Elective Caesarians only - has anyone had any problems afterwards?

[chaufleur]

I am currently considering having a CS. I have heard lots of good and bad experiences of CS, it seems to be that the majority of good experiences were from elective CS, whereas the majority of bad were from emergency CS.

Therefore I am trying to get a balanced picture of elective caesareans only, because (obviously) I am not planning on having an emergency caesarean! . When I have read CS threads, there are plenty who say "I had a CS, don't do it" then it turns out to have been an emergency CS which obviously a person wouldn't choose to do IYSWIM. I view elective CS and emergency CS as two quite different operations/experiences.

Did anyone have an elective caesarean, that led to physical problems and if so, what were they? I don't mean things such as: having to avoid driving; the baby not being ready; breastfeeding issues; a longer stay in hospital etc etc.

I am referring to things like incontinence, nicked bladders, stitches infected ie personal, physical issues. I am genuinely curious to seperate out what bad physical experiences come out of an elective caesarean.

By all means post with your good elective caesarean stories too!! (in case I do have one! )

TIA!

Two elective, one exactly one week ago (and I am already posting on mn again - this is evidence of being internet addict, not good recovery). This one has been a lot easier than the last one (fingers crossed, still early), which I thought was easy. Milk came in earlier and there was more colostrum, no wind at all, refused painkillers after first couple of days. Found getting out of bed very easy and not very painful. I was sick this time, though, before, during and after the op. Notes reveal I was given diamorphine during the op - is that normal? No wonder I was sick and refusing painkillers, though...

...although I am definitely one of those women who probably would have died under a bush somewhere during childbirth if I had lived in different times / a different part of the world, with no monitoring in pregnancy and no c-sections...

I had an elective cs and found it a great experience. I also breastfed without any problems and love my ds with my whole heart, so absolutely no bonding issues (well, the fact that I carried him around in me for 9 months might have something to do with it ).

I did find attitudes regarding an ecs (especially at antenatal class) a bit annoying. Especially the "oh, I am so sorry..." ones, so you might need to be warned about that.

I had a elective section 2nd time around after having a 3rd degree tear with my 1st.

I found the section much worse to recover from, and got infections inside and out afterwards....not good AT ALL.

Emergency or elective, having a section appears to double your risk of stillbirth in subsequent pregancies.

That would worry me.

Agree though that VB can be very tough. In my opinion all the normal stuff that's part of the modern women's experience of childbirth conspire to make it scary, painful, crap and difficult for her - all in the name of science and safety.

So yes Chaufleur, do understand why you'd choose an elective over your standard British hospital birth.

I gave birth at home myself, with an independent midwife. You generally find that women who choose homebirth have the highest satisfaction rates with their births overall - and the fewest health problems afterwards.

Really?@ stillbirth statistic???

I've never heard that.

MrsMattie, I haven't either, but have just done a search and apparently studies suggest chances doubling here. It is a 2003 study, so not sure if any subsequent studies have been done which contradicts this.

lovely calm elective owing to breech

virtually no pain post-op - didn't touch the paracetemol they offered me

hardly any post-op bleeding either

up day 4 no prob (could hobble about slightly bent after 2 days)

er, just a bit of, er, wind, was only side effect

BTW I was given a bit of something to calm me during op - don't know if this is standard or not - certainly felt very mellow

No nausea or sickness either

I think you are right on target with this. First was emergency - tough recovery

Second was elective - total breeze

Re: the stillbirth statistic, would those cs include crash/emergency cs as well? Those cs could be emergency because of the mother or baby is already compromised in some manner, therefore the higher risk of stillbirth.

My personal belief is that an elective cs for a fullterm baby is the safest route of delivery for a baby. Not for mother, for baby. It would greatly reduce the risk of brain injury and injury due to instrumental delivery, which to me, is a huge plus, way over the supposed breathing difficulties (which are minimal in a fullterm baby anyway) or risk of being slashed by the scalpel (which are negligible for a calm and controlled elective), for a cs birth.

My elective was great - no problems breastfeeding, very little pain, had a shower at lunchtime, was walking by the evening (section at 9am). Stayed in hospital for 6 days (have ABO incompatibility so babies need to be monitored for jaundice), but I was ready to leave on day 2. Recovery was easy, I stopped painkiller at day 10 & felt completely normal by 3 weeks (walking, driving, shopping etc). Only tips are don't get constipated (senna), take the painkillers (much easier to be mobile when you have no pain), & get a private room if you possibly can.

My emergency was harder but not miles worse - I had a PPH which is probably what made the recovery longer but I didn't really have pain either - because I had an epidural not a spinal I was mobile even earlier.

I didn't have any lasting problems from either.

I've had 2 electives - and two totally different experiences.

First one was fine to begin with but it turned out that i hadn't been sewn up properly and was bleeding internally (into my stomach cavity, not womb). It took a fairly long time (18 hoursish) for them to fully realise the problem (kept saying the fact my stomach was extending was due to wind when it was actually filling up with blood) by which time i'd lost 3.5lts of blood which is alot - around half I think. I needed an emergency operation to sort the problem and a blood transfusion. I was in hospital for 7 days then got an infection in the wound which was fairly unpleasant. Recovery was okay to be honest - slower than it would have been normally as I was very anaemic but okay considering.

Second one was fantastic, although i was obviously more nervous following my earlier experience. It was very straightforward and recovery was quick and easy.

I guess what i'm trying to say is that all operations have risks associated with them, such as post operative bleeding, and caesarians are no exception - elective or not!

The increased risk of stillbirth is for pregnancies FOLLOWING c-section as it's to do with placental issues and scar rupture.

If you have a look here (Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists guidelines on Csection) :

here

you can see all the risks and benefits of c-section set out on page 35.

Basically you're more likely to have a stillbirth, less likely to have more children, and more likely to lose your womb after c-section than after a vaginal birth. (I should think hysterectomy is much more common after emergency than after elective section)

Would like to say that I'm not 'anti c-section' - elective/maternal choice or emergency, but as one of my friends and her baby nearly died from placenta percreta in a pregnancy following 2 c-sections I don't feel as........ relaxed about it as other people. My friend had to spend 3 months in hospital, had to have her bowel resectioned and lost her womb after her placenta grew through her scar in her third pregnancy. She would have died if she'd not had the good fortune to have access to a top European hospital where someone who specialised in placenta percreta just happened to be working.

"My personal belief is that an elective cs for a fullterm baby is the safest route of delivery for a baby. Not for mother, for baby. It would greatly reduce the risk of brain injury and injury due to instrumental delivery, which to me, is a huge plus"

The RCOG guidelines don't appear to support this view.

Ah gabygirl, I see you mean stillbirth for subsequent pregnancies. Fair enough, cannot argue with the figures, even if you do sound like you are scaremongering.

It is still my belief that if a baby makes it to fullterm (and to my limited knowledge, most babies of mothers who had a previous cs do and if they don't it is likely to be due to reasons other than previous cs), elective cs is the safest form of delivery for the baby.

Homebirths potentially carry the highest risk to a baby, if things do go wrong. But that is of course, just my opinion.

Can't dispute the facts@gaby

I think our own personal experiences and the experiences of people we know do affect our feelings about birth, though. Your friend's experience sounds terrible and I am not surprised it has coloured your view of c-sections somewhat, But you have to remember - others have had (or know someone who has had) terrible vaginal birth experiences, so that may colour their view differently.

By the way, I am certainly NOT pro c-section over vaginal birth, as previously stated. I think different strokes apply to different folks.

I had a lovely birth by elective section, was so calm and serene after two vaginal births. I'm not sure I would opt for one though, because I did have back problems for a few years after. It was at the site of the epidural so I'd never have another epidural again.

Had an elective five years ago and compared to my vb 7 months ago the birth was better and recovery much better. Emotionally and physically the vb has really knocked me for six. So am very pro section at the moment!

But with a section you will always have internal scarring which although may not cause you problems now a few years down the line may cause serious problems.

My experience with this is my grandad had abdominal surgery and fully recovered, it wasn't until 20 years later the adhesions in his stomach twisted his bowel, he got scepticemia from this and died
Obviously this is probably a rare senario, but not rare enough for my family.
So with that view short term recovery is great but maybe not so great long term.

"others have had (or know someone who has had) terrible vaginal birth experiences, so that may colour their view differently".

Yes - I agree with this MrsMattie, which is why it's so important that we have access to medical information and research, so we can have some objective input when it comes to making such an important choice.

"Homebirths potentially carry the highest risk to a baby" "But that is of course, just my opinion."

I totally respect people's opinions about where they feel safest when it comes to their own births. But with respect, an opinion which is born out of a lack of awareness of, or of a denial of the facts can't really be considered as anything other than prejudice.

I have had three sections. Two emergency and one blissful, calm elective caesar. My scar is hardly noticable.Had no problems afterwards either! My whopping great scar from abdominal surgery on the other hand makes me look like I met Freddie Kruger on a dark night..... You win some you lose some........

"Fair enough, cannot argue with the figures, even if you do sound like you are scaremongering"

Scaremongering is spreading rumours to panic people.

The increased risk of stillbirth following c-section isn't a rumour, it's an established medical fact. Tens of thousands of women in this country opt for induction because of an increase in the risk of stillbirth after 42 weeks - the overall risk is still very small, but obviously most women consider it worth knowing about. Why shouldn't it be the same for c-section?

Apparently in the US some women who've lost babies in pregnancies following elective sections are considering a group action lawsuit because they weren't informed of the risk prior to having their operations......

gabygirl, would you mind CATting me... thanks..

gabygirl, I went through a very thorough VBAC interview to decide whether to go for VABC or for elective. I told the senior midwife not to influence me either way and just throw the facts at me. In turn, I fired a series of questions at her, including questions on statistics.

Not once was the risk of a stillbirth for subsequent pregnancies mentioned to me. I signed a very detailed consent form listing all the risks. Once again, the risk of stillbirth was not mentioned.

Clearly, there has to be better awareness on this risk. Should I have chosen a home birth instead?

No - you should choose what's best for you and your family.

But I'd have to ask that if this information is in the RCOG guidelines on c-section, why midwives aren't informing women that this is the case when they go through the risks and benefits of c-section with them.

My elective was lovely and my recovery was also great.

I actually walked to the nursery to bathe DS the morning after the CS (though the nurses were quite shocked I was feeling up to doing that and stayed with me all the time!)

Agree with Stillenacht, though, the fear of labour (and I suppose, the unknown) was much worse than my nice consultant!