Assisted Labour or C-Section.

[dantiasmith]

I am 21 weeks and am under the consultant due to a neurological condition I have. Chiari Malformation if anyone wants to know. I have to avoid pushing and pressure as much as possible during labour. My daughter is 8 and I hadn’t been diagnosed at the time so I had a normal labour with her and my condition significantly got worse due to it. I have a choice. I can have a C-Section or an assisted labour. However the option is not that simple. Due to my condition I can NOT have a spinal block or epidural you could normally have with a section. I would have to do with a local anethestic 😱. In addition I am horrified by assisted labour. My niece was born with forceps and had black eyes and dents in her face for months! I am so scared about damage to my baby. I do not care what I have to go through! Help! Can you tell me your experiences and offer any advice? Thank you

Erm why can't they do a section under general anaesthetic?

Are you sure they said local not general? Local really doesn't sound right......

You’d have a general anaesthetic not a local for a section?!

It sounded weird to me but even my fella sure she said local. I was also thinking assisted would only help at the point of giving birth surely not all the labour before hand. If I push to hard to go for a poo I can pass out so pushing a baby out isn’t going to help me in anyway!

Might be worth asking your doctor again as that doesn’t sound right. I expect the local anesthetic will probably be if you opt for the assisted delivery but that they’d give you a general for the c-section. Given the choice I’d opt for the section over forceps any day, especially if they can’t give you an epidural for the assisted delivery but mostly because of the kind of injuries forceps can cause.

In normal circumstances I’d go for forceps over a section - I had forceps with DS and my recovery was MILES easier and quicker than several friends who had sections.

My from memory you still have to do a fair amount of pushing with forceps! You don’t just lie there and they pull the baby out... so in your situation it sounds like a section might be the best option. If it’s planned you will also have the opportunity to get plenty of support in place for when you get home etc

I’d go for a c section under general anaesthetic if I was in your shoes.