What to ask re c/section: appt tomorrow

[muminaquandary]

My brain has gone blank, so can you ladies help me please? I have requested a further appt with consultant re my elective c/s, and amongst other things wanted to discuss:

• Currently booked in at 29 August, but would like to wait until EDD, 1/9/06, in order that baby be at term & also because I don't want my child to be youngest in school year (DH thinks this is silly reason btw and that much nicer to have a short pgnancy ...)
• Pain relief policy
• Suturing methods and policy at the hospital, eg staples vs stitching, what kind of suture material
• Policy on skin to skin contact
• Who holds baby while mum getting stiched?
• Ask them to respect the fact that I don't want crappy radio on in the background during section (!)
• Getting b'feeding established: can I stay until it is established or do I have to go home after 5 nights (they have put this as usual maximum stay except for medical complications)
• Recovery period & any pointers for recovery

Can you think of anything else I should ask?

Take arnica (the strong stuff) for recovery.

Ask them to give you pain relief added to your drip and not up the bum (unless of course you don't mind them sticking things up your bum)

Ask them about private room if you are not an extremely deep sleeper.

When are visiting hours?

Don't ask them this, but smuggle in your own food because theirs will be crap.

Ask for a really cute anaethetist to give you the play by play comentary throughout the procedure. You know? They've made the cut. The baby's head is pretty far down so you will feel some pressure. The head is out... and so on. I had two anaesthetists and one gave me the play by play. It was fab.

Oh, and bring a portable cd player with your own music and then save the CD for a nice keepsake for baby so he/she can have the music he/she was born to. My DH made a CD, and shocking as it is, DS was born to "Jerk it out". Lovely.

lol at jerk it out!!

fwiw, I think that holding on to the due date is a good idea and ultimately, it is up to you! Would also strongly recommend arnica.

Best of luck, look forward to your announcement!

I will probably be electing to have a cs as well. Your list is very handy .

Some advice I got was to tell the staff to only put in the urinary catheter after the spinal is in. But you could remind them on the day itself.

Their policy on taking pictures
Possibility of dimmed lights
My previous scar did not heal very well, so I will be asking the surgeon to cut it out

sorry uwila plse tell me more re arnica, tablets, where to get it etc

and what on earth is jerk it out? (more of a Pink Floyd / classical music girl myself)

blueshoes useful point re catheter

I could put all this into the birth plan as well, I assume they pay some attention to it for an elective?

JErk it out is the lyrics if not the title of some tune that was likely in the charts May 2005. I know very little. My DH is obsessed with the charts. When the kids are teenagers he's going to know more about current music trends than the kids. I expect this will make him the "cool" dad in the class.

Anyway, arnica is a natural remedy to help bruising. Many a post section mumsnetters swear by it. You can get it a health food store. Get the strong stuff and eat it by the bucketload starting about a day before the section. It's like little tiny mints so not bad to have to eat. In fact, it's much better than the crap they serve you for food in the hospital.

Ask what supplies the hospital give you afterwards - e.g. I had to provide cotton wool & baby wash for bathing the babe as hospital didn't supply. Also all nappies, including the one put on straight after delivery (although I'm sure they would have supplied if I hadn't brought one.

Make sure they tell you how you get a cup of tea/breakfast. 2nd time around my hospital didn't bring any & didn't tell me where it was. I was in a side ward on my own & it was my 2nd baby so they kind of left me to it assuming I knew what I was doing !

This might be TMI but with my first section(emergency) there was a heck of a lot of bleeding when I first got up to go to the loo after about 8 hours lying down. So much I thought something had gone wrong. This didn't happen with my 2nd section (planned) so I know they're not all the same but if there was one thing I wished someone had told me it is that heavy bleeding (floods) after lying down all day after a section is ok!

Hope it all goes well.

PS. Agree with arnica - you can get it in Boots these days. the higher the number the stronger. E.g. Arnica 30 is stronger than Arnica 6.

All the really important questions seem to have
been covered.

The thing I found most helpful after
my c.section was all the lovely painkillers they gave me! I had the reccomended dosage but was still in quite alot of pain so I asked for more
pain relief. Was told that 'I shouldn't be feeling any pain'

I told them I bloody well was feeling pain & They (eventually) gave me more pain relief.

I have mates who have sailed through there c.sections, I didn't & I wasn't brave. I asked for every bit of help I could get, & continued
to get that help for the whole 6 wks after dd
was born

Only had to have extra pain killers for 2 days, then bog standard pain killers

But did have every willing friend/family member
at hand to help for at least a month. All I did for the first 4 weeks was b.feed her!

This is all good stuff, thanks people.

I also thought I would ask to meet / be given an idea of who is actually going to do the section / be in charge of the team, as normally this doesn't happen until the day. Will ask re private room as well. Don't think I need to actually go private as not too many complications thus far.

I think I am covered re stuff to bring for baby & food (have packed own mug & teabags already!!). MIL is at home when I am in hospital, specifically on food duty. Mum comes up when I get back for 4 weeks (altho I am graciously giving her the weekends off).

Re painkillers, flooding etc, all sounds very familiar to my first childbirth experience ...

Uwila - I think I can imagine what that tune must have been like ... Lordy, that is the sort of thing that I am going to BAN in theatre when I get my c/s done!!

Sounds like you have it all covered - but do ask them about their policy on wound drains, as my hospital's changed between sections and I got one for my second (not wanted or expected )
I took plenty of good lavender toiletries to counteract hospital pongs - Tisserand and L'Occitane are both high in essential oils and at that strength lavender has an antiseptic effect too.
Do you know what their policy is on amenity rooms - might be worth getting some kind of picture on whether they let mums recovering from sections have a side room free if no-one else needs it. Or you can opt to pay.
Plus was more privacy - minus was you are less on the circuit for ad hoc support on breast-feeding.

Oh, and provided you don't hate it, take some peppermint or fennel tea as well as ordinary - sometimes you can have awful trapped wind post-section, and the above can help with that, as can a few drops of essential peppermint oil (BP from Boots pharmacy counter) in warm water, but this really does taste blech. Works though.

MumInAQuandry
This is all good stuff, but please don't be disappointed/surprised if the consultant can't or seems hopeless at answering all these questions - quite often the most medical folk seem the least communicative IYSWIM - that's certainly my experience anyway ( after 2 sections).

They may not know who is going to do it on the day - it may depend on emergency sections/ shifts and all sorts of things.

Not trying to dampen your spirits - I fully support the idea of havign some control over your pregnancy and births - it's juts I can remember my own frustration when things didn't always go as I had planned (or 'briefed' !)

Let us know how you got on...

don't worry legacy I am a tough old bird (altho of course beautiful and fragant on the outside )

good luck with the appointment i think everythign has been covered here already, but was just curious as to whether having baby on 1/9 will really make any difference to what school year little one will be in, schools down here go back around 4th september, so wouldn't it need to be after then?

changeover happens on the 1st Sept, usually not dependent on the school term date .... unless you have heard different?

Are you sure that when he/she is 2 years and 1o months old you won't be thing damn I wish this kid could go to school. My 3 year old would have been much happier in school a year ago. But, she can't start nursery until October when she'll be 3 1/2 and she won't go full time until she is 5! And, let's not even mention how EXPENSIVE another year of childcare is.

uwila - you have a point there ..... but if I am going to be a SAHM and have no 2 in pvte school then childcare could be about the same ..... altho if I go mad and go back to work then childcare will be a hassle ...... aaaargh decisions decisions!! I am pg, I can't make decisions!!!

If it was me, I'd have that bub before Sept. 01 then if I wanted to hold him/her back, then I would. But the decision would be mine and not the school system's. If you have him/her after Sept. 01 and you want them to go to school earlier rather than later then you have the choice. I don't mean to confuse you further, but I definately believe keeping educational and health decisions for myself. I don't think the school system or the health services are better qualified to make these decisions for me.

Excuse my poor typing

"If you have him/her after Sept. 01 and you want them to go to school earlier rather than later then you won't have the choice. "

I think the school thing is an excellent reason for postponing the date. It's only 3 days later so not much shorter.

If your hospital is anything like the one I had ds in, you'll be begging to get out well before 5 nights are up. I was only in 3 nights and that was waaaay too much. I would go home and get a bf counsellor in if you have problems bfing - much more knowledgeable than a lot of MWs anyway.

not much shorter pg, I mean.

Agree with CM. I def would postpone the birth until 1st September - my only plan has been not to have babies with birthdays in the summer term - apparently "research' has shown that you can tell those with summerterm birthdays right through education in that they don't 'perform' as well. Makes sense as they could be nearly a year younger than some of their peers - big difference esp in Primary school (don't want this to start a new thread!)

When I had dd2 after having a section, I was put in a sideroom by myself - this was hospital policy.

Also, agree with bf support, get yourself armed with help numbers for the bf orgs like La Leche and ABM - and get the number of a local contact - way more useful than hosp.

Get some big over the bump pants - I sent dp to Mothercare for some - they don't rub against the scar. HTH

hope your appointment went well - one poster said early about the consultants not being able to give satisfactory answers and i found that as well so hope it was ok! one thing i would ask about and you might need to do this as you get to theatre for the section is about the stitches/staples thing - not sure about people on here but ive heard staples can be a bit nasty and prone to infection more than stitches - have had 2 sections myself and had dissolvable stitches each time as was pre empted and told to ask for them luckily and it was quite straightforward and none of the staple extraction or stitches being removed at a later date which made me wince at the thought of it!

re date for school i wouldnt worry to much - ive got dd with oct 3rd birthday who is starting reception in sept as one of the oldest and that can be as much as a problem as being youngest - you can at least defer the august birthday person to january usually (i also have ds b/day of 26th aug) my dd shoud have gone to school in and ideal world about 6 months ago as is desperate to start and needs the stimulation! good luck - let us know how you got on.....

hotmama - should i start the new thread or you?!
(im an august birthday as well )