Trial Labour....

[beckysue]

Hi,

Need some advice on Trial Labours. My hips are mis-aligned due to a car accident when I was a child and the docs are trying to decide whether or not I can have a regular birth or whether they should opt for an elective caesarean. They've mentioned that they may want me to have a trial labour and then perform an emergency section if a problem occurs. I really don't know how I feel about this, this is my first baby and I'm worried about the complications that could occur if they go down the trial labour route....what if the baby gets distressed? Is it safe? I think the problem is that I have been to see two different obs specialists and a hip fracture specialist and none of them seem to give a definite answer of what is best. If they don't know then how am I supposed to feel? Has anyone else had an experience like this?

You could look at every labour as a trial of labour, especially with a first baby. Basically until the day you won't know if it is going to work or not. It should not be any more dangerous to the baby or you than anyone else who gets stuck with a first baby unless they let you labour for days and days with obvious lack of progress, which they won't do. I'd say go for it because you might have a quick easy labour and avoid a cs and of course you'll feel so much better afterwards. Good luck

beckysue....a friend of mine on the June AN thread who broke her pelvis posted this thread a while ago. Some of the responses might help you.

Good Luck!

ditto what has already been said.

Also don't get scared by the term "emergency" c/s - all that means is it wasn't planned.

only about 2% are true "do it now", type emergencies, the remainder are "we ought to do a c/s within the next hour or so as things are aren't progressing quite as we would like".

I had an emergency cs 3wks ago as dd was stuck in the birth canal for 5hrs and couldn't be budged even with a ventouse! She was fine, I was at home for the labouring bit and she was well monitored and had no problems at all. There was no panic element to the cs at all, everything was calmly explained and carried out by a relaxed team of surgeons. There are warning signs to suggest lack of progress and they will act well in advanced if they feel it necessary.

thanks for all of your help. Just think I needed a little reassurance (learned quickly that consultants aren't the best at that!) AT the moment all you seem to hear about giving birth and the NHS are bad things, so its nice to hear some positive comments.