To think that people seem to think that a birth is only traumatic if it ends in an emergency c-section??

[anyoneelsedonethis]

I have massive sympathy for women who end up with em c-s after attempting natural birth.

Am I wrong in thinking though that unless you end up with an emcs people just dismiss your birth as non-difficult/traumatic???

Some people end up with horrible ventouse/forceps/tearing experiences but no-one really seems to give much sympathy for these. That is wrong I think.

I've had one em section one planned section and 4 easy vaginal births. I felt euphoric after the vag births and miserable after the sections HOWEVER I would much rather have a section than a horrific vaginal birth.

I've friends who are really messed up down below and I really feel for them

With reference to my question about wondering about why it is always called an "emergency" c-section really when sometimes it is clearly not really that....
I know that sometimes emergency c section is just that eg in the case of massive bleeding.

But there seems to be a tendency afterwards to stress the 'emergency' c-section part when in fact in many of the cases, it's a couple of hours later, the Mum is awake, there's nice music on, etc. (ie, dare I sare it, dare I??... not what I think of as a medical emergency.)

I give an example - a friend of mine recently was in labour for over 24 hours and was too tired to push and was then was told she was going to have to have intervention. She did not want forceps etc so asked for an 'emergency c section'. This was at 11pm. She asked that they wait for an hour so that her daughter did not have the same birthday as another of her NCT friends!!

But she says it was an 'emergency c-section'. I guess that's what they call it in hospital but to my mind, she has got a bit of a cheek saying it was an emergency when she asked for it to be delayed a while so she could choose to have it after midnight.

Do you see where I am coming from?

I kinda think you're splitting hairs Nic, if you can't physically give birth to your own baby and you need surgery to get it out then that's pretty much an emergency in my book.

Nic - get your point in a way, but think it maybe refers to those already in labour, as opposed to those having a crash section, which is really fast life and death stuff?

Even if you don't have the big rush like your friend, it's still not as easy as recovering from elective, as in labour your tissues are swollen, therefore not as easy to stitch up neatly, plus EC'S are statistically more likely to result in infections than electives.

I have to have an elective after a traumatic VB and aftermath last time and am really hoping labour doesn't kick off before my date, as I'd have to have an "emergency"... There might still be several hours to play with but infection was the starting point for why I can't give birth vaginally anymore IYSWIM.

2shoes - I think they actually use scissors for episiotomys. I've had three and never noticed the needle for the anethestic or the cutting - other things on my mind!

Nic - whatever inference you load onto the word 'emergency' is down to you. From a hospital point of view there are acute procedures and elective ones. There aren't 'real' acutes and 'pretend' acutes. Your own experience is very encouraging but I am sure that had a ventouse delivery not been a realistic possibility then you would have been off for a c section, scar tissue or not. You and your medical team made a choice yes, but that wouldn't have made your c-section an elective one had you had one iyswim?

Yes they use scissors for episiotimies, I will never forget seeing that Dr coming towards me with her enormous silver scissors!

chequers - I laboured on my knees this last time and didn't see a thing. I didn't see them with previous births either - must have had my eys shut!

Hi Oblomov, nothing really, just I thought it was a blatant appeal for coursework type information and OP kind of didn't bother to deny it...annoys me, that's all.
Hope little one is doing well x

c sections are graded one to 4. with one being a true emergency crash section. so anything that is not a planned and scheduled section is an emergency c.se, but there are grades of emergecny

I've pretty well done the lot: induction, vaginal, tearing (complete with infected stitches), episiotomy, pre-eclampsia, emergency C-section.

And none of it registers on the trauma scale compared with then having a baby that Failed to Thrive. That is the bit that I am still traumatised from, 12 years later.

NicDigby, it's what those sorts of c-sections are called. As opposed to elective sections where the theatre and staff are booked in advance.

They put emergency on your notes.

I see your point, though. When I had DS1 (emergency CS!) a lady was in the bed opposite who had been booked in for an elective CS due to a bad tear with her first baby. She had gone into labour before the date booked so had to have what was presumably labelled an emergency section, although so long as she didn't get to the stage of pushing the baby out I doubt there was any real urgency.

I have always wondered what to call my friend's emergency section - speed was of such essence that they clamped a mask over her face and she was out for the count in, well, seconds. Thanks to Mumsnet I now know to call it a "crash section." I wonder what the medical name for it is though?

balloonslayer - I think they mostly call it a crash section too!

Aha! Thanks.

Lobster 'as in labour your tissues are swollen, therefore not as easy to stitch up neatly, plus EC'S are statistically more likely to result in infections than electives.' that is very intersting. ds1 elective cs as recommended by top diabetic consultant.= fab. recovery great.
ds2, 9cm & pushing. blood sugars plummet and they lose trace of baby. GA. scar is huge. overhang bad. scar becomes infected. But still cs=fab and recovery good.
But explains alot, your comment.
fascinating.

Hi flight
we are doing good considering we are both up ALL night
kid you not.
how you doing ?

baloon / lulamama, is mine was is considered to be a 'crash' then ?
the atmosphere in theatre was very calm.

Not sure what the point of the op is but - I had what was to me a terribly traumatic labour with failed ventouse and forceps, followed by an emergency section. If anyone had expressed sympathy for the fact that I'd simply had a cs I'd have laughed them out of the hospital! My cs was heaven compared to all the other crap that came before it.

StarlightMcKenzie on Thu 27-Nov-08 19:58:31
"cory What happened to your baby?"

She was hypotonic and too weak to suckle and I was totally enamoured with the breastfeeding/feeding on demand. It just didn't occur to me that a baby that is growing weaker and weaker is not going to be able to demand things. Looking back at some of the photos I took of her then I can't see how I could have taken them and not realised what was happening. I was so convinced that if I only did what the breastfeeding books said, everything had to be fine .

Things came to a head one day at clinic when the consultant took off her clothes and I suddenly realised that she was turning into a little skeleton. He didn't even speak to me, just stretched out his hand to the phone and had her admitted to the ward straightaway. I thought they were taking her away from me. (of course they didn't, I got to stay too)

I did get a lot of support from the breastfeeding counsellor, but it was a long hard slog turning things round, involving syringe feeding and expressing foremilk and expressing hindmilk to feed in a bottle and all sorts. Every feed took an hour and I had to feed her every three hours and fit a dose of antibiotics in between.

The thing I remember most is the guilt. Starving my own child! And the feeling of rejection: I was overflowing with milk and my own baby didn't want it.

Eleven years later (!), I finally found out that being unable to suck was a result of her disability (Ehlers Danlos syndrome). But then that was only diagnosed when she was 8. By which time I had clicked up quite a bit of parental guilt over one thing and another.

sorry about hijack, folks, realise this was not a birth experience

Yes I'd say it was Oblomov. Much the same happened to my friend.

I expect the calm atmosphere was simply down to professionalism.

When I had DS1, we were amazed at how many people suddenly came out of the woodwork at three o'clock in the morning in what appeared to have been a sleepy and almost deserted delivery suite, and how nice they all were. I'd be pushed to be nice to anyone at 3am.

NorthernLurker that is what the doc said and did when I had ds

Flight, you are so wide of the mark it's hilarious

Cod, bumsex, the bat etc etc etc

Have had a forceps delivery myself following horrendous labour,but my emergency caesarian almost resulted in my death so I guess that was more traumatic,the only difference being I was awake for the forceps.
Have found it very hard to get over the near death experience though.

cory, I went cold all over reading your post. How completely traumatic for you. Many sympathies.