Just watched C section on TV

[dinny]

in People's Hospital

do they always take the baby away and wrap s/he up before the mother gets them?

can't they gve them straight to the mother?

DS was born by CS after a long and frustrating labour - they whisked him away to check him out and clear nasal passages, as I understand it. I was flaked out but DP went with them to do all this and got to cut the cord and be the first to cuddle him, so they did take care to involve at least one of us closely.

Also, at the moment of being lifted out, the surgeon said "a healthy boy!" very loudly, I think to reassure me, and held DS up over the "tent" part for me to see.

With DS, the anaesthatist, midwife and registrar ALL said "what a very big baby!" before even saying "it's a boy". I got pulled roughly all over the operating table when they were getting him out. He was 10lb 14.! They brought him round naked for us to cuddle. His Apgars were perfect, though.

my third baby was rubbed down with a towel quickly by the mw then given straight to me, with a little hat on but nothing else. She kept trying to crawl under the tent whilst they stitched me up. I was very upset about having another cs and the anaethetist was insistent I got skin to skin asap. It helped. Dh was supposed to announce the gender but the mw was a bit previous with that.

I had immediate skin to skin with both my sections. At the second section they misunderstood what I had asked for and started taking the screen down so I could see the baby coming out of my belly. I had to tell them to stop! Wouldnt have fancied seeing that.

Dinny - dd was breech and 10lb 50oz I think they struggled to get her out! I can remember them telling me she was a little terror and all I wanted to check was that it was a girl! To be told yes we saw that ages ago
She needed some help breathing when she was born so was taken straight away and ds was shown to me before they checked him over as he was born at 33 weeks I was allowed a quick cuddle before they whisked him off to scbu though

In my em cs and planned cs my DC's were given a quick check on the table in the operating theatre for about 1 minute and then passed to me for skin to skin. TBH it didn't bother me as at least I knew they were ok and I got to cuddle them after that.

SazzlesA - what a fantastic, amazing picture!

I had two ecs, dd was wrapped and tucked in with me extremely quicky, ds was presented to me naked and covered in vernix - I remember thinking he looked absolutely massive and extremely angry! Quick rub down and back in with me under my nighty for skin to skin, and I was allowed to carry him back through to the recovery ward with him on my gurney. Lovely!

quickly

Hi I can speak from both angles here; as a midwife & someone who has personally experienced 2 x sections (1 emergency & 1 elective)

In a lot of cases baby will need just a bit of a dry off with a towel & maybe a bit of suction - especially with an elective, babe won't have been 'squeezed' through the birth canal to get all the mucus out thats in their mouth/throuat etc.
Usually the cord will be cut, it wouldn't generally be long enough especially if you have the screen up (most cases) to go straight up onto your chest. So long as all is ok, there should be no reason for babe to be weighed, measured, dressed or anything else before being passed to you.
DO REMEMBER THOUGH to ask theatre staff to do this for you - it may well not be your own midwife (who should know yr wishes) in theatre, also in my experience, someone else may take over thinking they're helping'!

If though, for whatever reason, babe is dressed etc & you dont have skin to skin in theatre, just ask to have him/her skin to skin when you get to recovery. It's not the end of the world, I think the recomendation for skin to skin is 'within the 1st hour of life' so long as they've not changed it in the last couple of years since i last worked.

sorry this is a bit wordy - you can always CAT me if you have any other questions - happy to help!

x

No skin to skin for me. Didn't see DS until 20 hours after his birth (crash CS). This was 9 years ago and I don't think it was such a widely discussed "issue" then. I really hope things will be different this time.

DH had skin-to-skin with DD immediately after her birth and she stayed with him until he passed her to me after surgery.

Mine was an elective section though.

No immediate skin to skin for me.

Ds was passed to DH, I was most frustrated, as I was desperate to hold him!! I had to wait until I got to the recovery room.

No skin to skin for me either, I forgot to ask in all the excitement (it was a planned cs but everything I was thinking of went straight out the window!) When I had a slight hiccup with bfing a couple of weeks later, the bfing consultant for the hospital was a bit annoyed that I hadn't been offered skin to skin, I actually had a babymoon when ds was 2 weeks old after a LLL counsellor suggested it. 2 whole days in bed with ds, doing nothing but feeding and sleeping skin to skin. Was fab!

Next time, if I have a cs, I'll be yelling from behind that screen "pass me my baby, don't bother cleaning him!!" I actually don't want a screen if I have another cs, I thought I'd get freaked out seeing my own guts, but who am I kidding, I can't see my own feet even when I'm not pg due to giant norkage in the way

I did get to hold ds after they'd bagged and tagged him though, must have been less than 5 mins as they did his second apgar while I was holding him. I remember grinning with pride as he got all 5s

For a short time only - a picture of DH & DD having skin-to-skin on my profile!

aww, babyRed and her dad

ds was weighed and apgar'd before they put him onto me skin-to-skin. It was fab they left us together nekkid for about six hours (didn't appreciate being left without lunch, but that's a whole nother story...)

When she finally emerged from her cuddles with her daddy she lookedl ike a baby gorilla as loads of his chest hair had stuck to the vernix. DH needed lots of wipes to clean himself up.

So, the removal men didn't take you computer then ;)

I only got fifteen minutes or so skin-to-skin in recovery before DH dressed DD. Wish I'd pushed for more.

they tried but I clung to it sobbing and they backed off

it's funny I'm sure it didn't take them long to measure ds but it felt like HOURS before I got to snuggle him.

and then they put him right up on my chest above my breast, where I could only see a blur because I am so far-sighted! still knew he was lovely though...

"clung to it" sobbing! I'm sure he's a boy y'know. ;)