One Born Every Minute - Who's had a Forceps delivery?

[Treadmillmom]

Mum of 3 fortunately all text book natural un aided deliveries.
I've just watched tonights One Born Every Minute and the forceps delivery, I am stunned!
The midwife seems to be putting her back into it, dragging the baby out, is that okay for the baby? How is it possible the baby isn't born with neck injuries?
Also mom, doesn't having 2 metal tongs inside you not shred and bruise you?
Tell me please, I was totally grimacing as if I were there.

[atrcts]

I had forceps delivery and it was brutal. I was shoved so hard up the bed that they had to pull me back down to continue!

Baby came out with purple rings on his eyes and was cut and bruised for weeks after. He was desperate to suck constantly and I think he must've had one heck of a earache poor little mite. I took him to a baby cranial chiropractor to help realign his spine.

It twisted my pelvis so much that it hurt to stand and took 2 years to heal. I also needed Physio to help tone up the anal sphincter and although it improved, it's never been the same since.

I have a medical condition (multiple sclerosis) which studies show increase the likelihood of an assisted delivery. For this reason, and because of the MS fatigue, I want a c section next time. I'd rather repair for 6 week than 2 years!

[sofiashewolfe]

Forceps are a good thing and there is a place for them in modern obstetrics , I had a very traumatic delivery with my first baby , and spent 31 hours in labour , as I had preeclampsia in the last three weeks of my labour , an induction was planned at 39 weeks , I was taken into hospital a day before labour was due to be induced on christmas eve , and promptly went into early labour on the morning of the 23rd December,
The first 12 hours was basically just spent walking around with the pain in my back peaking every five minutes , this set the pattern of the entire labour terrible back ache and no stomach pain at all !
About nine hours before the birth my waters went , and the whole labour changed metre from then onwards , the staff realised from the looking at the waters , they were a dark green colour , that my baby was distressed so a drip was set up to increase the contractions and about an hour before birth whilst nearly fully dilated a pudential nerve block was set up , forceps were used for the entire length of second stage and Ben was born 12. 47 pm on Christmas eve weighing 4,5 kilos nearly ten pounds , he was bruised heavily around the cheeks but over wise no problems at all , very glad I was spared the pain of pushing to safe guard both my blood pressure and a distressed baby .it was a mid cavity delivery i found out later.

[Memphisbelly]

I had forceps, I had black bruising on my inner thighs down to my knees, the woman doing it had one leg up on the bed and a nurse standing behind her and she shook he was tugging so much, the pressure was unreal (no pain due to mobile epidural) and I screamed 'your going to break my pelvis'

My mum has had 3 children and been at all her grandchildrens births but the trauma of seeing forceps made her so upset for so long after she needed some councelling.

I am glad I had it done and no lasting effects, My only problem was we went from pushing stage to 10 people in room and no one told me what was happening, they didn't have time to get me to theatre and did it in delivery room. They

[lady1980]

My second Cs last April , was delivered by forceps , her poor little face was so out of shape , the surgeon explained she was in a funny position,

[GalaxyInMyPants]

Samarcanda. I have no idea if you're a Dr or not but I'm 100% sure you're not an obstetrician. So you did what four weeks obs and gynae placement in your 4th year at med school? One week of which was spent on labour ward.

As someone who does work on a busy labour ward and has done for ten years and has taught numerous Drs how to conduct forceps deliveries I can promise you you're talking utter bollocks.

And a lscs is major abdominal surgery.

[lunalovegood84]

I gave birth 2.5 weeks ago and insisted on a c section instead of Kielland's forceps. I was induced at 14 days overdue. I got to fully dilated without much trouble, but baby was still high up in my pelvis and back to back. My contractions weren't succeeding in moving him much and the pain was constant and unbearable. It felt like my pelvis was splitting. After 20 hours of active labour, I was told it would have to be an assisted delivery and only when I asked was I told this meant Kielland's rotational forceps to turn him.

I had read about these forceps due to a terribly sad case where a baby girl had died after botched use during delivery. I refused consent and asked for a c section, which was granted. The emcs went well and recovery has been very straightforward.

I have wondered since whether I did the right thing - going against medical advice based on a tragic story in the media and a bit of googling. It turned out that against expectations, baby was massive - 11 pounds 9 ounces. It seems likely that this would have decreased the chance of successful use of the forceps and increased the possibility of trauma to baby. In any case, I would much rather have an abdominal scar which is healing well and has been mostly painfree, to risking my bladder, bowel and vaginal function with these forceps. Some of the stories on this thread are awful, and I'm counting myself lucky that this didn't happen to me.

[bronya]

My DS got stuck early on, and MW told me he was already too low for a CS so it was the big scary forceps only. When the consultant came in, I'd managed to shift him a bit, and was adamant they weren't coming anywhere near me with those things. I got him almost all the way out, but as he was crowning, he kept pushing himself back in with his hand, that was stretched out by his head. I ended up with an epi and forceps - they didn't pull at all, just held his head so he couldn't push himself back in between contractions. He was out in one big push and was fine. Wasn't very keen on the MW but the consultant was fantastic, and did a really good job.