has anyone had a debrief with a consultant following traumatic birth, was it helpful?

[Joo1es]

I have an appointment on tue, mostly due to bleed following birth of my DS (14months), but am 29 weeks and petrified about going through it again, so my midwife suggested a debrief with consultant. not really sure what to expect, did anyone find it useful? or was it just dragging up painful memories?

Hi, Joo1es,
did you get on well with your consultant in spite of your problems with previous delivery? If yes, then in my experience a debrief before future delivery is A VERY GOOD THING. Things to ask and hopefully get answers to are for instance: why did this happen (not always an aswer to that one..), how likely is it to happen again, do I know have a higher risk of other things going wrong, is there anything that can be done to minimise risk? I am sure you can think of a lot more to ask. Nobody will be able to give you any guarantees, Nature is a funny old bird and not always predictable .

I had a long chat with consultant after 2nd pregnancy with ended with emergency section for BIG haemorrhage due to placenta praevia at 31 weeks. DS is now 4 years and the picture of health, thankfully, but to this day I do not think there is a scarier place than Neonatal intensive care unit. I found it very helpful to go through all the details, and in the end a brilliant normal delivery with DS3 (now 10 weeks old).

I hope everything will work out for you. In my opinion one can never have enough information, even if that means to have to brace yourself for rough times, which I hope will not be necessary for you.

If you felt you were not on same wavelength with you consultant, maybe consider speaking to somebody else?? it is of course helpful if the person you are talking to knows all the ins and out of your previous delivery.

In summary, debrief in this context has my vote.

Hope this helps and lots of luck.

i would also recommend looking at the birth trauma association and the Birth crisis helpline

a consultant may talk you through the physical side of things, but a peer supporter, who may well have experienced birth trauma herself can offer a different, emotional perspective.

i think it is vitally important to debrief a birth before the next one, so you are not takin g baggage in with you to the labour room.

Hi
I did a debrief with a mw after traumatic birth with dd1. Would thoroughly recommend it, tho mine was with a mw was had had nothing to do with my care so was independent, so to speak. As long as you got on well with consultant, I'd go for it.

hi, i got on very well with my consultant following a realy stressfull end of pregnancy and then having to choose between an elective section or induced trial of labour.. consultanta and myself were very keen to trial labour and did, ( Options due to ds having some problems within his brain spotted at 36 weeks!) 14 hours fully dilated and ds wouldnt budge down anywhere near the birth canal! ended up with an emergency section at 11pm, which tore internally as he even got stuck coming out that way! still no regrets, happy pretty much healthy boy. registra came to see me the next day twice and consultant came in the next day where we had a coffee and a chat and agreed next time we wil go for a vbac! so a big help. roll on 18 months and will go for dc no3! so yes a big help, i do think pre delivery planning if you had had a traumatic labour. delivery is very important. all my friends think i am totally nuts be be quite happy to have another dc. but really dont feel traumatised at all. knew my options before hand, made a decision with everyones backing and then let rip... litrally! but hey all ok all alive will be back!

I did (same reason, heavy bleed, transfusion)

It helped to understand why it happened and the contributing factors. Of course he couldn't promise it wouldn't happen again but it felt good to know how it would be managed and that there was instructions in my notes on how my second labour was to be handled.

The same thing did happen again, but everything was in place and it was controlled and I handled the blood loss much better due to being on iron tablets before hand. I was looked after very well and it really wasn't traumatic this time round.

It also helped to discuss things with the midwife during labour. I was all "so what's that for" and "when this happens what do you do"

If you feel informed then you feel a lot more confident