Had my 34 week consultant appt at the hospital today. Lots to tell! First I went through my notes from the last labour with a midwife (she gave me the choice of that or making an appt to go through them slowly another time). It seems that I was right that I was basically ignored - they didn't even mention my requests for pain relief in the notes! But the reason was that DD was in substantial distress (more than I was aware of at the time) and so everyone was focused on her needs and mine took a back seat. I was in for the c-section within an hour, which apparently is very quick, and reflects how eager they were to get her out. So although it's not great that they didn't keep me up to speed, now I know why I feel happier about it - and they definitely did what was best for her and I've never doubted that.
Secondly, it looks like I'll be having a c-section after all. At my 20 week appt the registrar was pushing me towards a VBAC, which I had decided to go for. However the (more experienced) consultant today said the registrar had not taken into account the reason for my previous section when she said that. Apparently if you have a section because of an infection, as I did, the scar doesn't heal as well and you are at substantially greater risk of the scar tearing during labour (the other major cause of this being induction so that's definitely not happening!). She didn't have the stats but suggested something more like 1:50 rather than the usual 1:200. Because of all this, if I go for a VBAC I will be 'low threshold c-section' ie at the first sign of anything going wrong/ labour not progressing I'd have a section. Another factor is that I didn't dilate last time. I thought maybe this was down to the infection but she said that actually you usually find labour speeds up when there's an infection as the body wants to get the baby out. So that raises the chances of failing to progress this time.
All in all she thought the chances of me ending up with a section were high, and said I should book one in but I can pick any time from 38-41 weeks depending on whether I wanted to try for the VBAC anyway. I've booked in for my due date, and have another appt at 38 weeks, but on reflection I'll probably move the c-section to 39 weeks and not try for the VBAC. Recovery is going to be easier from an elective so it's probably better if I do that than risk another emergency one. Incidentally she said the reason it took me ages to recover last time was because of the infection - my friend who had an elective was back to normal weeks before I was!
So looks like Wee Dougie might be coming out through the sun roof like his sister after all! If I go for 39 weeks that's a week less to wait too.....