Aphasia during c section

[Alyssa1271]

I recently had my 4th and last c section and it was by far the worst and most traumatic. Wanting to see if anyone else has been through this as can't find much online.
During the c section once baby was out, I lost the ability to speak (aphasia). They were asking me questions while I was on the table and I just couldn't speak at all. My partner said he could see the fear in my eyes along with in the surgeons and nurses eyes once they also realised I couldn't speak and couldn't answer them before they started running back amd forth. I could think of what I wanted to say, I just no longer had the ability to speak. One of the few memories I have of complete paralysing fear taking hold that I'll now never forget. There's a lot more trauma than this but this is the bit that's really got to me. Anyone else been through this???

I had my fourth and final caesarean in 2023. Mine was traumatic and the extended recovery period exceptionally traumatic, but for different reasons than the one you've listed.

It sounds like they possibly gave you too much anaesthetic or topped you up too much. Anaesthetic is meant to paralyse you, it's probable that you were temporarily incapacitated and the anaesthetic to blame.

I'm sorry this happened to you. I had two CS and trauma with the 2nd (ended up on life support for a few days). It helped me to go back to the hospital to meet some of the team and talk through what happened. Some hospitals call this a Birth Reflections service - does yours have one?

If not, in time and if you can afford it, perhaps a few sessions with a private therapist may help?

Are you an anaesthetist? Do you often see spinals/epidural's suddenly rise high enough to affect speech after the baby's delivered? I am an obs anaesthetist, and there's not enough information in the OP's post to say that it was due to the anaesthetic with any certainty at all.

OP you'd be very much better off talking this through with the team that were looking after you as it's a rather unusual sounding problem and they'll be able to explain/exclude things/advise whether any other investigations are needed.

To be absolutely clear, I did not say with absolute certainty that's what it was.

'It sounds like' does not equate to 'That definitely happened'.

Interesting how you claim to be an OB anaesthetist, yet offered OP no insights as to what actually happened.

Well, it doesn’t “sound like” that at all, and no real anaesthetist is going to give a professional clinical opinion based on incomplete facts. The correct advice is as she posted.

Greybeardy has an extensive posting history which would demonstrate her knowledge and the fact she is an obs anaesthetist. This is such a rare phenomenon that no one can speculate on here what caused it (obstetric anaesthetic/recovery nurse). It sounds deeply distressing for the OP and she needs to have a birth debrief with the team involved in her care to begin to process what happened. Therapy would also be a good idea to process the traumatic memories of what happened also.

There is nowhere near enough information to make any sort of sensible suggestion about what happened - it is a very unusual sounding problem. That's why the best advice is to speak to the people who would have had access to all of that information.

In very general terms, it would be unusual for a spinal to suddenly rise high enough to interfere with speech at the point in the operation where the baby is being delivered as the block height usually fixes pretty well before knife-to-skin. There's a small possibility of a very high/total block if an epidural top-up had been given recently (for a 4th section a CSE might have been the mode of anaesthesia, but it's not an absolute given), however it would be relatively unusual to need to do that so early on in the operation. In the scenario of a block high enough to render someone unable to speak you would usually expect to see cardio-respiratory compromise/collapse and quite likely a likely loss of consciousness followed by rapid conversion to a GA and a period ventilated on ICU while the block wore off. There are of course also more 'medical' causes of aphasia completely unrelated to anaesthesia that could also occur and would present with different signs and associated symptoms to the above and require different management +/- investigation.

Apart from the inability to speak it isn't clear from the OP's post what else was happening, or whether there was any other neurology/physiology change, what the HCPs did to support her physiologically/psychologically during the rest of the operation, therefore it is really not possible to say what the problem was. It does sound flipping horrible though and hopefully her team of real-life HCPs will be able to work out what was going on and support her through recovery.

Hi I.am looking into ivf but I've had 3 sections already. The consultant said I'd have a high chance of falling pregnant but he said a 4th section can be dangerous. Has anyone had 4 sections and can help me out as we don't no what to do now

Hello, I had the same experience during my C section in May 23. Once baby was out I began to feel woozy and developed slurred speech then no speech, my mind was clear and I knew what I wanted to say but it was impossible to articulate. I was sent straight away in an ambulance for a CT scan and then an MRI a few days later. Both were clear and they put it down to

I had aphasia during my second delivery but it was a VBAC not a c-section. I always put it down to the Pethidine they gave me but, actually, I have no idea what caused it. Neither of the delivery suite staff or my husband noticed at the time. When the doctor announced she was going to to an episiotomy, I wanted to tell her to wait as I thought the baby would come out on the next push but I couldn’t speak to tell her. I think it’s really important that you speak to someone about what happened. I had a very traumatic first delivery and it wasn’t easy to recover mentally after it.

So along the same type of lines I wasn’t able to catch my breath and breathe after baby came out. Couldn’t really soeak either. It was because I was actually throwing up but didn’t know and couldn’t feel it as I was obvs numb from the chest down. The bike was coming up but I wasn’t able to actually throw it up. Strangest sensation. Ever.