Extreme phobia of vomit. Labour vs c-section?

[Helpmeoutt]

Can anyone give me their honest experiences of vomiting during labour / delivery or during a C-section please?

What caused the vomiting?
Can anything be done to stop or prevent it?
Which birthing option is more likely to experience vomiting?

I’m not scared of birth, needles, blood or pain but the idea of vomit fills me with the worst anxiety and dread. I can’t stress enough how bad my phobia is.

3 vaginal births, two epidurals one gas and air. Thankfully no vomiting. Definitely ask about the anti sickness. For the peace of mind for you it would be great!

I did feel sick but didn't vomit. Worst feeling was after the spinal when blood pressure goes down suddenly.

Elective c section. Explained my emetophobia and was given the appropriate meds and I was fine.

Didn't vomit at all with first but felt a bit nauseaous. With second I had a small vomit very close to pushing stage from chugging on all the gas and air. Honestly it is the least of your worries in the middle of labour. If it's that bad they might give you anti emetics if you speak to your midwife?

I have emetophobia which was great when I also had hyperemesis during pregnancy.

I can't watch anything on TV that involves it. I fear the norovirus every winter.

Babies, toddlers and children are sick. And teenagers. You need to find a way to deal with it.

I try to disassociate myself from it if I can't escape it.

I didn’t vomit during either vaginal birth, one with an epidural, one without. I didn’t have gas and air.

Definitely let the staff know but honestly, there’s so much going on, it may bother you less than it normally would if it does happen. I also suffer from emetophobia, but I think that being sick whilst giving birth is one time it wouldn’t bother me much. Best of luck. 💐

I vomited during my labour and emergency c section.

I'm a psychotherapist and would definitely advise seeking out CBT for emetophobia if your phobia is that intense.

I’ve had 2 c sections both ‘elective’ I vomited during the first one quite a lot but was fine after. I wasn’t sick during the second one but vomited several times over the next few hours and couldn’t even keep water down.

My contractions caused me to vomit. I think that's quite common

40% ?!?! Wow!
As an anaesthetist would you know an anecdotal % for other kinds of surgery?

Hi OP. Anaesthetist here and I do quite a lot of my work in the labour ward.

you can vomit both during labour or C section.

I would not reccommend you allow the phobia of vomiting to sway your decision making regarding vaginal delivery v section. just go with the flow and do whatever is safer/clinically recommended

instead you can request to be prescribed an anti sickness tablet to be taken as soon as you go into labour/start induction or before you go to theatre (if you are having an elective section). they can top you up with iv anti sickness or oral during labour if you still feel sick. if you have a long labour, I recommend anti sickness every 8 hours to prevent any risk of sickness. there are pregnancy/labour safe antisickness medications and your midwife/obstetrician/anaesthetist will be very happy to prescribe.

About 30% is what is quoted by the royal college of anaesthetists but it depends on the type of surgery

Ear surgery, eye surgery, brain, gynae, intra abdominal surgery, v long operations are more common to cause it than others

The type of Anaesthetic affects the risk.

Patient factors that increase the risk - females, non smokers, history of being sick with Anaesthetics or travel sickness, needing significant amounts of opiates.

I had some anti-emetics given to me during and after my c-section as I vomited due to loss of blood, they worked wonders and I felt completely normal after having them.

I am emetophobic and had this on my notes also, I had the IV drip induction and was given an anti sickness tablet but I only took this once, I never actually felt sick or vomited at any point. I had gas and air and later an epidural, vaginal birth all fine

I was sick once in my first labour but I hadn't eaten a thing for 24 hours AND was slowly brewing a sepsis situation (induction with epidural) so either could have been to blame. They gave me an anti sickness jab in any case and that was the end of that problem.

Had another induction but a very quick paracetamol and entonox only the second time, not even remotely nauseous.

You can get an injection that stops vomiting. I've needed it in labour. They try to get me to take the wafer things but in labour they don't work for me.
Could you talk to midwife about getting the injection early on to stop the vomitting?

Gas and air made me vomit as I had literally just finished dinner (very quick labour so went from nothing to mega in short time). But once that had happened I was fine.

Was induced with emergency c section - I vomited a lot. During labour due to the pain and then during surgery, probably due to the drugs but also because my heartburn was insanely bad.

1 c section, no vomit. I did feel a bit sick because I was hungry - I hadnt eaten for almost 20 hours. It was just queasy hunger sick if you know what I mean? No gagging etc. Planning another c section in July.

Extreme nausea during planned cesarean, was given anti sickness injection. I had diamorphine for my vbac and they gave me anti sickness injection in the other leg as standard - no idea if labour would have caused me to be sick, the contractions were completely overwhelming, not sure I would have been capable of noticing.

Edit - I have extreme wasp phobia though and would have noticed one of them in the room. Ask way ahead of time for anti sickness meds for whichever option you go for, no need to let things be harder than needed!

Induction with pessary only that ended with a vaginal birth and no interventions. Some gas and air but vomiting started before I had any pain killers. Started vomiting about 20 minutes after my first contraction. Anti-sickness meds didn’t really help. But eventually I guess I just ran out of things in me to throw up and it stopped. Nothing once I’d delivered but I was dehydrated and hungry and couldn’t produce any colostrum for about 17 hours and I think it was until I’d replenished some of what I’d lost. I was the only one in my NCT class to vomit though, across vaginal birth and c-sections.

It also wasn’t like normal vomiting. There wasn’t any building nausea, or running back and forth to the toilet. It just came out but then that episode would be done for a little while. There’s a lot happening in labour when your body just takes over and vomiting was one of those, so it wasn’t as consuming as regular vomiting like with a stomach bug.

I've had 2 c-sections. I had HG with both babies and they put Odanestron in my drip so I wouldn't throw up on the operating table. Yoy could certainly ask about it, my consulatant didn't behave like it was out of the ordinary in any way.

The second time they also gave me valium because my heartrate was a bit high 10/10 would recommend, I was high as a kite 😂.

I vomited during labour after having morphine

I've had two dc, both vaginal deliveries and had no sickness at all.

No vomit, one of each- emergencyC and natural birth without epidural.