I have tokophobia (fear of childbirth) and had two ELCS. AMA

[FullMoony]

I've nc'd for this as want to be able to answer all questions fully, in order to help anyone going through something similar.

So I had primary tokophobia (the tokophobia was there before ever becoming pregnant as opposed to secondary tokophobia, which can occur after a traumatic delivery) and was able to have two elective sections on the NHS. This was at two different hospitals in different parts of the country (England). My DC1 is 7 and my DC2 is 4.

Happy to share my experiences to those interested.

@FullMoony I was terrified. The midwives reassured me I would be rushed in but that if I dilated too much I'd have to just go for it. I was so relieved it didn't happen.

Can I ask how you were able to choose to have GA as I have always being told they wouldn't do this unless it was a medical emergency as it can affect the baby and particularly its breathing? I would so much rather have GA as I have a severe needle phobia.

I was also going to have a GA for my second section because I couldn't stand a repeat of my first emergency one. I found getting them to agree was pretty painless. I asked the consultant, she said I needed to speak to a consultant anesthetist and referred me. We had a discussion and she said fine. The plan was that I could decide on the day basically when they were administering it. It was made pretty clear everyone preferred a spinal but at no point did they push it. I did end up with a spinal but that was my split second decision based on something the consultant who delivered dc2 said and they promised to knock me out if I started to struggle.

@Valand123 I'm in Scotland and happy to tell you which hospital if that's at all relevant/useful.

The consultant anethestist told me that if you take out the emergency cases, GA is no worse for the baby than a spinal and the risk falls more on you.