Elective caesarean

[1sttimemum21]

I'm having my first baby & considering elective caesarean, does anyone have any thoughts/advice please?

What are your reasons? Ive had two; on emergency and one elective due to medical reasons. I consider the elective one a positive experience but the recovery was tough and I worry when people say they want a c section due to anxiety over childbirth as I still found having an elective section very anxiety inducing. If I’d been given the choice id have had a Vbac with my second to avoid the recovery, scarring and extra time in hospital and to give my DS a chance to come when he was ready as I suspect he came out earlier than he wanted to although that’s just my opinion

I've had both an assisted VB and an elective cesarean and personally I would chose an elective 1000x over. However it is major surgery and that needs to be considered. I chose to request an elective after suffering severe anxiety over the possible outcomes of just letting nature take its course as it hadn't worked out that well for me the first time and I wanted control over the situation in knowing what I was walking into. My VB took me 3 months to recover from to a situation where I wasn't taking daily painkillers. My Elec took 10 days.

I think you need to think about why you want major surgery. I had a previously bad experience and still had to fight midwife and consultant and have 8 CBT sessions before they agreed. It's a fight but maternal choice is a valid choice if it is truly what you want.

I guess the question is why. I had an emcs and then elcs (breech twins). I wish I had had vaginal births - the recovery the second time was very difficult and painful and I would like to have another baby, will have to have a c section and the risks increase every time.

Despite previous posts 1) there can be good reasons for an ELCS 2) consultants won't automatically try to stop you 3) the recovery is manageable.

Do your research and make an informed choice OP.

You haven't really said why you want one? Convenience? Or anxiety?

You can ask but a hospital doesn't have to approve one and so you may have to change hospitals to one which will do it which may not have been a hospital you chose in the first place nor convenient for you to get to?

Also it is MAJOR surgery - my experience has been absolute worst case - within 2 years of my c section I nearly died twice from ruptured ectopic pregnancies caused by scar tissue/adhesions from the c section destroying my tubes. I was left infertile by age 36. Had to undergo 5 rounds of IVF and spend £35k to get pregnant again. If I could go back in time and DD not been breech no way would I have chosen a c section

If baby is your first, is there a reason for considering elective? I've had an emergency c-section and then an elective because I was too high a risk. Personally, the elective was a lovely experience but the pain and recovery isn't great with a newborn. You need to think about the bit after the c-section. They are painful and ir is a struggle to get out of bed to pick up baby for the first few days. I should add- the elective was much better to manage than the emergency. Don't rush into it though.

I've had assisted vb, then unassisted vb then elcs this year.
Elcs was due to breech baby.

I would not just choose to have a section.
Recovery was very hard. It is certainly not the easy route.
I also think there is something in baby being forced out when not quite ready.
My other 2 where overdue, this one was earlier compared due to having to be booked in for the section. (Which you think is amazing at the time!)
My baby went into a kind of shock. He was born with low blood platelets due to this.
He's fine now but I had to stay in for a few days for him to stabilise.

The care on the maternity unit after is not what you expect & following a section you will be counting down the hours for painkillers!
I was very shell shocked after my section for a good 2 weeks or so.

After my unassisted vb completely different experience. It was an amazing high, up walking about & no painkillers afterwards at all.

You can see why i get annoyed when people repeat the “oh but a CS is much harder to recover from than a straightforward VB” line - yes, true, but it’s a roll of the dice whether you get a “straightforward” VB or not.

Why are you getting annoyed about something that you agree is true?

Of course a straightforward VB is hard to predict.

My elective was 100% the right choice because dc2 was transverse & they still needed a ventouse to get him down to the opening. I was also born by an emergency CS so I think it's great to have the option otherwise I wouldn't be here.

However I think it's good to hear honest opinions as I felt unprepared for mine & was genuinely surprised at the pain the first few days. Some mothers are kept in for days & on strong painkillers. I was a textbook one so out the next day & told to take paracetamol. I'm not sure why I didn't expect to hurt, I had my appendix removed the old fashioned way & the CS was worse.

Is there a reason to think you might not be able to have a straightforward VB?

It’s a roll of the dice, but uncomplicated vaginal birth offers the best recovery, then the ELCS. Assisted VB and EMCS are obviously not the outcomes you want.

I had an EMCS and the recovery was horrible. I was only given OTC painkillers, so it didn’t do much to relieve the pain.

I also think there is a lot we are not told about CS, including adhesions which can interfere with normal bladder and bowel movements as well as affect fertility. They aren’t easy to fix either.

I'm so glad to read this thread as it appears balanced unlike the usual "c sections are great, make sure you demand one" rhetoric that can be the norm for Mumsnet. It was this that left me feeling very confused after my c section because it was definitely not a better experience than my VB.
I'm still in the first few weeks following my c section and the disadvantages are numerous:

• No skin to skin after being is born, you have to wait ages to be patched up again. I'm very sad to miss out on this. It's one of the best bits of birth
• no feeling of euphoria after birth
• more swelling and more medication needed + plus side effects
• anxiety over the healing process. Numerous things I am worried about including reoccurrence of adhesions
• bowel issues
• can't get back to normal as quickly, I really miss exercise :(
• pain
• harder to be independent
• harder to bond/breastfeed baby

There are others but that's all I can recall in my exhausted state.

@flashbac I'm sorry to hear you're struggling so much.

Can I ask which bowel issues a CS causes?

t was this that left me feeling very confused after my c section because it was definitely not a better experience than my VB

Yes I felt so guilty afterwards & felt I shouldn't verbalise the discomfort was in. I had something that lots of people want & have to fight for, the easy option etc & I felt rubbish. Was I being a pathetic wimp? I don't think so as my VB was so quick I didn't get G&A until after crowning. Luckily a close friend had an elective CS at the same time (after a less than straightforward birth) & we commiserated together.

Someone upthread said something about "staying tight". Pregnancy alone does damage to your pelvic floor which I think is glossed over.

I had a planned preterm section for vasa previa. I had a lot of pain in the 24 hours afterwards, then a good recovery after. It was also harder with the baby as he wasn’t born looking to suck, as my daughter was, so establishing breastfeeding took more work. It’s not an easy option, just a different one. Safe if you need it for whatever reason, though.

I had an elcs and am due another. The first was very calm, straight forward and I got to do skin to skin immediately. I was a bit stiff for the first couple of days but not in any pain and the following week I ran for a bus without even thinking about it. I went private and at my 6 week check the doctor said there was no limit on the amount of babies I could have because I'd had a c section, he also said a lot of medical professionals choose to have a section as it is more predictable.

Some women really want to experience VB, some like me dont. Follow your instincts and dont let anyone push you into a birth you dont want. The midwife I saw before being granted the section told me a fearful birth will more likely be a difficult birth, so dont let people try and tell you VB will be better if you would prefer a CS.

Congratulations

@jillypill

t was this that left me feeling very confused after my c section because it was definitely not a better experience than my VB

Yes I felt so guilty afterwards & felt I shouldn't verbalise the discomfort was in. I had something that lots of people want & have to fight for, the easy option etc & I felt rubbish. Was I being a pathetic wimp? I don't think so as my VB was so quick I didn't get G&A until after crowning. Luckily a close friend had an elective CS at the same time (after a less than straightforward birth) & we commiserated together.

Absolutely. You have a lot of ‘my ELCS was a breeze and I was pottering round the shops within the week’ type of responses in these types of threads.

While I’m sure that is true for some, it’s no different than ‘I had a VB and was practically jogging out the door of the hospital the next day!’.

Every birth is different and quite unpredictable. It’s just a different set of risks between CS and VB, you’ll have to weigh them up and decide which set is your preference.

Yes! it's weird I felt more pressure to be up & doing stuff after my CS then I did vs a VB & other ops I've had.

I did walk from the hospital to the car & could get about the house but in no way was my form my usual style of walking. More of a zombie shuffle!

I also think - and this will really throw the cat amongst the pigeons - that demanding a c section when there is no need is pretty inconsiderate given the strain the NHS is under at the minute. You need alot more staff to do a c section and that operating room that is being used is one less that can be used for emergencies.

@busybee87

Everything is sore so bowel movements hurt. I've also got big lumpy bits around the incision today that have appeared all of a sudden. Midwife has checked and said it's normal, just some bleeding behind the skin that will take up to a month to resolve!

@elwynne

How did you do skin to skin immediately when flat out and screen is around your chest area, not to mention that they are still rummaging around down below stitching each cut layer back together?

@flashbac sorry, but that is a terrible piece of reasoning. I ended up having an EMCS after trying for hours - and that resulted in my baby spending almost a week in intensive care. We’d almost certainly have been out within 24 hours if I’d had an ELCS.

@flashbac they put her on my chest. The screen was further down my stomach.

Did you have an epidural or spinal which ended in you needing the blood patch? One of the reasons my vaginal birth recovery was so hard was because the epidural gave me a dural tap and I needed two blood patches. My understanding was that these are much less likely to be needed with spinals because the needle is much thinner than an epidural needle and therefore if anything is punctured then less fluid is likely to leak out?

Good question. In all honesty, I'm not sure. I have a feeling that I had a spinal, but having googled it, apparently you can have either a spinal or an epidural for a planned caesarean. What I can remember is being transfixed by the blood splatters on the white wellies the anaesthetist was wearing.

I'm sure it was probably just bad luck but when I had another one for my second child and mentioned it, the anaesthetist made a point of saying it wouldn't happen again as she would be very careful. Which was probably just reassuring words but the first anaesthetist did come across as a bit maverick.

Either way, the headaches were awful and the blood patch not the most pleasant procedure but I felt much better afterwards.

I also had skin to skin contact both times while they were sewing up the incision. There was enough room above the screen. I could have done without my husband peering over the screen and describing what my fat cells looked like in cross section though.