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<p><span style="font-size:medium;"><span style="font-family:calibri;">I’m not pregnant yet, but planning for baby #2 in the future. I would be interested to know your thoughts on my chances of a VBAC. </span></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size:medium;"><span style="font-family:calibri;">My son was born 8 months ago via C-section. It was a horrifying experience! <span><img alt="greensad.gif" src="http://files.mothering.com/images/smilies/greensad.gif" style="width:15px;height:15px;"></span>I felt like I had no control over the situation and that the doctors made me have a c-section. I had to be induced at 38 weeks because of high blood pressure. We knew the baby was going to be big because of ultrasounds, they thought he would be 9 lbs. I still wanted to try for a vaginal birth even though I had a “big baby”. I was given cytotec wed. night which didn’t do too much. I was already 2 cm. before the induction. Thurs morning, the dr. came in and broke my water and started pitocin. I spent the whole day in labor, doing pretty well without any pain meds. They kept turning up the pitocin, making the pain worse. By 6pm, my doctor was ready to go home and wanted to do a c-section, I was still only 3 cm at that time. I said no c-section yet, I want more time. So he left, saying I should try an epidural to see if it would help me relax. My husband and I decided to go with the epidural at that point because I was so tired and no longer able to tolerate the pain. After one hour with the epidural, I was 10cm. I was so excited thinking that this was going to happen, I was going to have a vaginal birth! They let me push for 2 hours, but the baby wasn’t coming down any further. I’m not sure how far down he came, but my husband said he couldn’t see the baby’s head when I was pushing. Dr. #2 came in and checked me and said the baby’s head was starting to mold, which meant his head was just too big to fit. I didn’t have enough knowledge to know whether he was just pressuring me or if the baby was really just too big. He scared my husband by saying the baby could get stuck and then could either die or be paralyzed. So with the pressure from my husband to do the c-section, we went ahead. The baby ended up being 10.5 lbs. so he was much bigger than we first thought. The baby has this bubble of fluid on his head from the spot where his head was trying to come through, which didn’t go away until he was 3 months old. The bubble was on the left back side of his head and about the size of a plum. The recovery from the surgery was not bad at all, I was up and walking around within 24 hrs. and never really needed too much pain medication. My incision did get somewhat infected, but nothing serious. It looks great now. </span></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size:medium;"><span style="font-family:calibri;">We will not be going back to that doctor or hospital, for additional reasons. Our baby was basically taken against our will to the NICU for jaundice, his levels never got higher than 17, he was given formula without our permission and stayed in the NICU unnecessarily for a week. It was the worst week of my life. <span><img alt="gloomy.gif" src="http://files.mothering.com/images/smilies/gloomy.gif" style="width:15px;height:25px;"></span> The NICU nurses yelled at us if we touched our baby. They gave him an IV, because I refused the formula, but then gave him formula anyways. They told us to leave several times, even though they have a 24 hr visiting policy for the parents. Several times we came in he was screaming and no one was caring for him. They threatened us with CPS if we tried to take him home AMA. All I wanted was to take my baby home and breastfeed him and cuddle him. I felt like a week of his life, the first week of his life was stolen from me. The experience still haunts me to this day.</span></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size:medium;"><span style="font-family:calibri;"> I’m not sure what the best route would be for the next pregnancy, ob, midwife, hospital or home birth. We are lucky in that we live in a big city and have many options available to us. My husband doesn’t want a home birth, but I’m considering it after my experience. Is that even possible? The only complications I really had with the pregnancy was the high blood pressure. It started at 24 weeks and went away a week after the baby was born. The highest my bp ever went was 160/90, so not too bad. The dr. said I have a 10% chance of it happening again. I’m 25 so I’m young and healthy. Although I did gain 90lbs. due to all the swelling. I was gaining 10 lbs./week at the end. I have lost 60 lb.s with 30 to go. My goal is to lose it all by my baby’s first birthday. We would ideally like to wait until our son is a year old to get pregnant again, but we are open to it happening sooner, so I would like to be prepared. Has anyone had a similar experience? Anyone have suggestions for avoiding a repeat c-section? Thanks! </span></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size:medium;"><span style="font-family:calibri;">My son was born 8 months ago via C-section. It was a horrifying experience! <span><img alt="greensad.gif" src="http://files.mothering.com/images/smilies/greensad.gif" style="width:15px;height:15px;"></span>I felt like I had no control over the situation and that the doctors made me have a c-section. I had to be induced at 38 weeks because of high blood pressure. We knew the baby was going to be big because of ultrasounds, they thought he would be 9 lbs. I still wanted to try for a vaginal birth even though I had a “big baby”. I was given cytotec wed. night which didn’t do too much. I was already 2 cm. before the induction. Thurs morning, the dr. came in and broke my water and started pitocin. I spent the whole day in labor, doing pretty well without any pain meds. They kept turning up the pitocin, making the pain worse. By 6pm, my doctor was ready to go home and wanted to do a c-section, I was still only 3 cm at that time. I said no c-section yet, I want more time. So he left, saying I should try an epidural to see if it would help me relax. My husband and I decided to go with the epidural at that point because I was so tired and no longer able to tolerate the pain. After one hour with the epidural, I was 10cm. I was so excited thinking that this was going to happen, I was going to have a vaginal birth! They let me push for 2 hours, but the baby wasn’t coming down any further. I’m not sure how far down he came, but my husband said he couldn’t see the baby’s head when I was pushing. Dr. #2 came in and checked me and said the baby’s head was starting to mold, which meant his head was just too big to fit. I didn’t have enough knowledge to know whether he was just pressuring me or if the baby was really just too big. He scared my husband by saying the baby could get stuck and then could either die or be paralyzed. So with the pressure from my husband to do the c-section, we went ahead. The baby ended up being 10.5 lbs. so he was much bigger than we first thought. The baby has this bubble of fluid on his head from the spot where his head was trying to come through, which didn’t go away until he was 3 months old. The bubble was on the left back side of his head and about the size of a plum. The recovery from the surgery was not bad at all, I was up and walking around within 24 hrs. and never really needed too much pain medication. My incision did get somewhat infected, but nothing serious. It looks great now. </span></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size:medium;"><span style="font-family:calibri;">We will not be going back to that doctor or hospital, for additional reasons. Our baby was basically taken against our will to the NICU for jaundice, his levels never got higher than 17, he was given formula without our permission and stayed in the NICU unnecessarily for a week. It was the worst week of my life. <span><img alt="gloomy.gif" src="http://files.mothering.com/images/smilies/gloomy.gif" style="width:15px;height:25px;"></span> The NICU nurses yelled at us if we touched our baby. They gave him an IV, because I refused the formula, but then gave him formula anyways. They told us to leave several times, even though they have a 24 hr visiting policy for the parents. Several times we came in he was screaming and no one was caring for him. They threatened us with CPS if we tried to take him home AMA. All I wanted was to take my baby home and breastfeed him and cuddle him. I felt like a week of his life, the first week of his life was stolen from me. The experience still haunts me to this day.</span></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size:medium;"><span style="font-family:calibri;"> I’m not sure what the best route would be for the next pregnancy, ob, midwife, hospital or home birth. We are lucky in that we live in a big city and have many options available to us. My husband doesn’t want a home birth, but I’m considering it after my experience. Is that even possible? The only complications I really had with the pregnancy was the high blood pressure. It started at 24 weeks and went away a week after the baby was born. The highest my bp ever went was 160/90, so not too bad. The dr. said I have a 10% chance of it happening again. I’m 25 so I’m young and healthy. Although I did gain 90lbs. due to all the swelling. I was gaining 10 lbs./week at the end. I have lost 60 lb.s with 30 to go. My goal is to lose it all by my baby’s first birthday. We would ideally like to wait until our son is a year old to get pregnant again, but we are open to it happening sooner, so I would like to be prepared. Has anyone had a similar experience? Anyone have suggestions for avoiding a repeat c-section? Thanks! </span></span></p>
