[Periwinkle]

Hi - I'm new here. I am 6 weeks pregnant with our third child -- I have two 2 year-olds (boy/girl twins). I had a c-section for my previous pregnancy.. dd (Baby A) was born completely naturally (not even an IV) but ds (Baby B) turned after she was born and became transverse; since they were born at 32 weeks, we couldn't wait for long for him to turn again before doing a c-section. I had spinal anesthesia and a low/transverse incision.. but during my c-section there were complications from a previous surgery. About 10 years ago, I had a dermoid cyst removed from my left ovary. It was large enough they did a low-transverse "bikini" incision to remove it; in fact, my OB went in through the same scar for my c-section so I wouldn't have to have two scars. Anyway, I had a lot of adhesions from that first surgery and my OB had to call in the general surgeon to assist -- bowel adhesions, uterine adhesions... basically, he said everything was stuck together. <img alt="" class="inlineimg" src="http://www.mothering.com/discussions/images/smilies/greensad.gif" style="border:0px solid;" title="greensad"> The incision he made was milimeters from perforating my bowel as a result. Anyway... after ds was born, they spent like 2 hours cleaning up the adhesions. I was given a double-layer suture and staples then steri-strips for the skin part. I know I still have adhesions (old ones and/or new ones) since I had them so bad last time and since I can tell again e.g., when I sneeze.<br><br>
I have a couple of questions...<br><br>
1.) What can I expect this pregnancy with regard to adhesion pain? What does an adhesion tearing feel like as opposed to the uterus scar tearing? I'm worried I won't know the difference - since both would be intense pain.<br><br>
and most importantly:<br><br>
2.) Does the prior abdominal surgery and especially the adhesions problem have any impact on my ability to VBAC successfully?<br><br>
3.) Does it impact the risks of VBAC? For example, are there any studies saying women with lots of adhesions are at greater risk for uterine rupture, etc?<br><br>
Thank you in advance. <img alt="" class="inlineimg" src="http://www.mothering.com/discussions/images/smilies/smile.gif" style="border:0px solid;" title="smile">

 

[stafl]

try <a href="http://www.adhesions.org" target="_blank">www.adhesions.org</a> for info. The answer to your first question is that pain is so relative to each individual woman there is no way to answer what you might experience. I think you'll just know it, deep inside, if something were to go terribly wrong (like rupture).<br>
the answer to both of your other questions is a resounding "NO"<br><br>
My personal experience was that at about six or eight weeks, I felt the tell-tale pulling, stretching, tearing adhesion pain (I also had previous abdominal surgeries, the first of which left me with severe adhesions, the second took care of them so I know what adhesions feel like, too). I was dancing with my toddler, when the adhesion pain became really sharp. Suddenly it felt like a giant rubber band snapped inside me, doubling me over and made me cry. Then it went away, and I wasn't troubled with anything of the sort for the rest of my pregnancy.<br>
I had a very perfect all-natural vbac with no complications.<br><br>
I know the adhesions didn't go away, since I am still having certain problems that I attribute to them (it can't be the endo returning, as my cycles have not returned yet), but they caused no problems at all during my pregnancy or birth.