All children by C-section tribe )_( - Page 52

[Peppermint]

jewelsJZ- I am so sorry that you had to be separated from your dh and babe, I bet that and the awful anesthesiologist are a part of your tougher recovery. I know from my 4 sections, that having a wonderful Dr. and hospital made all of the difference, even in my recovery. Getting the right pain meds helped too .

I am sorry I never post to this thread anymore, it's been going so long, I do read all of the new birth stories coming in, and I appreciate everyone posting here.

I am always wondering if I will do this again. It is sad because I know that if I didn't have to worry about the health aspects of another section, I would surely have another little one in a couple of years, but- I know at this point I am at higher risk for placenta acreta (sp?) and last time I had some pre-term labor, etc. Hopefully God will make it all clear for me when/if the time comes.

[Jannah6]

JewelsJZ, I'm so so sorry that you had to go through this
I've had one c-section so far and had to take pain meds for 2 weeks
I'm hoping that this time around it will be easier. I hope you are feeling back to yourself very soon.

[robynholly]

Please help....need c-section advice from those who have gone through it

I know I am not a member of this tribe because I haven't gone through it, but I thought you all would be the prefect ones to give advice.

I just found out less than a week ago that my baby who we thought was head down is now breech. I am 39 1/2 weeks along and have been doing acupuncture, moxa treaments, reiki, the webster technique and we tried an external version and so far nothing. I am hoping that the cord isn't wrapped around him because I think he would have shown distress during the version (do you think this is true?) Anyway, I am so confused about what to do. Should I schedule a C-Section so I lower my chances of having an emergency c-section? Or should I just let him come when he is ready whether he has flipped or not? It has been such a difficult week and I am just so scared and unsure. Any help would be wonderful.

[RiverMamma]

Robynholly, breech vaginal births are possible & can happen beautifuly & naturaly. If your Dr. or MW are ok w/ it then I would say go for it girl! Also, if you do end up w/ a c/s then atleast you are prepared for the posibility. From what I understand, a little heads up goes a long way, women who are aware of a possible c/s or plan them tend to recover much quicker. Also, if it is a cord entanglement situation, it likley won't be an emergency. My DD was tangled up next to the placenta & I had a three day labor at home before we went to the hospital (I pushed for 2 of those days.) I had even begun to pull the cord out of the placenta, & it still wasn't an emergency situation. (BTW I am an hour drive from the nearest hospital, we had plenty of time.) I think the hard part for me was the shock of it, even on the way to the hospital the thought of a c/s hadn't even occured to me. Needless to say it made the whole ordeal pretty traumatic for me. I took a long time to recover, I bled for 12 wks. I was walking the next morning, but the long recovery period was long. I would recomend looking through the archives of this thread for some c/s birth plan ideas, threre are some good ones somewhere here. I obviously didn't have such a thing & wish I had. Blessings on your birth regardless of how your LO arives!:

[4Blessings]

Originally Posted by robynholly

I know I am not a member of this tribe because I haven't gone through it, but I thought you all would be the prefect ones to give advice.

I just found out less than a week ago that my baby who we thought was head down is now breech. I am 39 1/2 weeks along and have been doing acupuncture, moxa treaments, reiki, the webster technique and we tried an external version and so far nothing. I am hoping that the cord isn't wrapped around him because I think he would have shown distress during the version (do you think this is true?) Anyway, I am so confused about what to do. Should I schedule a C-Section so I lower my chances of having an emergency c-section? Or should I just let him come when he is ready whether he has flipped or not? It has been such a difficult week and I am just so scared and unsure. Any help would be wonderful.

My first C-section was after 4 hours of pushing and our little 10 pounder just wouldn't come out.
Next baby was stuck in the transverse postion after a failed version. Scheduled c-section but the baby came three days before the scheduled date.
Baby number three was a scheduled c-section too. Went into labor a week before the scheduled date.

I don't find labor that difficult so I don't mind not avoiding the contractions through a scheduled c-section. I was dilated to 8 with my second and to 9 with my third by the time I arrived at the hospital. We called ahead so they were ready for the c-section when we arrived. I was glad to know that my baby was ready.

Some people like the feeling of having a scheduled time/date for their baby's arrival. I however like the feeling of baby arriving when he/she feels like it.
I guess it depends on how comfortable you are with letting things happen when they happen vs. scheduling what you can.

Good Luck!

[Alcyone]

Originally Posted by Proud2BeAnAmerican

I guess it depends on how comfortable you are with letting things happen when they happen vs. scheduling what you can.

ITA, and also how comfortable you are with having a cesarean that might not be necessary. Personally, I needed the three days of labor, the multiple midwives encouraging me, etc. etc. before I would have ever accepted it. If I'd ended up having one any sooner than I did, I'd always be wondering if I could have had a vaginal birth, and it would bother me. But that's me, and maybe it wouldn't bother you at all. It's such a personal thing!

[GenomicsGirl]

Hi everyone! I'm baaaaaaack!!! I posted in this thread long time ago when it was coming up on my 3rd c-section ... and here I am again! My c-section recoveries got easier with each child, although the "ledge" of my scar has become more pronounced each time!

[BohoMama]

Fear and Loathing in the Czech Republic

Hi, I'm another one who is very "qualified" to be in here by having already had 2 c-section births. It's very late at night here so I won't go into the details of how/why they happened, but to sum up: the first birth really did have to be a C/S and the second was the result of a traumatic betrayal of trust. Where I live (in the Czech Republic) the possibility of a VBA2C absolutely does not exist, and there is no midwife who would take me on as a client. Plus, I've been assured by my gyno that my uterus is damaged and that there is an increased risk of rupture. At the outset of this pregnancy the back side was a normal, healthy 19 mm thick and the front - where the scars are - only 7 mm. For this reason, they will be scheduling Quintana's birth a week or two before her natural due date.

Anyway, what's making me post here is that frankly I'm very apprehensive about doing it again. I had some bad experiences with the first two, and the whole procedure + aftermath just scares me witless. (I know, I know, I'm still alive writing this and I have 2 beautiful children to hold and another one to look forward to....) Someone posted above to the effect that scheduling a C/S is a way of taking control - at least of the timing, while natural birth is about going with the flow. I see things the other way around: in my mind, natural birth is all about making choices and taking control (or letting go) as you adapt to the unfolding situation, but a c-section is all about putting yourself in the hands of strangers who may be professionals but do not really give a flip about you and will protect their buddies first if problems crop up. (Believe me, I've seen this happen more than once.) I generally am not sympathetic to standard/allopathic medicine and avoid it whenever possible. But this is one area where I really have to submit, however little I like it.

How have other multiple C/S mothers prepared themselves for yet another? What goes through your mind as they roll you into the operating room, start prepping your body there on the table....and then afterward you wake up parched and in agony and can't yet see your baby? And part of you longs for the little one and another part just wants to curl up and die or else sleep until the pain becomes bearable. And you don't know how or if they may have mangled your body? ... Ugh. I'm reliving it all as I write. What do you do to calm a wild mind, go with the flow, trust that things will come right......? I am trying to get set up with a hypnotist to help with the anxiety, but would be grateful for advice from other mamas who have also been there (a few times).

[Drummer's Wife]

Originally Posted by GenomicsGirl

Hi everyone! I'm baaaaaaack!!! I posted in this thread long time ago when it was coming up on my 3rd c-section ... and here I am again! My c-section recoveries got easier with each child, although the "ledge" of my scar has become more pronounced each time!

just wanted to say congrats!!!!

My 4th section was the easiest birth and recovery I've had.

[Jwebbal]

Should I schedule a C-Section so I lower my chances of having an emergency c-section? Or should I just let him come when he is ready whether he has flipped or not?

Your situation is almost exactly like my own with my son. If I had to do it over again, I would have had a trial of labor before the c-section just to see if he would have turned on his own during labor instead of scheduling the c-section. I did so much to get him to turn, I even did the serious moxabustion treatments where they burn it ON your toes, not just near it. He flipped several times but would flip back, I did two attempted external versions even. But even now I wonder if he would have flipped during labor and would have preferred to try that before agreeing to the c-section. At least the nice part about having a c-section breech baby, he had the most fabulous shaped head you ever saw on a baby! LOL

[BohoMama]

RobynHolly,

I agree with JWebbal that you should not schedule a "preventive" c-section. Can you get to a good ultrasound? It may reveal WHY your baby is persistently breech. Breech position itself is not sufficient reason to schedule a C/S, though many docs will try to convince you that it is. If yours is bearing down on you, seek a second opinion, perhaps from a midwife. The reason my first child was born by scheduled C/S was he was breech with his cord wrapped 2x around his neck with no slack. (He would have hanged himself, then during strong contractions ripped the placenta off and caused me to bleed to death with his body stuck in my birth canal.) Until we found this out, we had also done every possible treatment for the breech position and I was preparing to go in for a rough labor with a very supportive alternative obstetrician. However, when he saw the double-wrapped cord on the ultrasound scan he uttered a very undoctorlike word, said "NO WAY!" and then very graphically explained why we wouldn't survive a natural birth.

As you can see from my other post, C/S is not all roses and sunshine and pretty-shaped heads. I am struggling to find positive thoughts to go into my 3rd with, but they do not come easily.

[Alcyone]

Originally Posted by BohoMama

What goes through your mind as they roll you into the operating room, start prepping your body there on the table....and then afterward you wake up parched and in agony and can't yet see your baby?

Are they required to give you general there?

[BohoMama]

Originally Posted by Alcyone

Are they required to give you general there?

No, they officially prefer to keep you awake, but I chose the general anesthesia for my second birth because of how they botched (with a massive overdose) the spinal anesthesia for my first birth. They poked around in my back for about 25 minutes with their needles until they were satisfied that the drug was "taking" - all the time cursing me that I was not lying still enough (I was having huge contractions). I felt the numbness creeping from lower body towards my lungs, had a feeling of suffocating and panic (which was suppressed with laughing gas), then later came off the stuff - which BTW is a derivative of cocaine - wracked with convulsions that shook my whole body (scar and all, you know, fun), and then could not walk for three days. When I wanted to use the toilet a nurse had to haul me out of bed, hold me under the armpits and walk me to the shower where I peed standing up. Everyone at the hospital denied that anything had gone wrong, but of course when I asked physician friends about it later they were appalled.

My experience with the general was much better and I will choose it again this time, but there are still many aspects to the experience that are painful and frightening.

[RiverMamma]

Originally Posted by Alcyone

Personally, I needed the three days of labor, the multiple midwives encouraging me, etc. etc. before I would have ever accepted it!

Me too!!!!!

Originally Posted by BohoMama

How have other multiple C/S mothers prepared themselves for yet another? What goes through your mind as they roll you into the operating room, start prepping your body there on the table....and then afterward you wake up parched and in agony and can't yet see your baby? And part of you longs for the little one and another part just wants to curl up and die or else sleep until the pain becomes bearable. And you don't know how or if they may have mangled your body? ... Ugh. I'm reliving it all as I write. What do you do to calm a wild mind, go with the flow, trust that things will come right......? I am trying to get set up with a hypnotist to help with the anxiety, but would be grateful for advice from other mamas who have also been there (a few times).

I have only had one c/s, but some of these questions I addressed in my birth story (I didn't do general though.) It might help you to read my story, the link is in my signature, just click on the blue part that says "birth story."

Originally Posted by BohoMama

The reason my first child was born by scheduled C/S was he was breech with his cord wrapped 2x around his neck with no slack. (He would have hanged himself, then during strong contractions ripped the placenta off and caused me to bleed to death with his body stuck in my birth canal.)

As you can see from my other post, C/S is not all roses and sunshine and pretty-shaped heads. I am struggling to find positive thoughts to go into my 3rd with, but they do not come easily.

I had a similar cord entanglement situation. I had actually begun to pull the cord out of the placenta (as oposed to the placenta out of the uterus, still the same consequences though.) I had a 3 day labor at home though before going to the hospital. I pushed for two of those days. c/s was the only way she was going to come out w/ both of us alive, but I gave it my best shot at home and still had plenty of time to make it to the hospital over an hour away.

As far as the positive thoughts go, maby try not thinking about the birth at all & just thinking about the new little miracle you will be holding in your arms after it is all said & done! Wrighting affermations really help me too, ie: I am safe, my baby is safe, we are well taken care of, etc...

My prayrs and blessings will be with you on this birth.:

[2pinks]

Can I join?

I have had/will have had all my dd's by c-section

1st-dd was frank breech, did a version which put me into labor, ended up "failure to progress" and fetal heart decels which made it an emergency c-sec.

2. Tried VBAC. No meds this time. 26hr labor. Doula. "Failure to progress" again and again fetal heart decels

3. Automatic c-sec

My first c-sec, so far, has been my most traumatic. it really was an emergency situation and I just wasn't mentally prepared for it.

[Storm Bride]

Originally Posted by robynholly

Should I schedule a C-Section so I lower my chances of having an emergency c-section? Or should I just let him come when he is ready whether he has flipped or not? It has been such a difficult week and I am just so scared and unsure. Any help would be wonderful.

Nobody else knows what's best for you. I've had four sections...two scheduled (one with labour, and one without), and two emergency.

Some people prefer the scheduled sections. I'll be having another one in June for a variety of reasons, and it will be scheduled. I don't prefer them. I find having a baby without going through labour first to be the purest form of hell. It's a horrible experience. (My reasons for scheduling this next one mostly boil down to fear - my last son was stillborn - and exhaustion. I just have no more energy to stand up for myself and what's best for me.) The emergency ones were much better experiences in many ways.

If I could pick the "best" experience of them all, it would be ds. My surgery was scheduled, because I caved into pressure from the OB...but I went into labour the night before the operation. I got the "pluses" (I don't really think of them that way) of not being completely exhausted, and not having all the scary drama of an emergency section...but also of knowing that my baby had picked its own birthday, and was ready to arrive, and that my body was ready for him. If I hadn't had some complications that time, it would have been my best post-op experience, by far.

Nobody can weigh all the variables for anyone else, though.

[Storm Bride]

Oh - and...I'm back. I posted here way back in the early days, saying I "might" belong, as dh and I weren't sure if we were having another baby or whatever.

As many of you know, I did get pregnant again, and tried for an HBA3C. For unknown reasons (possibly uterine infection), my son's heart stopped after a long labour, and an attempt to save him by performing an emergency section was unsuccessful.

I'm pregnant again, and will be scheduling my fifth - and last - section in June. I'm not happy about it, and I highly doubt that it's the right choice for me, but that's what I'm doing. I'll be getting a tubal at the same time. I'm done. Actually, I'm so far beyond done that I have no words for it. I think this baby was a mistake in a lot of ways.

[Kimcarrots]

Storm Bride - lean on us for support - anyway we can.

[luv_my_babes]

Hello everyone

I guess I 'belong' here as well. I have had 2 c-sections as well.

My first was an emergency c-section. I was preg. with twins and when I was 34 weeks, I woke up one morning feeling 'off'... couldn't out my finger on it though. I was sitting down, relaxing with my feet up and out of the blue I felt something 'down there'. I had TONS of pressure.
I called MIL to come over, and by the time she came to see me, I was in full blown labour.
We arrived at the hospital, the nurse checked me and gave me a shocked look and said "OMG I feel FEET!". Turns out both babies were footling breech and 'Baby A' wanted out -- fast! The nurses/OB were all worried that the cord was going to come first. Not even 10 minutes after arriving at the hospital I was in the OR. It all happened sooooo fast -- it was a very scary experience.

With my second, well she was an elective c-section. My first birth was VERY traumatic (for reasons other than the c-section) and because I had recovered quickly from my first, I opted for a second. My birth experience for dd was AMAZING, even though she was a c-section baby. I was able to hold her and nurse her and admire her within 15 minutes of birth and had very little interruption from the nurses. She nursed beautifully, and we went home the next morning with minimal pain meds.

I have to say, I am really tired of people thinking that its not a 'real birth". My MIL tells me that I am "to posh to push", which is hardly the case. I was young (21 when I had my second), uninformed, scared -- these are not excuses, but I am always forced to justify my second c-section to people (not on MDC, to friends, family etc).
It does not matter HOW the baby was born, as long as its healthy thats all that should matter.

If we ever decide for a 3rd child I will most likely try a vag. birth, but if it doesn't work out, I am not going to stress over it -- the end result is still the same to me

[Jannah6]

Hello Ladies,

I had my 2nd c-section on 1/20/09, 2 hours before my 34th birthday. I went into labor(actually had labor pains for about 10 hours) and my DD was born via c-section at 37 weeks & 2 days. The recovery is not as bad as my first c-section:. The Dr said the the procedure was very intense because I had a lot of adhesions and fibroids all over my uterus. she said that my tubes had so much scaring that she doesn't even know how I got pregnant. She said that it's too risky for me to have any more DC. I didn't sign for the papers for a tubal and now the Dr said that it's too risky to cut me again. She said that we'll see in 6-12 months, maybe I can get the tubal through a vaginal procedure.

I want to thank you ladies for all of your advice and support during my pregnancy.