Could you have coped with a 5 hour car journey 3 days post C-section?

[Daya]

I have a ELCS booked at a London hospital, I have for long and complicated reasons got to move to the North of England and have being told this morning that the hospital I am transferring to in the North will not give me a ELCS!

They do not do them on 'maternal request' and was advised that my only choice was to either not transfer my care from London and go to London for the ELCS or have a natural delivery at the new hospital.

I feel totally shaken up by this, really upset, I wouldn't be driving myself but would obviously have a new baby in the car with me. This is my first birth and don't know what to do?

Could you have coped sitting / laying in the back of the car for 5 hours post CS? Is it really unrealistic to plan this - at the moment I feel like I can't face having a natural birth now i've planned a CS for so long.

PS get in touch with Pauline Hull at www.electivecesarean.com
I've seen her lurking on here too.

She campaigns for the right for maternal requests and is keen to name and shame and put pressure on hospitals with shitty policies. Let her know which hospital you are dealing with. Its the only way to try and stop there being such inconsistency nationally.

A couple of things which other people haven't mentioned but which may influence your decision:

• whether you're bf or ff, most people's milk will come in around day 3 which is agonising. I'm not sure I'd want to be confined to a car & public spaces (like service stations) when dealing with that;

• newborns should not be in a car seat for anything like 5 hours. I think the guidelines are generally no more than 2 hours but for newborns it may be as little as 2 hours as the curled up position is not good for them (I think it can restrict their breathing). The way around this is if you get one of the carrycots which can be used as a car seat (I know Britax do one & others may too). On top of that, as other people have mentioned, there will be the feeds, nappy changes, general neediness of a 3 day old baby to deal with;

• you mention lying in the car. How would you manage that & still use a seatbelt?

This is obviously going to be a very difficult decision for you to make. Is there another hospital you could transfer to in your new area? Obviously most people go to their closest hospital but you don't have to &, given you're having an ELCS, its not as if you'll be travelling to the hospital in labour & just want to get there as soon as you can.

Thank you HmmThinkingAboutIt - just read your post. Ok will not give up just yet. I am feeling so belittled by the consultant I spoke to this morning I feel defeated but actually it's not on to be told at 36 weeks I have only 2 choices to go and do the car journey or have a natural birth when it's been an agreed CS all along.

I think you need to be ringing up and demanding a second opinion and explaining exactly what you you've just send in that little post including what you are considering doing now. You felt belittled and you've had the rug pulled from underneath you. Put in a complaint and say that after you left the appointment you've not been coping well and you need to see someone for a second opinion as soon as possible.

If you genuinely have tokophobia, this is actually, just about the worst thing they could have done as from the people I've seen post about it, one of the key things is about trust in doctors and midwives listening to you and you being in control of the situation. Certainly my greatest fear would be to at the last minute have doctors change their minds on me.

If you don't feel you are being listened to now it only adds to your fears.

If you have had it agreed previously, you have medical opinion to back you up before. Don't loose sight of that. They obviously felt you had a good case.

This consultant you've seen this morning, needs a good kick up the backside.

Daya Which hospital in the North east is it? I am at Darlington Memorial and am under consultant-led care with the consultant most amenable to giving ELCS- Pm me if any use to you?

I live in the north east - I had my son at the Queen Elizabeth in
Gateshead.

There are lots of hospitals between there and london - even Birmingham if you could get them to agree to have you is 3 hours not 5.

Off the top of my head you could try -

The QE in Gateshead
The RVI in Newcastle
Durham
James Cook in Middlesborough
Sunderland.

Have you tried to contact whichever of these aren't your local ones but are still close by? I think they are fairly flexible where you go.

I really feel for you but there is simply no way I could have managed a 5 hour journey. My babies were premature and an hour away and I could just about manage that after the CS but 5 hours sounds awful. Really hope things get sorted for you. x

Talk to your current consultant and see if there is anything they can do.

3 days post CS is too early to plan for such a journey. And you are of course expecting a good outcome for your baby, but what if you are ready to be discharged on day 3 but your baby isn't?

Ah yes, forgot Darlington!

Does Hartlepool have a maternity hospital unit? It's not that far comparatively!

I haven't heard great things about Hartlepool- but of course for every bad story there's a good one.

Bishop Auckland also- although that may just be birthing centre.
Northallerton Friarage- lovely small hospital but may not do ELCS not sure.

no, I was in hospital till day 5 anyway, but on day 3 was transferred from hospital to maternity unit, had to go by car, it was horrible, and it was only 20 mins.

I would stay somewhere in london for a couple of days

Bishop is just a MW led unit!

I have nothing but praise for the QE but I didn't have a C-Section, so a completely useless aside!

I wanted to add that I don't want you to think I was belittling your 'maternal request' issue - I totally agree with hmm that mental health reasons are just as valid as physical ones. Unfortunately mental health tends to get bundled up with social reasons like convenience and is dismissed.

I hope that you can speak to your consultant and get this sorted pronto. Hopefully your consultant won't be impressed at having his/her clinical judgement questioned and will be able to spell out/persuade the other hospital that the consequences of not having a cs will be their liability.

It is the RVI in Newcastle.

If anyone knows any sympathetic consultants in the N.E. please let me know.

Thank you for the advice - I was planning on breastfeeding, and hadn't thought of the DVT risk or the baby being in the carseat too long so that's more to think about.

Daya I have PMed you

Don't know if it would be any better, but would it be possible for you and your Mum to take the train up instead? You could book a table seat and would have more room? It would be easier to hold your baby and you could take lots of pillows for the journey?
Just trying to think outside the box in case your hospital says no.

I can totally empathise with you as my planned section with DS2 was because of a bad birth with DS1. I know what it's like to be scared of it.

(un-Mumsnetty (((hugs)))!
)

If you do decide to fight, you might want to throw in

a) total lack of continuity of care
b) complete disregard for why the request was granted in the first place
c) a failure to properly discuss why the decision was reversed and why this is in your best medical interests at such a late stage to do so
d) a failure to make sure you as the patient was happy with the decision and had adequate support, and instead left you in a distressed state
e) a total failure to understand the medical issue in the first place and what the concerns of someone who is suffering from fear of birth or more extreme birth fear actually are and how reversing a decision might have consequences for their mental health
f) a breakdown in trust between you and the healthcare providers treating you

Even if they do have a hospital policy, the fact this is at odds with the care you have been given up to now should be taken into consideration...

Hmmm you are my hero!

No no a million times no would I have been able to do a journey like that a few days after my emergency section. However a week after my vaginal birth I was driving myself.

Your body so your choice but maybe speak to someone about your fear. You are not your mother or your sister.

I have had 3 births and all have been completely different.

Because of my emergency section I couldn't have the amount of children I wanted to have due to complications. Are you prepared that this baby might have to be your only one?

I was only able to go home on day 5 too.

Hartlepool is only Midwife led. Reports are mixed I'm from Hartlepool and I'm getting a right run about but will be giving birth in north tees as hpool won't touch me.

Jaysis, what an awful position to put you in! I had a maternal request ELCS and it was out of genuine fear that I'd incur another injury to my spine after my first daughters birth in 2009. It was a battle to get the CS in thefirst place; then I had to get my head around how I'd cope during and post-CS. I couldn't have entertained a VB after it had been agreed.

Anyway, I was discharged 2 days post CS and I don't think I would have coped on a 5hr car journey. My hospital is across town - about a 30/40 minute car journey and felt drained when I got home. Stuff you take for granted like walking from the ward to te lift; walkingfrom the lift to the hospital entrance/exit; walking across the car park; lowering yourself into the car all take it out of you.

I was due painkillers, though, which I didn't take until I got home (60mg codeine/1000mg paracetamol) so I guess if I'd taken these things would have been easier.

If you have your ELCS in London, hang on in hospital as long as you can. Make sure you are on top of your pain meds on the way home. I wouldn't go for a VB just to stay local. Kick up a God-almighty stink and demand to know why they haven't taken the Nov '11 NICE guideline on board yet.

Is there not another hospital where you're moving to where you can get an ELCS?

Good luck x