How to get an elective c-section?

[islabonita]

Hello there Ladies.
Is it really possible to get an elective c-section without any "medical reasons" such as placenta previa etc. Is total panic towards childbirth good enough reason to get one?
Is there anyone who got a c-section just because they felt like it was right option for them?
How did you get it and how difficult it was to persuade the consultants?
thanks

you are not constantly invaded in a vaginal birth, it is not neccesarily 'violent' . you will feel differently after the birth. but that is true of of however the baby arrives

as sheila kitzinger has written about a lot, birth is not simply the arrival of the baby.. it has an impact on so many parts of a womans' life and her psyche.

you won;t be the same after the birth, you will be a mother.. but it is not a given you will feel traumatised or violated.

am going to link to a couple of positive birth story threads

vaginal exams are not given frequently, usually one on admittance to labour ward, and then every 4 hours or so.. you can also refuse vaginal exams.. a MW can tell by the sounds oyu are making, how far apart contractions are etc how labour is progressing

why are you not able to have a VBAC jo71?

Re: the pain, I found the pain of a c-section much greater than that of labour. And labour pain stops. As soon as the baby is there, it's over. Whereas with the c-section, the pain starts when the baby's born. Wrong way round. I remember my gp saying that a c-section is the only situation when a person has major surgery and is then expected to get up immediately and start looking after someone else 24 hours a day.

Just because we want a second baby within the next year as I am knocking on a bit!!!! and my baba is only 5 months and the scar is new my specialist said a c-section would be my safest option

you can try for a trial of labour

odds of scar opening are really very small

there are some very useful sites that might help

you are not obliged to have a c.section

this is a good place to start!

Thanks I'll start researching i am limited to pain relief due to epilepsy so had water birth planned for pain anf g/a for delivery would love yo achieve it!

Klaw also has posted some great stuff about VBAC.. and has some fab links. i'll make sure she sees this thread

I had a terrible, prolonged labour with my first child - resulting in a whopping episiotomy and ventouse. However - despite bloodbath and major discomfort downstairs - once pregnant with child 2 (took me 5 years to pluck up courage again, mind) I was all ready for another crack at a 'natural' labour - only to discover at the 11th hour that he was an inverted (unturnable) breach and I ended up with a section.

I personally felt I recovered much faster from my section than the labour. Yes, it hurt and the scar takes time to heal (still looks raised and red after a year) - but I felt really brutalised by the episiotomy and I didn't feel that anyone understood how much pain I was in - they kept giving me codeine - which gives you consiptation, not what you need when you have been cut in two with a big pair of scissors!

However - although it was amazing to give birth to my son - I did not experience the same feeling of elation as with the first. The section is, after all, very clinical. Also - my spinal was quite high and my arms were numb - so I couldn't hold him properly for about 4 hours.

Other warning as regards section - it doesn't matter how fit/thin you are - you still end up with a kind of flabby shelf of flesh above the scar, where your belly seems to rest! Bikini days truly over.

Thanks that would be great

if i don;t see her on here today, i'll email her, jo71.

Yes, it hurts after a cs, but that is what pain relief is for. I pretty much write off the 1st 48 hours. Book all the support and help you can - you have lots of time to plan for it if it is an elective. But once my stitches were out after 5 days, I was at 90% functionality, 100% by 2 weeks - driving (slowly) and all that.

And that flabby poverhang is not always the case. There is a thread I remember, and many cs mothers (including myself) don't end up with the shelf. That shelf is due to excess fat. I was my thinnest 6 months after ds (bf-ing and he was very high maintenance) - my belly was flat. When I put the weight back on, my belly got flabby and yes, muffin-toppish. But hey, if I'm fat, I'm fat.

How sad though that you are denying yourself the experience of a vaginal birth.
An uncomplicated vaginal birth ( and most are uncomplicated) is unbeatable.
A section can never measure up to it.
With a section you are passive. The baby is taken out of you and all you can do is lie there.
The sense of acheivement you get from pushing your own baby out is without compare.

With regard to piles, i suffered badly during and after my first pregnancy - which ended in section, nothing to do with pushing baby out and everything to do with being constipated during pregnancy. Don't think you can avoid them through an elective section.

As someone who had to fight the system to achieve two VBA2Cs then IMHO i think that you are completely bonkers to try and go for an elective section.

Read up on all the pros and cons, the dangers involved both to you and baby through the major abdominal surgery are enormous and to voluntarily and unnecessarily put yourself and your unborn baby through them borders on insanity (IMVHO)

I would not contemplate a VBAC in an NHS hospital unless I knew that I would go into labour at 9am in the morning when the maternity unit was likely to be properly staffed and a CS quickly and easily arranged if necessary. I was encouraged to try for one last time but refused for the above reasons.

An elective CS (barring complications during surgery) will be controlled and calm.

What are the (realistic) dangers to a baby born by CS? Surely the abdominal scar affects the mother?

can have (but not all cases)
impaired/depressed respiration
lethergic
lower apgar score

Can't all of those apply to vaginal births, too?

there is also a small risk of the baby being cut, at the time of delivery.. small, but one of those risks that is never mentioned.. also, as the baby has not had the fluid squeezed out of it's lungs by labour and birth, there can be issues with breathing at birth..

re the mother.. with the c,s there is a risk of the bladder being knicked or the bowel, also, the risk of adhesions with 2 + c.s

someone did post a list once of risks to mum & baby of c,s and got very short shrift

But Kittywits, that is your opinion. Mine is total opposite. Much much more invoved in c section. Pushing a baby out was awful for me, and came nowhere near the elation of dd being born by section.

I felt TOTALLY in control

fizzbuzz - did you really feel in control?? I felt the complete opposite. Frozen from the boobs down, I was shaking, I was freezing cold. A machine that sounded like the cappacino makhing in Costa Coffee was used, my hubby got to do all the dressing and weighing and cuddling while I was being stiched up, appart from a quick glace I didn't see her for an hour and I couldn't pick her up on my own for anouther day at least it was horrible

Hi Kittywits,
I agree that a CS has greater risks to than a vaginal birth, and that a good birth is a wonderful thing, but do you really think that most births are uncomplicated? The "first birth stats" thread indicated that it's very common to have intervention for a first delivery. I also hate the term "scare stories". There are always women who want to be the complete martyr and play up how awful the delivery was as a form of competition. But the vast majority of people who post about a traumatic birth (me included) are just being honest and seeking support.

jo71, I would tend to agree with your description of cs, - I was shaking and cold as well, could not lift baby etc.

But I still felt so much more in control and so confident of a positive outcome than my trial of labour - when I was at the mercy of the midwives and doctors. I knew what to expect for an elective, and the theatre was fully scrubbed and staffed for me and baby. Wonderful.

There are risks with cs - all that lulumama describes was explained carefully to me and I signed it away in a consent form. Mind you, those risks (which were low and did not materialise) were much more palatable than being cut and torn to shreds and baby traumatised by a interventionist natural birth.

Kitty, you say "An uncomplicated vaginal birth ( and most are uncomplicated) is unbeatable." I would agree with everything except the bit about "(and most are uncomplicated)". I never felt that women had some competition about putting forth their gory natural birth stories. If anything, I thought things went fine for most women (I felt birth is too private a matter to ask too many details) until at some point, they let it slip that their natural birth was horrendous. About 50% of mothers I know who had a bad vb experience. And of course the experiences on mn as well. I can second MrsTittlemouse's attitude.

I suspect that most bad birth experiences are to do with the managment of labour in our hospitals.
Woman are not supported enough on a physical or emotional level when giving birth and that is SO important that it cannot be emphasised enough.
We go into pregnancy expecting labour to be a traumatic and painful experience. We are not prepared enough and we are not encouraged to believe in the abilty opf our bodies to birth our babies.Of course there are exeptions, eg. badly positioned babies.

My first vbac baby was three weeks late. I was in labour on and off all day but did not quite believe it.
Then my labour stopped completely for a couple of hours. I went to bed then was awoken by massive contractions. I went to hospital and gave birth within half an hour.

Now, if I had been in hospital earlier, strapped down to the bed like an invalid, in pain, frightened AND my labour had stopped they would have cut me open again, no doubt. As it was I avoided medical intervention for as long as I could and all was better. As I say women need to believe in themselves as birthers of their babies.
Hospitals have far too much to do with births, far too much.

Yeah sorry. I meant to clafify that i think that it is the medical establishment that makes births more complicated than they need to be. Too much interference, too much bullying of women in labour to conform to bizare labouring guidlines, no doubt made up by some bloke who lives in the dark ages.