Did you have an emergency Caesarean?

[knittamerrykid]

I'm looking (out of interest) into the reasons why emergency caesareans are performed, specially in the UK, and would like to hear your experiences, I'm particularly interested in the chain of events leading up to it.
Thank you.

I was induced with my first (awful experience but no CS)and had a lovely home birth with my second with an independent midwife. FWIW, I can't comment on EMCS but my family (and my DH's) also live abroad and the home birth caused some raised eyebrows. The way I sold it to them was to make the point that care in NHS hospitals can be pretty awful.

I had a crash c/section as dd's heartbeat dipped to 60bpm 7 hours into an induction which was necessary because amniotic fluid had been leaking for 5 days. Dd and I had to stay in hospital for a week after the birth. I'd had a text book pg with no problems whatsoever.

I had an emergency c section with a general anaesthetic which was very different than the home birth I planned!

My pregnancy was normal until 30 weeks when my blood pressure began to rise.

By 34 weeks I was admitted to hospital and put on bed rest as I had pre-eclampsia.

I was induced at term which lasted 3 days and did not work.

I was eventually given an emergency section under general anaesthetic as my blood pressure was so high my body was giving up.

My baby was fine but I spent the next 2 days in intensive care and had to have a blood transfusion.

This experience has left me very traumatised and I will not be having any more children.

I had em CS after 19 hour induction because apparently DS heart had stopped. He was born with an APGAR score of 9, so I suspect someone's monitor wasn't working properly...
Still, better safe than sorry and I was exhausted.
Consultant said his head was sideways and he never would have come out naturally anyway. Could have done without the drama and last minute general anaesthesia though!

Ahhhhh that makes much more sense!!!! GA not G&A, my fault.
santa sorry it's me whos not been around...
fruitful I understand, it's been great for me to read all these stories as the outcomes have put the whole thing back into perspective. Thank you.

I had a natural labour but ds got stuck at the pushing stage. He got into distress, they tried the ventouse with no luck and decided that as he wasn't moving down he needed to come out NOW. There was lots of running around and shouting in Spanish (er, it was in Spain) and lots of drama but they were super quick. From the annoucement that they were doing a section to seeing ds coming out was about a minute and a half. ds was entirely unperturbed and wondering what all the fuss was about.

Scared me a bit - I think I'd want to be very sure of any measurements and monitors before opting for home birth personally, but if you have all of that why not!

Schroedinger I might end up doing just that, although I do hate badmouthing the nhs, and would worry them if i ended up there anyway, so it's tricky.
princess so sorry to hear that.
Ushy I'm trying not to see the probable transfer as an unlucky outcome, but I want to try at home, as relaxed and away from the birth being a 'problem' as possible.
Anything can still happen and deem me high risk in the coming weeks, so I'm not being stuborn about anything, just want to know as much as possible so very little surprises me and scares me, I'll have enough of that with the new sensations and pain...

I had an emcs. I was overdue at 41+3 and went in for induction. 3 pessary gels and synctocin gel and 50 hours later I as still only at 2cm dialted, so has a cs. As it turned out due to her position it is very unlikely DD could have been born naturally anyway.

I had EMCS due to severe PET at 34wks.

Am halfway into second pregnancy now, would love to have HB as it would be the most convenient option and being in hospital is horrible.

My other idea is to stay at home as long as possible if I do go into a natural labour. Am against being induced, last resort would be ELCS.

My OH is a pharmacist though so is more inclined towards clinical method of doing things and being paternalised by loads of idiot doctors... so unlikely to get what I want.

Pre eclampsia
Induced @ 36 weeks
Foetal distress

No time to administer epidural etc, so Emerg section under GA

I planned a home birth with ds, but when my waters broke (two weeks early) and the midwives came out they noticed meconium staining and said I'd have to come into hospital and probably be induced (I didn't have any contractions). So we spent the next few hours getting kitted out for the hospital and doing stuff that we hoped might help get things going. When we arrived several more people felt me all over and opined as to ds's position (had already had the midwife and her trainee doing this at home), checked his heartbeat etc and generally ignored dh and I totally. So having ascertained that ds was in no risk we said we'd like to go home until labour established (they wanted to induce me, something which we wanted to avoid if at all possible). So then they agreed to do a scan, and found that they had all been wrong about his position, and he was in fact transverse oblique (and had been for so long that he'd grown a bit sqiffy). Suddenly the consultant appeared and it was off to the theatre.

It actually wasn't a bad experience at all, just a bit surprising. But just to show that if there are risk signs they will send you to the hospital in any case.

knit I see what you mean. I think the NHS is doing a remarkable job given how underfunded they are and are good on life and death stuff - it's just that they are not at all touchy feely. As others have said on here, successful delivery is all about feeling safe and following your instincts and I found that was much better achieved at home.

I had a normal, healthy pregnancy for DD1. Labour started bang on time but then stopped and started for a week. Once it really got going it went on for many hours but at no stage did DD's head engage. Eventually she was in distress (meconium in the waters and falling pulse) so we were sent for an emergency CS.

Subsequent scan revealed no physiological cause and the problem was put down to my 'incompetent contractions' - nice to know it was my fault.

My experience of labour in hospital was that things steadily went from bad to worse. We were left alone for long periods with no one checking in on us. The midwife who was assigned to us was a loon who when she did come in would sit in a corner singing to herself (not joking). It was only after a shift change that I was told I was using the gas and air wrong and was shown how to use it properly. The oxypoxywhatsit drip didnt work properly. The foetal monitor didnt work properly. DD was too high up for a scalp monitor to be attached at all. I remember the room filling with more and more people who didnt seem to be doing anything. It was only when the consultant came in that things really got sorted and the faffing stopped. I was not left with a high opinion of the hospital midwives.

Subsequent DCs were born by elective CS. DS's birth was really lovely. All calm, we sat and read the paper and checked that we were really going to call him what we had planned (his scan pictures left us in no doubt we were having a boy).

If a CS is on the cards then I would suggest just going for it. A long labour is not good prep for surgery. For me the recovery after the planned CS was much easier than after the emergency CS. At the end of the day the birth is just a way of getting here.

May the gods look kindly upon you!

I think because the NHS don't have enough midwives atm, they employ them all, regardless of their abilities. One or two we met were just fantastic, some bloody awful and should have been struck off (that was in 2 different hospitals, 2 v different birth.)

Luck of the draw!!

I had an EMCS with my first. I was induced, amniotomy, epidural 3 hours later. Decelerations quickly followed the epidural. The hospital midwife was really on the ball and really did her best to sort things out. However, regardless I found the whole experience pretty stressful.

Labour just gone I went into labour naturally and for first 12 hours was lovely. I had no interference from hospital staff and the labour really progressed well even though I was in hospital. After 12 hours lots of interference and a further 3 hours of labouring which suddenly became really bloody painful. Delivery was assisted due to umbilical cord being wrapped tightly around neck.

Part of me wonders how much of the things that happen during labour are iatrogenic (hospital induced). To me it seems too much of a coincidence that the minute staff start getting really involved things go wrong.

I am really frightened of induction, and as ali says, of the real effects of interventions. I am not in denial that at times it is a lifesaver, and I am very glad it is there! but most horror stories I've heard involve induction/augmentation, wonder why?

Thank you suzy, but how can you have incompetent contractions? hehehe,as if you'd been able to make them better?

Thank you all again for all the posts!

Induction does work well for some people. For some people it really is a case that all they need is a little something to kick start labour and off they go. I have a friend who was induced twice and delivered naturally twice.

I am going to say something that sounds really cliche and before I had second labour I would have hit anybody that said it, but the more frightened you are the more it will hurt. For my second labour I did hypnobirthing. The philosophy behind it is that your baby and your body know what they are doing and they should be allowed to get on with it. I can't begin to tell you how much it helped. For 12 hours I was completely focused on nothing and all I thought about was my breathing.

I think what I am trying to say is, if you need to be induced you will need to find a way of preparing yourself for it and develop coping strategies (even if it is knowing that you want an epidural from the outset).

BrandyButterPie - I had no pain relief either. I hadn't done any ante natal - wasn't offered for some reason, I don't know why. Completely forgot about gas and air or would have done that. I did ten hours like that - It took about 3 hours to get an epidural once I decided I really needed one. And then it only half worked down one side so was a total waste of time. I didn't know there was such a thing as birth trauma counselling. The whole thing plus scubu was so horrific it did take a long time to get over it all. And the thought of ever doing pregnancy/birth again has always been impossible tbh. Getting a bit old for it all now anyways :) Thanks for sharing.

ds1 - nearly 3 weeks overdue, was induced, 24 hours later had emergency caesarian for foetal distress.

ds2 2 weeks early, went into labour (contractions 3 mins apart), kept stop starting so was induced - 25 hours later emergency caesarian for foetal distress again. ds2 spent 24 hours in SCBU, having lumbar punctures and various tests. We live a fair distance from the hospital which is why they wanted to induce me.

Both inductions were fine, although going from 0 to 100 with contractions first time round was a bit of a shock. Second time round I didn't know I was in labour as the contractions weren't what I was expecting having been induced first time IYKWIM! I

With both labours I wasn't fully dilated.

I was induced 4 weeks early because baby was failing to grow and I was quite ill with pre-eclampsia and a bad reaction to new blood pressure medicine. Emergency caesarian because his heartbeat went down. He was quite titchy and premature-looking, but did very well once he was outside the womb: it was my body that wasn't a particularly good place for my babies to be.

Have no quibble with the decision and was not particularly stressed by it, certainly not traumatised. Tbh I knew I had enough medical problems before I even started trying to conceive to be lucky to have that baby.

And in fact I found the caesarian birth a very joyful occasion; the medical team were so positive and supportive and I was given every opportunity to bond with ds after birth and was encouraged to breastfeed him, which I did successfully.

Was induced with my first baby too, again due to failure to grow in the womb, but this time had a vaginal birth: she was that little bit older and able to cope with labour.

I did not find induction unbearably painful and went into labour quite quickly and easily on both occasions.

I had an EMCS and it was a really positive experience. I was induced at term plus 7 with mild pre-eclampsia, three days later there was still no sign of the baby and there was meconium in my waters and a suspicious CT trace so they whipped her out. She was absolutely fine. So long as you get a healthy baby at the end of labour, nothing else matters as far as I am concerned. It was hellish at the time, but I would gladly do it 1000 times over given that it brought me my darling daughter.

after an induction and foetal distress at 5cm.