Elective CS and baby breathing problems..anybody else had experience?

[slippeddisc]

last Tues 11th dec I gave birth to a beautiful little girl, she weighed 7lb 2oz and had her by elective section at 38+2 weeks. It took them nearly half an hour to get LO out and after a couple of hours she was a little purple, after a couple of hours her colour hadnt improved so she was taken to intensive care in the special care baby unit and placed on a CPAP machine to aid her breathing as she was only taking in 30% of oxygen for herself.
Ironically, the day after it was all over the papers about this kind of problem linked to CS births, although at no point was it discussed with me prior to the birth as being a possible risk.
Thankfully she is out of danger now, has just come off the machines, and is making good progress, but still remains in the special care unit.
Has anybody else had a similar experience?

Congratulations on the birth of your little girl! My experience was pretty different to yours (ds born at 34 weeks by cs with no labour) but my ds had respiratory distress syndrome and was on a ventilator and then CPAP, very unusual for his gestation. No one told me he might have trouble breathing. So I know how scary it is and didn't want you to go unanswered.

Does she look huge in SCBU? Ds was 5lb4 when he was born and still looked like a giant in intensive care! Hope she continues making good progess and can come home soon (also that you are recovering well).

DS1 wasn't born by CS but he nearly died at birth, he wasn't breathing at all and his heart-rate was only 40 bpm (should have been around 140 bpm). He had to have intracardiac adrenalin to revive him and was then in SCBU for a week. So you have my sympathies - I know what a frightening time you must have had. I am very glad to hear that she is out of danger now and is making good progress .

DS1 is 8 now, btw.

Hi I hope your daughter is doing well. I have had cs section but not no problems. But have heard of these, it is one of the complications of cs. I suppose they should of really told you. It may of seemed insignificant at the time for you cs was for medical reasons but they still should of told you. It is usually on the form you sign to give your consent

Thanks for that all,especially for your well wishes.
Yes she looks huge in SCBU :-) there are twins in that are only 3lb

Hi slippeddisc

I have had two cs, one semi emergency due to problems with baby and one elective but ended up being more emergency because I went into labour, I was aware of there being breathing problems sometimes with cs babies, but not sure if I read it somewhere or was told by the docs.

I bet she does look huge in scbu, my ds was born by cs at 34weeks weighing just 2lbs 10oz!

Glad DD is making good progress and hope she'll be home soon.

there is a risk of what they call "wet lung" for babies delivered by CS before 39weeks - it's not "new" news, but it has been in the news again lately. Presumably there was a reason why they did your c/s early? I'm suprised they didn't warn you about the risk.

I'm glad to hear your DD is now doing well

FWIW my hospital have a policy of no CS before 39wks unless mum or baby are in imminent danger.

this is an extract from the BMJ which explains it

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British Medical Journal : Elective caesarean can increase the risk to the fetus

In cases where normal vaginal delivery incurs considerable risk to the mother and fetus, elective caesarean section may be justified, but decisions must take into account the risk to the infant associated with delivery before 39 weeks' gestation.

It is now clear that respiratory distress syndrome is indeed seen in "term" infants and is a considerable source of morbidity and mortality in this group. A recent article by Madar et al shows that mechanical ventilation to treat presumed surfactant deficiency is 120 times more likely to be needed after elective delivery at 37-38 weeks than after delivery at 39-41 weeks.

We recently revisited this issue as part of a departmental audit...These findings are consistent with the findings of previous studies and confirm that babies delivered before 39 weeks' gestation are at increased risk of respiratory distress and that for term infants caesarean section before the onset of labour results in a considerably greater risk of neonatal respiratory morbidity than delivery by any other means. Moreover, the risk of respiratory morbidity is halved with each completed week of gestation between 37 and 41 weeks.

Evidence based guidelines should be established so that when there is no clear benefit to mother or fetus elective caesarean section before 39 weeks' gestation is avoided.

Hi BetsyBoop

Thanks for that, very interesting. I was advised to have the Elective at 38 rather than 39 wks as I have two prolapsed lumbar discs and it was thought that the risk of my discs prolapsing further in week 38-39 was greater than the risk of possible respiratory problems to the baby .....obviously not!

Thankfully she's a strong little thing who continues to make good progress. In hindsight though, it was obviously the wrong decision to have the CS at 38 rather than 39 weeks.

Yes- the same happened to ds2 who was an elective CS at 38 weeks. It was one reason why I decided to try a VBA2CS with ds3 - didn't happen, but because he'd gone into labour naturally (at 40+5) I figured his breathing would be fine- it was.

I wasn't warned about it either....

Exactly the same thing happened to my lo, I was scheduled for a c section and went into labour at 35 weeks so had to have an emergency section. She was on CPAP after going purple and I was told it was wet lung due to the early section. My elective had been booked for 39 weeks for that reason,so I think the knowledge has been around for sometime that early c sections can cause complications. Thankfully, after 10 hellish days in SCBU we were allowed out and all is now fine. I do know how you are feeling and how frightening it is, the most important thing is that she is making good progress - fingers crossed you will both be home in time for Christmas. We were kept in until I had the feeding cracked, so I got very determined to get it sorted!