C-section or natural ?????

[mumofmia]

Hello all,

I had dd by emergency c/section in Jan 05. My waters went at 37 weeks and in hospital found baby was breech so had c/section which went fine.
DS is due in 5 weeks time and I am going back to consultant next week to discuss birth. I am totally not sure what to do and have concerns for both options. If opt for elective section, recovery would br far more difficult as dd not walking or crawling yet so not lifting her etc is not an option. But if going for natural birth, will there be a risk of having emergency section due to scar still being fairly new. Being put to sleep for birth is the only thing I do not want

Has anyone had similar situation??

The fact that your first child was breech doesn't mean that your 2nd child will be too.
I had an emergency section due to brow presentation and at 36 weeks of my 2nd pregnancy I was told this was probably the way I carried so could possibly happen again. I chose an elective section but recovery was very long and difficult.

I'd see what the consultant suggests.

My hospital offers a lot of support for VBAC. I had C-section in October as my DD was breech, and when meeting the consultants I was told by everybody that I had an 80% chance of having a sucessful vaginal birth.
Would you OH be able to take a fair amount of time off after the birth so that you could have the c-section (if that is what you want) and look after your DD?

DH just started new job so unfortunately any time off he has will be unpaid so cannot afford for him to take too much as we all know how expensive new babies are!!!!!

If I were you, I'd listen to the consultant. If your baby is in the right position and there are no other reasons for a c-section (low lying placenta etc) then push for a VBAC trial.
TBH I recovered very quickly from my C-section (it was elective). I was up and about v quickly, though had to be careful not to overdo it. I don't know what an emergency is like, but I know somebody who has had both and found the elective a lot better to recover from (maybe because they hadn't had a long exhausting start)

I think anything over a year, and the scar is not considered to be that new. From my understanding, if you've had a previous c/s, you are no more likely to have an emergency c/s (and be under GA) than anybody else, so you should be awake for the birth. It apparently only takes as long to put in an epidural / spinal block as it does to give you a GA anyway, so you should still have the choice.

Personally, I'd opt for the VBAC - just because it's worth giving it a go.

I'm certainly no expert here but I would check out how long a 'trial of labour' they would give you. i don't know if these things are done by hours, eg "we'll let you labour 12 hours" or whether they let you go as long as mum and baby not distressed?

I think it's worth checking because it sounds like you didn't go through labour last time, so this might be like a first birth for you so may be long-ish. Therefore if they're going to stop you labouring after a certain amount of hours anyway, I think it sounds like you could in that situation end up with a CS anyway. I had a 'crash' CS so no experience of this but I personally would want to be assured that the hospital are prepared to let labour progress naturally without putting time limits on things - unless there's a clinical reason for that.

What do you think?

I agree with beasmum. Personally, I wouldn't want to go for a trial of labour that had any arbtirary conditions attached to it, like time limits, without good medical reason. Since my e-cs, I have decided that it is all-of-nothing: let me labour in peace, or cut to the chase and lift the baby out of me. JMO

when you're having a vbac, it's hard to do completeley 'natural' with no conditions attached thought. I'd love to, but reckon i will be monitored a fair bit. It is depressing to think I may well end up with another em cs. But I do want to be safe.

My consultant said to some extent they leave it up to you (slightly sceptical about this though), so you can decide how long a 'trial of labour' you would like. He also said, if there was progress, they would let you keep going more happily than without progress. (I made no progress in the 12 hours I was in hospital).

I'm with blueshoes, in that I am going to go for a VBAC, and unless something bad happens, I will let it go for as long as it takes.

the reason for a trial labour is that an prolonged labour can increase the risk of scar rupture, or so I was told.

I had an emergency section as dd1 was in distress, had VBAC with dd2 22 months later. Brilliant hospital and consultant. All went well but I had an episotomy as the labour wasn't progressing, recovery fine.

I would have found it very hard to have had a section and then not be able to pick up dd1 afterwards.

If you do a search on here under 'VBAC' there are tons of threads on this (and I am usually waffling on on most of them).

xx

Thanks for all of this. I would prefer VBAC is possible but do agree that this may be pointlkess if they put time limits on me. Surely you feel under enough pressure going thru childbirth without the thought of a little clock ticking away!

First time around I did labour from waters breaking at 5:30am until 6:00pm when I was 4cm. It was only then that somebody checked on me and found her coming feet first!

Going to consultant on 10th so just want to hurry uop and get it sorted. Its the not knowing wghast he will say that is really frustrating!