Emergency Caesarean - what happens?

[Stargazing]

call me paranoid but this is my worst fear. Birth of dd was beautifully to plan - at home, in water etc - and with ds on the way, can't help but fear that I can't possibly be lucky twice. So, if any of you have had an emergency C-section - how was it? What happened, and was it terrifying?

My dd1 was born by emergency CS. They had already given me pethidine and an epidural and they just upped the dosage a bit. Unfortunately, as the numbness spread upwards, I panicked and they put me right out. I was very unprepared though and really not clued up in any way.

how much warning did they give you? and were you in any state to take in what they were telling you?

I was not in a good state due to the drugs. Seemed like a sudden decision to me. Happened because dd1 was breech but nobody realised until I was well into labour, then she started to get distressed.

I got about 10 mins warning. It wasn't great but it wasn't too bad either.

What really helped was having been into the operating theatre when we did our ward visit so it wasn't my first time in that room.

The worst bit was just lying feeling powerless.

I didn't feel or see anything until they lifted my son up. My husband held my hand throughout.

Hi Stargazing,

Just keep your partner close and ask staff to explain things slowly and clearly. I had emergency c with my ds 15 wks ago which was a bit of a bummer as I started at home in a birthing pool!

The amount of drugs I was given made it difficult for me to fully understand but the midwife was excellent and after consultants, anethstetists(sp?!) surgical staff spoke to me he would ask me if I was ok with what they had said and would put it into 'normal' speak.

The most important thing to remember is that they don't do them lightly, I was very lucky if I hadn't stopped dilating and been taken to hospital they would never have found out that ds had a knot in his cord and normal birth would have cut off his oxygen supply.

If you aren't too out of it (I didn't know my own name and was so tired I nearly fell asleep) ask the surgeons to tell you what they are doing and make sure they give you your little one as soon as possible.

ps be prepared for a catheter, I'm sure they told me at the time but it was a bit of a shock to find it the next morning!

Agreed re the huge number of people & the shaking.

BTW it was not terrifying -a relief.

i had dd1 by emergency c-section. I had an ultrasound at about 9.30am and they realised she had not grown in two weeks - dopplers were poor. I was just 38 weeks then. THey took me upstairs to monitor dd1's heartbeat and when dd1 moved and they couldn't get her heartbeat again - they decided then and there to do the c-section.

She was born at 11.08am. They simply prepped me for surgery - midwife doing prep like shaving, catheter etc whilst anaesthetist is speaking to me and getting my signature for surgery then the surgeon came in to tell me what was going to happen.

They wheeled me in - put in the spinal block and away they went.

This was all done in a spirit of calm and so on even though dd1 was at risk ( she had an antenatally diagnosed heart defect) and was taken straight to ICU I never felt scared or worried about me. But the atmosphere in the theatre was calm and relaxed - I was chatting with the surgeon.

I was totally anti c-section and so on. But had read up on them just in case. I was in a bit of shock - going from appt for ultrasound and my day planned for other things to having dd1 - had nothing but a handbag at the hospital.

It did seem all surreal - to the point that as they were wheeling me into theatre I am thinking that I cannot have the baby today as I had shopping to do and bills to pay and go to the bank and finish packing my bag etc.

I can remember that the surgeon told me that it would take 4 minutes for the baby to come out once he started cutting and I can remember looking at the clock to make sure he was right iyswim - probably something to do.

Whilst it was all very quick and a shock and knowing I was so anti surgery - only cause I am a big wuss when it comes to pain etc - first time I had been in hospital etc - i knew that the c-section was what it took for dd1 to be here and to be born as safely as possible - without it and the ultrasound she would have probably died in utero.

I have now had three sections and had no problem recovering after any of them. In talking with friends who have ended up with c-sections the best thing in terms of preparedness was to accept that it was a possibility and not to be afraid iyswim.

hope that helps.

God yeah forgot about the shakes, also remember waking up and dh asking why bed was vibrating I said maybe it was a special bed so we moved the covers and there were these leg pads which where vibrating.
Asked m/w and he told me they were to help with circulation after the op, only on for a few hours but felt v. strange!

thanks guys. I know that I'll probably be fine, but you have these moments of irrational fear, don't you. Like, the universe won't consider me worthy of two births going the way I want them to.

I read this thing once about some Chinese tradition of walking through the rice fields in a good harvest shouting "Bad rice! Bad rice!" - so that the gods wouldn't notice that the crop was good and take it away. I think that this may become my mantra. Can you imagine - in labour - "huff, puff, huff, puff Bad rice! Bad rice! huff puff, huff puff ..."

for me - I had not been through an exhausting labour beforehand and so perhaps that also made the difference.

As someone else said there does seem to be a lot of people in the theatre - some for you and some to care for the babe as well as the surgeon. For no1 - I just focused on dh and talking with him.

By the time I got to no3 section - I was watching everything they were doing in the overhead lights and it was amazing.

oh yeh - the feeling when they are getting the baby out - was described to me as ' someone doing hte washing up in your tummy' and that is sooo true - as Kerry mum put - the tugging etc.

try not to worry too much. Only about 2% of "emergency" c/s are the "do it NOW" type. Most are the "we need to do this in the next hour or so" type ("emergency" just means unplanned) so you will have enough time to ask any questions you need to & prepare mentally so that you are comfortable with what is happening.

Mine was fine, the doctor fully explained why they wanted to do it, explained the risks & answered any questions & then got my consent. Then the anaethsetist came & got some details off me expalined what would happen during the spinal (I hadn't had an epidural, so they gave me a spinal block)

The the m/w prep'd me for theatre (she was a useless m/w, but that's a whole other story....)

Everything was calm in theatre, DH was with me & it was a much better experience than I imagined it would be (DH really enjoyed watching the op round the screen, but this is optional!)

I can imagine that a crash section under ga would be pretty scary stuff though

It's work reading up on c/s though, just in case, better to be prepared & not need it than the other way round.

I'd have thought your chances of an emergency cs are pretty slim aren't they? Having had blissful first birth? Or maybe I'm wrong.

I had a do it NOW emergency c/s for ds1, a 'I think we should stop and put you in for an emergency c/s in half an hour' for ds2 and a lovely planned c/s for dd1.

It's not ideal star, but some years later you realize it's all means to an end really. It's the baby you want, not necessarily the 'ideal birth'. So don't worry! Control the controllables, as a wise man once said.

i was given a 10 minute warning too. As was in labour for 17 hours after havin an induction....and i tried to push too but couldnt feel anything was happening but turned out that as i had a transverse pg, babys head was engaged but facing to my left and not straight on, also was back to back and her heart started to drop. Got whisked in, had her out (i wasnt prepared of c-section too as had it in my head that i was having a natural birth). Was in hosp for 5 days..was disappointed that i couldnt hold my baby as was far too sore!!...i had to get back on my feet after given 2 STRONG voltarol tabs as the morphine wasnt working. The staff and the women (i was on the ante-natal ward as no beds in the post)...loads of women were taking turns holding my baby and i felt such a pride and joy of my mum.......oh i had the baby on the friday at midday...it wasnt till Tues i woke up..after being pumped up with drugs!!....i was ssooooo knackered. And now here i am...with a nearly 3 yrs old daughter which i was go thru it all again....hard bloody work though as i was sssoooooo sore for the first 9 months..

Good luck anyway xx

i was given 2 STRONG voltarol tabs in the morning and 2 again at night (i till left the hosp)...when baby wakes up in the middle of the night and for me to lift her out of the cot....they was hard!...

Wasn't terrifying, Stargazing, more of a relief.
24 hours into labour....baby became distressed, meconium in waters....lost the trace...rushed to theatre.
All a bit surreal, and luckily a happy ending.
I think your brain sort of adapts and allows you to cope.

Hey Stargazing, it isn't just about being lucky - a planned homebirth after a previous straightforward birth puts you in the lowest risk category anyway. But yes, the unexpected can always happen and thats why your midwife is trained to spot the unusual and advise you to transfer to hospital before it becomes a dire emergency.

I've had 3 caesareans, all classed as emergency but all very different. First one was really a failure to progress/doctor got bored waiting. It was the Sat night before Christmas and they had a party to go to, I kid you not! They told me the baby was in distress because there was old meconium streaking her waters when they broke them (trying to get labour going). I was wheeled down to theatre really fast and it was a GA because 15 years ago they didn't do spinals as much. It was frightening, even more so for my partner stood outside as no-one bothered to tell him what was going on in theatre for nearly an hour.

Second one, I was induced after a niggly pre-labour and after my waters had gone for more than 24 hours because that was their policy and I didn't know any better. Now I'd have told them I'd wait and gone home but I wasn't informed or assertive enough. Induction went through all the "cascade of intervention" through to failed ventouse and another caesarean where they thought they'd nicked my bladder and I was 4 hours on the operating theatre table. That doesn't happen a lot and it was remarkably calm really and I chatted and dozed through it. Again my DH was really upset by it as he got sent downstairs with the baby before they realised there were problems so he spent 3 hours not knowing what was happening with me and trying to console a screaming baby and fend off midwives wielding formula!

My third caesarean, I was told I had pre-eclampsia at 40 weeks, spent the night in hospital and then had a really calm and joyous caesarean the next day. It was as good as, for me, a caesarean birth could be but I always felt really sad that I hadn't given birth. But in terms of your question, it was calm, friendly, intimate, we had our own music playing, I breastfed in the recovery room, it was good.

And then 4 years ago, not intending to have any more we had a bit of an accident, and the moment I saw the blue line I was determined not to have another caesarean.I hired an independent midwife and had a home water birth which was fantastic :-)

Caesarean is not all doom and gloom, it does carry risks both to mum and to this baby and future babies and it does take longer to recover from but people who feel they've been involved in the decision and that it was the right one tend to feel much better about it.

Try not to worry, its good to have thought about unexpected outcomes but you are doing all the right things to try to avoid them. If you want more info there's a great book called "Caesarean Birth, Your Questions Answered" which you can get from NCT sales -www.nctsales.co.uk.

I think you are really wise to do some research into emergency sections. I didn't and had DC3 by emergency, having previously had a normal hospital birth and a homebirth. With DC3 I started regular contractions at home, but when the MW assessed me the baby's heart rate was 175bpm when the normal range is 140-160. The MW persuaded me to go into hospital and the heart rate had increased on arrival. Within 15 minutes I was in the theatre as they were concerned about foetal distress. DD was fine, they didn't know what had caused the distress although the cord was around her neck. They said it could have been an infection.

I had read very little about CS, and was pretty terrified that it was all going horribly wrong. My only reassurance was to keep repeating in my head the names of friends who had survived sections. I had the shaking too which was scarey. The worst bit was the recovery especially day 2 when I felt physically and emotionally traumatised.

I feel fine about it now, especially as DD is a beautiful and healthy little girl, but there could have been a completey different outcome without the section.

You will be absolutely fine Stargazing.

I wish I had known about looking at the the operation in the reflection of the light Might have made feel a bit more involved in what was going on.

Maternaltouch, would you mind talking to me offline? I have a VBA3C client, due in 8 weeks, who I'm supporting and encouraging and she would love to hear from others who have planned a VBA3C.

Please drop me a line at klaw at macmail dot com

TIA!

If it's a genuine emergency, then it's unpredictable and there will be nothing you can do do - i.e. don't beat yourself up about it and be grateful there is a relatively trauma-free birth that will save your baby's life.

Cascades of intervention are something, I think, you can avoid. Birthing at home, refusing an induction I think may greatly, greatly reduces your chances of a CS?

Rofl at "Bad rice"! You can yell anything in labour though and they just humour you...

Remember that an unplanned CS doesn't have to be a horrific flashing-lights emergency. I ended up with one after a long and very painful labour that was going nowhere - but it wasn't a mad panic, it was a calm decision. I was scared, but everyone was very reassuring and matter-of-fact. You have to be prepared with the anaesthetic and your birth partner has to put on scrubs, you are wheeled around and don't have a clue where you are, and suddenly there's are a lot of bright lights and people rushing around - but I had the midwife with me throughout, explaining what was going on and telling me what the surgeon was doing, when the baby was about to be born, etc which was a big help. TBH the whole thing was a relief after the labour i'd been thorugh.

Also AFAIK, second labour is often easier than the first so you have a very good chance of it all going fine.

oooh oooh KLAW, am very interested in your thread. Although only recently had DS2 by planned C-Section, (DS1 was Emergency C-Section) am now adamant that next baby I really really want to try VBAC. If millions of other women can do it, then I am sure I can!!!

Would be so interested in any VBA2C stories - infact I posted a thread a few weeks ago asking for positive experiences!