Why did you have a C-section? - Page 4

[stafl]

Originally Posted by AndiB

pycelan: Given my own birth experience, and yours, it makes me wonder...is there some problem in some deliveries that prevents the opening of the pelvic bones? Even if your pelvis is "normally" too small to allow a baby to squeeze through, there are areas of the pelvis that are meant to loosen and stretch during birth to make the canal wider to allow birth to happen. Perhaps sometimes a woman lacks the proper hormone or something to make this happen?? I'm just theorizing...it is very rare that a woman's pelvis is just plain too small if the bones are opening properly. Personally, while I was pushing, I felt that my bones were not opening at all--I could feel my daughter pressing on them when I pushed through the contractions. It's at least possible. It's good that you are at peace with your birth experiences.

Yes, it's most likely not a fault in your body, though, unless you were severely malnourished or had rickets as a child and your bones did not develop properly (this does sometimes happen, my aunt broke her pelvis delivering her baby because of it). Most often, it's a result of laboring in bed and not moving around enough. The pelvis opens much wider in an upright, squatting position. Not only that, but laboring in bed on your back often prevents baby from getting into a good position to come out of the pelvic opening. The combination of baby in less than optimal position, and mom in bed on her back, is almost always to blame when doctors say baby couldn't fit through the birth canal.

[dlm194]

My diagnosis was "CPD" although I want to check that on my medical charts when I get around to calling the hospital and the ob's office for them. I just posted a thread about my chiropractor's view on my "small pelvis." He showed me a model of a spine and pelvis and demonstrated how, when you are laying down, the spine curls in and basically narrows the pelvic opening.

My problem ran deeper than that though and it has taken me a long time to come to terms with what happened. I had a "midwife" who worked too closely with doctors. I thought she was nice and crunchy but it turned out that she was more of a medwife. She (along with the other midwives at the practice) deliver at 2 area hospitals and she really did NOT want to be at the hospital I chose. She made it known that she didn't want to be there. She took charge and I started feeling like I couldn't decide anything for myself and I went along with what she wanted. She complained about the humming of the lights overhead. She got frustated when I wiggled around during her internal exams. She scared me when she said that my baby was not coming down and that my contractions weren't strong enough even though they were 3 minutes apart. I began to get so scared that I couldn't do this and I was silly for having these ideas that I could birth naturally in a squatting position. She hooked me up to pitocin which made me nauseous. She gave me stadol which made me fuzzy. She told me to get an epidural which rendered me useless to take any charge in my delivery. My dh fell asleep on the chair next to me as my whole plan collapsed so I didn't even have a support system. Next thing I knew, she brought a doctor in who announced that I had a 5% chance for a vaginal delivery. I sat and cried while they prepped me for a c-s. My dh was no where to be found. I didn't see him again until they brought him into the operating room. (Turned out he left the room looking for friends who had delivered 2 days before). I look back and realize that my whole delivery experience was overwhelming and scary. My hospital delivers 7000 babies a year and they follow a certain protocol. It's no wonder my pelvis couldn't relax to open up for my baby's passage. But I love my dd more than anything in the world so I don't dwell on the negatives of what happened. Instead, I chose to feel empowered by my research into this experience so that I WILL have a vbac next time.

[Tummy]

My C-Section.... Fetal Distress!!! Blue Baby

First baby

Birthing center... planned water birth, MW attempted to break my waters at 6 cm, nothing came out, they assumed my waters had broke night before.

Got to 10 cm

They told me to start pushing anytime I wanted.

I would bare down and the urge would go away, I kept telling the MW
"I cannot do this, something is not right."
She told me over and over that this was a normal feeling with a first baby and we would just wait it out until me and my body were ready for pushing.

Labor stoped, contraction every 7 minutes, I kept telling them I could NOT do this, something was just not right.

Transfer in Ambulance to local hospital!

Arrival
given IV, pitocin, ect.. the whole nine yards, NO epi!

My sons HB droped to 20 BPM, I was rushed in to the OR, having absolutly NO IDEA WHAT WAS GOING ON!

Told to sign a paper to be knocked out. General!

I remember looking up at a mirror and seeing a tube in my vagina, and them rubbing benadine on my belly. Out I was.

Seen my child for the first time over 17 hours later.

After my E-C-S I found out that I had NO fluid what so ever inside me. The doctor ( as wonderful as he was ) told me that had I even ONE TIME PUSHED, my son would not have made it. He had his cord around his neck 3X and it was so tight that the OB had to clamp and cut before he could even pull my sons head out of my uterus. My son was a 'blue baby' and had to be revived after birth.

My son was in the hosp for one week, anti for one week after discharge. He had meconium in both his lungs. I have pictures of him that my father took as they were wheeling him to the nursery and he was so sick looking, he was still at that time BLUE.

The OB was a very 'old school' doc, worked in 3rd world countried, has books out, and he did disolving stitches... still to this day you have to "LOOK" to see my scar

I in no way shape or form regret this C/S! I am so sorry for women who DO NOT KNOW THEY HAVE A CHOICE when it comes to VBACing though!!!

[Jadzia]

Originally Posted by ChamaMama

DS was OP and his head wasn't sufficiently flexed, so essentially he got "stuck". I had fabulous midwives who helped me to try everything to turn him, and then was transferred from the birth center to a hospital where I had unusually supportive OBs who also helped me try to birth him normally. He just wouldn't descend - his head was even stuck trying to get him out during the section!

That is exactly what happened to me! I had a great natural labor at a birthing center. But when it came time to push, I pushed for four hours. We tried every sort of position, but he just would not turn and his head was essentially stuck. I was transferred for surgery. Because he was wedged so low, they had trouble getting him out via C-section and I ended up with a T-shaped incision. :

I go through it in my head every day wondering what I could have done differently. I was always the most anti-C-section person. I thought I was doing everything right to avoid one, by having an unmedicated labor, moving around, etc. I still will always wonder if I could have somehow avoided it. I still blame myself, like maybe I wasn't pushing correctly. I never felt like I got the hang of pushing, perhaps because he was posterior and not positioned correctly. I handled the labor just fine, but I just felt like it all fell apart in the pushing stage.

[AnditheBee]

Originally Posted by stafl

Most often, it's a result of laboring in bed and not moving around enough. The pelvis opens much wider in an upright, squatting position. Not only that, but laboring in bed on your back often prevents baby from getting into a good position to come out of the pelvic opening. The combination of baby in less than optimal position, and mom in bed on her back, is almost always to blame when doctors say baby couldn't fit through the birth canal.

I can't speak for anyone else, but I didn't lay down until I had already been pushing for over 5 hours. I was squatting in bed for a couple hours, and I spent several hours on the birthing stool. My doula is going to find some new positions for me to try this next time, in case we have the same issue (baby #2 is due in March). It was really a bizarre situation--I truly did everything I knew to do, and I had done a lot of reading beforehand, had a doula with me, had a great nursing staff with me, I felt extremely peaceful and positive during labor, etc. It just...didn't happen.

Maybe next time the baby will just slip right out while I'm packing to go out of town for a vbac! :LOL

[MelissaEvans]

My chiro mentioned that my tail bone was anterior (at least, I think that's what she said) and that may have been another contributing factor to the c/sec. So, she's keeping me adjusted and making sure my butt bone's not blocking my birth canal this time. =)

[faythe]

per my chart - severe pre-eclampsia, failed induction and twins

I no longer regret the c-sec, and I think my initial regret was based on a lack of information. I didn't realize at first that I had pre-e, once I knew this I didn't realize how bad it was. I felt fine, except for the fact that I couldn't pee (as in kidney failure, not baby blocking the passage). For a long time I thought, if only I had asked for another 12 hours of induction, maybe that would have made the difference. After going through a nearly 3 day labor with dd3 I know that's a pipe dream.

I was lucky, I found lots of vbac support right from the start. In fact, when I was having my c-sec, as the doc made the incision she said she was doing a low transverse so my next baby could be a vbac. I did have that vbac, and another.

[De-lovely]

With dd#1 fetal distress-came out with cord around her neck 3 times and holding onto it-then I had my second dd 12 monthes to the day after so one would let me go vbac-not even a midwife.This time around whenever we gert preg again it will be no choice but a VBAC.

[nznats]

Midwife interference (other)

Natural waterbirth, suspected big baby, midwife made me get out of the pool when I felt pushy, My midwife broke my waters when I was in transition (at 8cm or so) quite roughly bruising my cervix and causing me to go back down to 4-5cm. Transfer from birthcenter to hospital on the other side of town via car, where I recieved epidural, syntocinon, and feotal monitoring. Baby was perfect but I wasnt tolerating the contractions and no longer had the strength to move into an optimal position or let the epi wear off... She never dropped and they couldnt work out why even after a deep VE.
Told they were happy to leave me as baby was fine but she may need help with forceps to come out. I said no way in hell and agreed with the c-section, 12 hours after the midwife broke my waters my daughter was born, it turns out her head was wedged cocked back and on her left shoulder. She had a massive cone head too. 10lbs7oz but was told that I had a very spacious pelvis and could have birthed her easily
Very Very bad midwife in more than one way, totally let me down... Still traumatised 17 months later.

Next baby if there ever is one will be a UBAC

[katenyc]

I voted failure to progress, but it was really because of dd's positioning.

Despite the c/s, I had a wonderful birth experience. I labored at home (the only bad part was sitting up all night on my birth ball watching SportsCenter because I could not sleep : ), in contact with my doula by phone for 2 days. Then she came to our house and went with me to my OB, where I was 2 cm/50% effaced. Although at this point I had been in labor for more than 48 hours, my water had not broken and my baby was tolerating everything, so I was allowed to go home. My doula and my OB agreed to dose me with castor oil, which ramped up the contrax to 3 min apart but failed to get me to the "emotional signposts" of late labor.

The following morning the the contractions spaced out again. I was exhausted, almost 2 weeks overdue, and needed to get moving. We went to the hospital, where I was 4 cm/70% effaced. I was allowed to walk around for a bit (my doula had me walk stairs), but I had an amniotomy and the contrax picked up again. Four hours later, no progress. The OB (not mine, but the one on-call from the practice) suggested a bit of pitocin....I was VERY upset because I thought this would start the cascade to a medicated birth, etc.; my doula convinced me that pitocin augmentation is different than pitocin induction, and that we had reached the point where it was ok to try something else. The OB saw that I was in good hands (had 2 doulas plus dh at this point), baby was still fine, so he left me alone for four hours....LOTS AND LOTS of hard contrax, but I was allowed to labor on my birth ball (plus I was running to the bathroom constantly because my doula had pumped me full of powerade ). After I had been at the hospital for 9 hours and made no progress whatsoever in that time, it was suggested that 87 hours was a fine trial of labor And it was!

It turned out that my baby was big (I am small and narrow in just about every way), and had a very big head. She was vertex but her head was slightly transverse (I prefer "cockeyed" :LOL ). No wiggle room, so her head could not properly apply pressure to my cervix.

Hmm...longer than I intended, sorry.

But I have never had a single regret.

[pfamilygal]

Transverse lie- and there wasn't a darn thing I could do about it. I'd been vertex 2 days before and when my water broke she had flipped. Her head was over one hip and her butt over the other with her spine over my cervix. Ain't no way she was coming out and the doc had trouble even flipping her during the section to get her out. Thank God he didn't have to "T" the incision so I'm still up for VBACing.