Shellac

[13green]

Silly question... My mum's booked me in for a shellac manicure & pedicure the day before my planned c-section. Lovely gesture but am I right I'm thinking I'll be made to remove it for theatre? I had nail polish on when I went into early labour and delivered my first, no one mentioned it then but shellac is thicker so maybe it'll interfere with the monitors?!

I was made to remove mine for a spinal. See if you can have it afterwards?

Yeah your best to cancel. Nail varnish interferes if they need to monitor your oxygen levels so I imagine Shellac will be worse. If you feel bad about cancelling just check with your hospital consultant and see what they say, at least then you can say to your Mum that you've checked and it's not allowed.

I was told as long as there was one finger or toe free it was okay. I just had my hands shellacd and left my feet free

The only monitor that it can interfere with is the sat probe (oxygen saturation monitor), which shines a light through your finger to detect the colour of your haemoglobin. If it’s going from red to blue-ish it means your oxygen level is dropping.
Obviously it’s important that we monitor this during your op, but we have a differently shaped probe that we can stick on your ear lobe instead.
In your case, it depends entirely on whether the theatre team are flexible, and willing to use an ear probe, or a bunch of bureaucrats who will insist on removing the shellac from one finger to stick the sat probe on!
I’m a recently retired anaesthetist, and was always happy to use an ear probe - some frail elderly patients have such cold fingers and poor circulation that the finger probe wouldn’t work anyway.
Whichever hospital you’re being delivered in should certainly have ear probes available- you may just have to ask for it if they’re being awkward with you. Good luck, and I hope all goes well!

For my EMCS the midwife was furiously scrubbing at my toenails whilst being wheeled in. For ELCS they gave me a leaflet specifying no nail varnish or make up.
There'll be a lot of debate on here about whether the monitor might work etc but personally I wouldn't risk safety. Or they might send you home if it's an elective.
Get it done afterwards.

Thanks everyone! I'll probably just reschedule it for after. :)