 Friday night and we wenthome Sunday afternoon at 2:00.

Bryce was born on Thursday at 8:25am and we went home saturday at 1:00pm.

Bryce was in NICU for 30 hours. I was with him all I could be but the time I wasn't wsa spent sleeping. I hated that he was away from me but I think it did help in my physical recovery. Plus, it motivated me to get moving.

My dh was with me in the hospital. i cna't imagine doing it alone. He helped me shower, changed my clothes, scratch my back... you name it he did it. He is such an amazing man He treats me like a princess

[shelbean91]

ds was born tuesday night, we went home sat afternoon. I probably could have left early, but ds was born at 34 1/2 weeks, had jaundice bad enough to need lights, so was too tired to nurse. Not to mention the c-section wasn't planned and I had a 4 and 2 year old at home-I wanted as much time in the hospital as I could get.

[tammylc]

Originally Posted by mollyeilis

Zoiks, I only stayed 42 hours, but I *wanted* to be there the whole 4 days my insurance allowed!

Our room was unbearably hot and stuffy, and someone came in every two hours all night long, so it was impossible for any of us to get any sleep. Blech. We couldn't wait to leave.

I feel that my recovery has been slow for many reasons, not the least of which being that I was forced to go home, which meant climbing THREE flights of stairs just to get to our apartment, after 96 hours of labor and a c-section only 42 hours before.

That would be hard. I only had the c/s to contend with - no labor. I'm sorry you were forced to leave before you wanted to!

[eilonwy]

nak

molly, you know that they can't legally force you to leave before 72 hours, right? I can't imagine someone forcing me to leave that soon after surgery.. that's just nuts. When I had Rivkah (even when I had Eli, who was a vaginal delivery) three different people asked me if I'd have to climb stairs, if I had help, etc. With Eli, they even asked me if I'd be able to get back to the hospital (he was a NICU baby.)

At any rate: Rivkah was an emergency c/b at 7pm on Thursday; we went home Sunday around 4pm (we also were waiting for lab results. I was discharged at 11am, but Rivkah couldn't leave until her bilirubin came back from the lab.)

Eli was a very traumatic vaginal delivery following four and a half days of labor; he was born around 5 am on Friday and I left at 8 pm on Monday. I nearly stayed another night, but I knew that I wouldn't be able to sleep if I stayed in the NICU. Even so, every day he was in there someone reminded me that I could, if I chose, spend the night with him in NICU.

[LisaG]

Delaying cord clamping with c/s

Hi ladies,
One of the things I've always wondered about was whether or not it's possible to delay clamping the cord and what the logistics of it would be so mo could still be protected from incision infection.

Yesterday I found this article that describes the benefits of delaying as well as the logistics for how to do it. Basically somebody holds the baby after they've been delivered and waits for the doc to remove the placenta from the uterus. Then the baby and placenta (still connected) are transferred to the warming table (don't see why they also couldn't go to mom with some assistance) and kept level so that the goodies that still need to travel from the placenta to the baby are allowed to and then once the cord stops pulsing, it's cut.

Seems pretty reasonable and not too inconvenient for a doctor.

Here's the full article:
http://www.cordclamping.com/dunn72a.pdf

Lisa

[polka123]

c/s 11 mos ago - still cant get my body back - anybody have any luck with pilates?

[mollyeilis]

Originally Posted by eilonwy

nak

molly, you know that they can't legally force you to leave before 72 hours, right?

No, I did not.

I tried really hard, I told the OB (not the one who did the surgery but another from his practice who saw me when the surgeon went off his shift) that I wasn't ready and didn't want to leave yet, I told the nurses, I told everyone that I wasn't ready.

Who should I have told that I didn't?

One of the nurses started talking about Group Health and how they generally only allow 2 days, and I tried to convince her that just b/c the OB was with Group Health didn't mean I was, and that my insurance company allowed 4 days no questions asked, but she got vague on me (did they not believe me?) and left the room.

Not sure who I could have told or what more I could have said to convince them that I wasn't ready to leave.

No one asked if I had stairs, they all knew b/c I was telling them.

I dunno, part of me wonders if it was because I was *such* an unwilling patient and had argued with the OB for 6 hours. But I was nice to the nurses, and did try my best to be nice while arguing, making jokes and such...perhaps it was a bit of payback for the homebirth "attempt".

Any thoughts on who I could have told, just in case there should be some kind of true emergency needing a c-section that I can't be bitter about next time? (don't you like my qualifiers?)

[eilonwy]

Originally Posted by mollyeilis

No, I did not.

I tried really hard, I told the OB (not the one who did the surgery but another from his practice who saw me when the surgeon went off his shift) that I wasn't ready and didn't want to leave yet, I told the nurses, I told everyone that I wasn't ready.

Who should I have told that I didn't?

I can't imagine . I think I'd start getting really loud while talking to someone else, mentioning "casually" that I know that legally, I couldn't be forced to leave sooner than 72 hours after a c-section. You might want to look at the laws for your state, or talk to a lawyer about it, but I'm pretty sure it's the same all over the country.