2nd baby - csection or natural?

[Bunny2607]

Hi everyone
I’m hoping someone can give me some advice. I’m getting myself in a tiz and have been for some weeks now. I’m 16 weeks pregnant with my 2nd baby, first one is 6years old now.
So with my first i was in labour for about 14 hours, got to 10cm with gas and air then he got stuck, i ended up in theatre with forceps and episiotomy. After i got an infection, stitches burst open, was 3 months before i had a wee on the toilet due to the pain (was having to wee in a shallow bath!) and about a year before i fully healed.
when i spoke to my midwife this time around i burst into tears when talking about the 1st birth. She thinks i have some sort of PTSD/shock I haven’t dealt with and said i could have a c section.
Problem is i’m overweight, high BMI so worried about keeping my cut clean afterwards and also worried about the operation itself.
I’m wondering whether to go natural again or have csection and just wondered whether anyone can offer any wisdom or stories for 2nd birth whether natural or csection and particularly any mums with a high bmi (mines about 43 - currently trying to eat right to minimise gain) and their stories.
TIA x

Hi Lovely,

Sorry to hear about your first birth experience, although my situation isnt entirely the same as yours with my first born I had to be induced after my waters went on their own but contractions didnt start, I got to around 4cm abd had been in labour for 2 days before baby became distressed and I had to have an emergency section, my BMI was 32 before pregnancy that time. The actual section itself wasnt bad, by that point I was so exhausted and high on gas and air/diamorphine that I just wanted it to be over, recovery wise I was up and about later that day, scar was easy to keep clean. I did probably do a bit to much to soon becayse in the weeks that followed the pain was bad and i got a minor infection in my scar which required antibiotics but overall was manageable.

Im now pregnant with my second baby (36+1), its been nearly 3 years since my first was born, my bmi was 34 prior to this pregnancy and up until now I had been recommended to go for a VBAC as the cinsultant felt this was a lesser risk. However i started to panic a few weeks ago as id been doing research and I know sucess rates of a straught forward vaginal birth without assistance lower with factors such as high BMI, previous section etc. I also have extremley bad SPD this pregnancy aswell which is probably hasnt been helped by my weight... I had my final scan yesterday and theyve now said baby is measuring on the 95th centile so now they have changed their minds about VBAC and recommended I have an elective section because a larger baby also increases the risk of ending up in another emergency section and they said because of his current size they felt in their opinion it would be unlikely id be able to give birth without forceps or ventouse even if I did go for a VBAC... with that being said and knowing other peoples experiences I think im happier to go with elective section rather than attempt a VBAC that has more chance of leading to emergency section than being successful. The thought of forceps/ventouse/tearing scares me far more than a section. Not sure how useful that info will be for you but thought it was worth sharing xxx

Congratulations on your pregnancy!
I had a 6 year gap between my two because of how traumatic the birth was (not as bad as your experience!). I'd had a bad tear and the consultant recommended a c sec to avoid a life altering injury this time round.
I felt good about my decision and the procedure itself went well. Unfortunately my baby ended up in intensive care with Respiratory distress, which is a possibility with elective sections. So instead of resting after surgery I was rushing back and forth to the hospital for two weeks. I'm overweight too and the shape of my stomach meant that the incision site was getting pretty sweaty, is now taking a bit longer than it should to heal.
Not telling you to put you off, overall I'd say I don't regret it. I'm two and a half weeks post and not fully healed yet, but recovery has been much much easier than my first

Hi OP. Different situation but thought I’d share.

First birth. Very long latent stage, back to back baby. On the drip, no intervention but second degree tear and DD went to Nicu for the day. It wasn’t the most positive birth, it also took a long time to heal and feel normal again.

Second time. Twins. One head down one breach so could do natural. Chose c section as thought emergency section would be likely and was worried about delivering second baby. Plus didn’t want to experience any pelvic floor issues. Lovely experience- had my own music, lavender oils and everything. No nicu time and those hours in recovery with my babies were so special. Not going to lie though.. it really really was painful for a few days. But if you have someone to help you and literally do everything for you then you will be okay. Id say the first 4/5 days were bad. My hospital visiting hours were only 1-7 and I was trying to breastfeed my twins and having to buzz the midwives every 5 mins. Ended up just going home after day 2! I’m almost 5 weeks on now though and feel amazing, so much better than my natural birth recovery. Tbh I’d rather have the pain in my abdomen than down there!

Sorry for waffly reply but in short my experience was recovery from natural was less severe but took a long time, recovery from section was severe but only for a few days and I’ve pretty much forgotten I even had surgery by now.

Hi @ThedaBara,

Congratulations on the birth of your baby!

Do you mind me asking at what gestation they gave you your section? Ive been told mine is likely to be anytine from 38 weeks, just waiting on a chat with the consultant tuesday.
Im worried about my baby also having respiratory distress, my ds1 had some minor issues wuth breathing after my emcs but they said this was due to the mucus not clearing from his lungs properly which apparently is common foe section babies. How is your baby doing now?xx

Hi, I'm a midwife
Just wanted to say that the fact that you got all the way to 10cm last time puts you in a really good position for a successful vaginal birth this time as long as there are no other factors which might make this trickier e.g. large baby. I personally had 2 emergency sections, both got into distress while I was barely in labour. I found the recovery slightly harder 2nd time around, BMI was 37 and I got a wound infection but mostly it was due to running around after DD who was only just 2yo. Your eldest is a little older so hopefully less demanding on you, and like others have said if you have lots of support you'll be fine either way

Morning ladies
Aww thank you so much for all of your stories! I do have support, my husband is amazing and he’s already said either way i have the baby he doesn’t want me lifting a finger after the birth til i feel ready so i know he will look after me (which is more than can be said for my first baby with my ex 🙄)
I’m seeing a different midwife on Tuesday just for a routine appointment as my normal is on holiday, so i’ll talk to her about it too. My first baby was just under 10lb so i’m not sure if thats why he couldn’t get out on his own/with me pushing. I think i might try get my notes back so i can understand actually what happened as that might help me.
I’ve been really sick so far and not sleeping, so think i’ve just got a bit bogged down with it all, i seem to remember from before everything seems worse at night and when you’re tired!
I’m glad to hear you’re all healing fairly well though those who have given birth recently and hope your little ones are all thriving. Thank you again for sharing i really appreciate it xx

If I were you, I'd want my notes and to look at them with a midwife and work out whether you're at a higher risk of the same thing recurring.

My first ended in cs as DD had her head wodged at an angle in my pelvis and wouldn't come out, it was just a freak thing and vbac with DS second time round was fast and furious!

There are pros and cons to both types of birth, you need to weigh it all up!

@Ellll
It was bang on 39 weeks, on a Friday. If I could do it again I would ask for the following Monday to give him a bit more time. I've also heard that having a section after your contractions have begun naturally usually has a better outcome (but then it's becomes an emergency, rather than scheduled elective). Most of the other babies on the recovery ward had a bit of mucus etc but didn't end up in Nicu. Mine was just a random, unpredictable thing. It's definitely a risk, but I do believe the chances are very small. Just in case you could look at what the hospital actually has in terms of an Nicu ward to give you piece of mind. Mine had a level 2 one and they were on the verge of sending my baby to a level 3 Nicu in a different hospital, but thankfully he turned a corner. It would have meant a commute of over an hour rather than 10 min to see my baby.
But yeah, like I said, impossible to predict. Good luck!

I’ve had an emergency section, a v bac and an elective section due to high risk factors near end of labour, I couldn’t recommend any of them in particular although I preferred recovery from v bac. My v bac baby was in neonatal care with the excess mucus and elective section had it too but not to extent of needing neonatal care. What I’ve learned is there is no easy way or correct way or if there is you will never know! Just do what feels most right for you. I have a overhang and wound isn’t healing well but it will get there! Remember once your body hasn’t done it once aNd got to 10cm it should be easier 2nd time round! Whatever way baby comes take as much time as you can to recover, make time to clean any wounds each day, be careful and get help! Good luck!
Oh and whatever you decide just be open to it changing at the last minute, you never know in pregnancy what will happen!

Same happened to me, I had a bigger baby second time and the midwife was worried the old scar wouldn’t hold so epistomy again. Second birth was fab until after when I had a haemorrhage due to retained placenta. No real risk factors very random so please don’t let that put you off. I have ptsd from my first (formally diagnosed) I put off therapy due to the pandemic so I was very frightened when I went into Labour and panicked when the doctors came on wounds as I kind of went back to the first birth in my head with the smells and sounds and extra people in the room. But I will say, the hospital did try at length to make this birth much calmer and better which it was. I will go natural for a third if I can as the second birth was fine till after as I said previously. I would really recommend therapy for the ptsd as I should have gotten it prior to the second birth and will do before my third. It might have made the birth nicer as if I hadn’t the past fears and issues from my first I would have sailed through. Have you had a debrief from your first birth? It gets the eye on your second birth if you do and addresses any issues! I’ll also add, I’m 12 weeks now post baby and I’m nearly fully back to normal, had a few issues with stitches so took a bit longer but nothing like the painful long recovery from the first birth!!! Forceps really do a number on you, you are less likely to need them with a second baby I was told (my first was stuck too) second literally popped out despite the big size and getting the epistomy! I did end up with a tear too but this was not from baby this was from them going in to get the placenta out manually. Which didn’t hurt as I had an epidural but did do more damage than the baby which was subsequently repaired.

Thanks ladies, i have requested my
Notes yesterday funnily enough, hopefully they won’t take ages to come! I am going to go through them and like you say see if i’m at any high risk. I am going to keep an open mind, like you say anything could happen towards the end. I think i would marginally prefer a natural birth though - at least i have a chance of things running smoothly whereas with a csection you’re definitely cut open! Its just the stitches after a natural which i dread, especially after what happened last time! I remember going to the toilet was painful too 🤣🤣 oh why do we do this 🤣🤣🤣 xx