Panic at the ELCS disco

[whatsnewpussycat34]

Hi all

My sSIL is booked for an elcs but she's starting to panic about panicking on the table. Mainly not being able to move.

Does anyone know if they give you anything to calm you down if you start freaking out? Through the mask or drip? She thinks she's going to try and get off the table (she knows that's not physically possible) if she has a panic attack.

Im a worrier too so I said there's no point asking me because I'd need to knocked out, so I'll ask the MN crew!

Hi,
I had this exact problem only a couple of weeks ago! In my case they decided on the day (actually an hour before I went to theatre!) to give me a general anaesthetic because it was going to be safer for all concerned. I had a panic attack whilst asking my anaesthetist if they could give me anything to try and keep me calm/relaxed whilst the surgery was in progress, which was ironic. In my trust, their policy is not to give ladies any drugs in order to help calm them, however my friend lives elsewhere in the country and she was given gas and air for the spinal, and midazolam for the procedure itself so it really depends on your trust

@Zephyr5 wow, were you ok afterwards? I can't believe it's not common practice to give people a little something to just calm the nerves.

A bit of intravenous gin maybe?

@whatsnewpussycat34 the problem is that anything like that passes through the placenta and can affect that babies breathing. My trust don't give anything to calm the mother down and if they look like they will panic and they get a ga because they had a big formal complaint by someone who wanted their baby to have skin to skin afterwards but the baby wasn't breathing so they had to go to scbu.

They complained because it ruined their first experience of motherhood

It’s not common to use intravenous/oral sedation because it’s generally not as safe in late pregnancy as it is in non-pregnant patients (for both mother and baby). Gas and air is safe but may not really that useful in this context. If your SiL is that anxious it is probably worth asking to see an anaesthetist in clinic ahead of the date to discuss the anaesthetic before the day.

I think she has an appointment prior to the section to discuss risks etc so she'll have to see what our trust does and doesn't do.

Hopefully the new baby will distract her from the panic

Yeah, I was awake and had skin to skin within the first hour of my baby being born. He's 3 weeks old now and is happy and healthy - aside from a little reflux but that's fairly common in newborns.
It wasn't the birth I had planned but it was the safest option for both of us.