Is an ELCS easier than an EMCS?

[PSL1990]

If you've had both, did you fins your ELCS easier than your EMCS? In what way?

Yes definitely. Mainly I assume because I was well rested going in to ELCS. I'd been in labour for a long time before EMCS and was exhausted physically and mentally so not a great place to begin recovering from surgery.

yes!

elcs can be a breeze if all goes to plan. obviously there can always be complications but in theory it is all really relaxed. you aren't in labour, you get a simple spinal block and the whole thing is done and you have a baby to cuddle less than half an hour later. obviously the recovery is still significant but it is a lot easier.

with an emcs it is extremely stressful, you have probably been in labour for a while and the baby may be experiencing stress, the anaesthesia options are more limited and you may need a general that takes hours to come around from. the incision may be larger and less carefully made if speed was the critical need, which can make recovery worse.

I have had a successful VBAC which was a really valuable (ok painful at times) experience and I am glad I didn't go for elcs that time but the particular circumstances meant there wasn't a significant risk of needing a emcs predicted (although it was touch and go on that at one point). if there's a high likelihood that you'd need an emcs after a trial of labour then I would go for elcs definitely.

Not really. I found there were good bits and bad bits of both.

I think it's very personal. I've only had emergency sections but have had the easiest recoveries of everyone (both electives and emcs) I know even though my first was preceeded by 75 hours of full blown contractions in my back/thighs, no sleep, very little food, 2 hours of pushing and failed forceps. I didn't need any pain killers and was up, dressed and mobile really quickly.

I suspect it might depend on what issues you had post emcs, for example my consultant said that if you have an infection with your first section, you are more likely to have another with your second regardless of whether or not it's elective.

Had one EMCS and two ELCS as a result. Yes they are easier when planned, you aren’t exhausted after traumatic labour plus you can plan wha you need to. We still had nerves going into theater and I had horrendous shoulder tip pain with the last one but much easier than the horrific labour we had with the first which ended in emergency.

Yes! My two ELCS were wonderful, chilled out with music on and everyone was calm. I had a good night's sleep before hand and skin to skin straight away. I felt great after, recovery was speedy. We were home within 48 hours, up and around soon after birth. No problems at all. It was truly a wonderful experience. We were able to do delayed cord cutting, DH cut the cord, lots of pictures. The staff were amazing.

My EMCS came in-between those experiences. I was exhausted through blood loss (required three transfusions), had a GA so wasn't awake for the birth, didn't see my DC for three days as I was so unbelievably unwell. Last memories of being put to sleep were the sheer panic on everyone's faces. Physical and mental recovery was really slow, I struggled with the pain for weeks. DC was a 30 week preemie and my pregnancy marred by seemingly endless rare complications that ended in near disaster so my experience is at the extreme end!! The last ELCS with my third DC "healed" some of the mental wounds from the EMSC.

Well my ELCS was 4 years after an EMCS where DS was born blue, ventilated and then blah blah long stay, operations etc so my EMCS has some post trauma that affected me going into the ELCS in terms of anxiety.
EMCS I was pretty zonked from the sleep deo etc, and it was over more traumatic but the waiting around, anticipation etc made the lead up worse for sire