Ventuse-godsend or hell on earth?

[kylah]

I gave birth to my son 6 weeks ago and still shudder every time I think about the intervention right at the end in the form of the ventuse. I'd seen it explained and heard the pros of it, but quite honestly getting the bloody thing put on hurt more than contractions and pushing! Also after two attempts it popped off with such force the registrar fell off her chair. Also my husband, who had been a complete rock until then, completely went to bits at that point as he thought by the cracking and pop noise that either something in me had snapped or the babies head had come off or its neck was broken. Had heard this can happen, dont know if thats an old wives tail though! Where I live in Lincolnshire there has been complaints about the ventuse intervention and some mums are calling for it to be done away with as it seems to do more harm than good to the mother and baby. My son only had a sore head and little bit of swelling but I've seen babies that look like complete aliens theyre that pulled out of shape.

I think I was lucky with this one, both in that it was painfree (well, you know what I mean? The ventouse didn't seem to add to it) and that I had a good doctor.
My birth was V complicated in the end, or so they tell me I have blanked it from my memory and only remember a lot of messing around down there and then being given my baby. DH is the one who shudders when he thinks of it. But they managed to get the head out easily enough, only the shoulders got stuck so they had to be manouvered too. I do remember my placenta having to be coaxed out by hand though, that was worse than the ventouse for sure.

But, I think it is also location (our MW and our Maternity units are fantastic) and the doctor that was on call made all the difference. I wouldn't have thought twice about using the Ventouse again.

congratulations for having your little boy. I don't have experience of ventuse (it was the forceps for me) but do understand how it feels to look back with horror on the birth exeperience, so wanted to send sympathies.

God though, my DH would have gone to pieces if he heard a noise like that! Scary!
Sounds, and this is only cos of my good experience, that the registrar is to blame here?
perhaps?

Ventouse helped save me from an em CS I definitely didn't want (looooong labour, fully dilated + contractions stopped, ds becoming distressed). I had an epidural so felt no pain, and ds didn't have any effects that were definitely down to the ventouse - we had bf problems but that was largely due to bad advice in hospital.
I suppose it's like any intervention, there can be good and bad experiences of it (despite my positive exp I'd've rather it hadn't been needed).

Food for thought,thanks for your experiences and kind words. The registrar was good- as far as I can remember but I do think it boils down to the practices of the local NHS. Some of the nurses and midwives were excellent and some were chatting about their holiday time off whilst holding my legs in the air which in hindsight was out of order!!!!
Eventually he came out with the aid of forceps as the final push. I'd been in labour since 6:30am that morning and then had my waters broke at 4pm, then by 7:20pm he arrived! Mercifully short, but after 10 days overdue and being induced I was getting blood impatient!
Had G&A-which after being so quiet concentrating on breathing all day really loosened me up and I started singing 'Rocketman' and laughing my head off which my husband found very funny! Had a shot of pethadine which didnt really do anything but make me drowsy for half an hour and then wore off.
He was a big baby-8lbs, 13oz and just needed a bit of extra help as he literally just got so far down and he was just wedged in there! But not in distress or anything thankfully. I cant even watch a birth programme if it features a ventuse as I just cross my legs and feel sick!

My daughter is now 16 months old and thankfully happy and healthy, but we had a horrible experience with the ventouse.
2 failed attempts and eventually they gave up and used forceps.
The forceps just left small bruises on her cheeks, but the ventouse left a massive buise over the whole of the top of her head. When she was 4 days we had to be readmitted as the whole bruise opened up into a massive wound, which caused her to havea really high fever.
We had months of her having her head babdaged and weekly visits to the hospital, but the wound never healed. They concluded that the wound was the entire depth of the skin, and when she was 9 months old she had 2 plasitc surgery operations to remove the damaged skin from her scalp. She still has a bald area, and we go back to see the plastic surgeons on a 6 monthly basis, and they may do another operation when she is 3 to fix the hair situation.
I only found out after the birth that ventouse is favoured over forceps because it causes less damage to the mother, but it is actually MORE likely to damage the baby. i woudl never have had ventouse if I had known this - I thought that it was the other way around if anything!

Hello, I had a ventouse delivery and though it wasn't ideal, it did the job. DS did have a bit of a cone head afterwards, but this went completely back to normal after a few days. The reason for having ventouse was that he hadn't turned in the birth canal, wasn't coming out and I was getting v tired after 2 hours of 2nd stage. A downside was that from having a delivery room with low lights, our music and just us and the midwife it suddenly turned into something out of ER with about 8 people and bright lights and this freaked DP out a lot. Also had an episiotomy and when I asked how many stitches, the mw said "think of it more as a seam".

I was a bit worried about potential distress from ventouse so I took ds to see a cranial osteopath a couple of times when he was about 8 weeks which put my mind at rest.

I'm pg again and would probably have another ventouse if I got to the same situation.

They tried to use ventuse on me but didn't work so ended up with forceps. The ventuse hurt a hell of a lot more than the forceps. Horrible horrible things they are.

Oh tigerT that sounds awful. Poor thing. What a nightmare.

I don't remember very much about my ventuse devlivery, I had had an epidural, and was flying high on gas and air, so I don't remember very much about it. I had an episiotomy first which completely numbed me (well the local anasthetics did anyway!)so I didn't feel a thing.

But dp said once they used the ventuse the doctor was pulling and pulling with all his might, bulging muscles and everything, until ds popped out.

Poor ds, his whole right side of his head was one great big swelling, but luckily it went down over a few days and there has been no lasting damage.

But I really wouldn't choose to do it again.

i also had a ventouse with ds, didn't find it painful as had an epidural but so bloody invasive, all the clatter and the noise made me feel so frightened and i didn't really know what was going on. I know now that my baby was in distress and as already halfway out it was really too late to do an emergengy cs, so after 3 and a half years i have reconciled myself to the idea that it was all for the best. When i fell pg again with my dd 2 years later, I was terrified of giving birth, i thought any other birth experience was just as awful. As it happened though, my waters broke late in the night, an hour later i went to hospital, had 2 hours of contractions and a natural birth with just gas and air, and best of all, no stitches.
It's horrible to feel negative about your birth experience, but the medical staff can only do what they think is right at the time. If you'd had an emergency section you may have had more frights and complications. As your birth was only recent of course it is fresh in your mind and you have the right to feel disappointed but it will pass.I guess I'm trying to say,Time heals all wounds

I had a ventouse delivery with dd (now 4 yo) and like Foundintranslation, the only other option was em CS so IMO it was better than that. (Dd was in a weird contorted position, nearly 4 hours pushing, me falling asleep...not good really). I was so elated to be having a baby that I was just thrilled to bits and therefore could forgive the bits that weren't perfect!

I think what's hard to come to terms with is if you have an idea of how you really want your baby to be born, and then it doesn't go to plan and you end up having to have intervention which most women would really rather not have. It's good to have birth plans but you always have to be prepared to rip them up IMO and go with whatever's going t help the baby's safe passage into the world....

If it helps, with my ds (now 2 yo) I was able to deliver him without ventouse...

Its hard, because you go in having so many expectations and fears of giving birth, and even with the hindsight I'd still do it all again tomorrow because of the amazing little boy we've got and from what I read I didnt come out too bad.
My worst fear was having a cs and thankfully didnt have to go down that road. I've got great respect for all you that do have one, because I got so frustrated and upset for the 2-3 days I was walking about like John Wayne while my stitches settled down(episiotomy,which suprisingly didnt feel at all and all stitches disappeared fine)because I couldnt do anything and felt useless, God kows how you who have cs cope being laid up for weeks.
I've only been on mumsnet for a couple of days and the scope of experiences is just mindblowing, also makes a change from the being talked at by mother/mother-in-law! Thats another things, why has no-one on the planet had a worst birth experience or more ins and outs than your bloody mother in law!!