Birth after Cone Biopsy

[Rochwen]

Quick question. What are the experiences and statistics of birth after a previous cone biopsy?

How many of you required a C-section to give birth after a cone biopsy? How many had extremely long drawn out labours with a lot of interventions? How many ended up with instrumental deliveries?

Thank you very much.

I had a cone biopsy (99) followed by 2 births (01) and 05). Both natural, extremely quick, with absolutely no intervention. HTH.

I had a cone biopsy and many years later had a normal delivery with no instruments involved. The labour took a while to "crank up" to being properly established but the midwife said it was because I was old (40)

Hi Rochwen, I had a cone biopsy and went on to have two very different labours. 1st one - typical, ventouse, episiotomoy, 16 hours (but DS was a whopping 9lb 10oz!) DD;s labour was 1 hour with no pain relief. Hope this helps!
Nikki

Thank you very much everyone !

Your replies are all very encouraging. My mw seems to believe that I will quite likely need a cs, but she had no statistics as to HOW likely that would be. I just wanted to have an idea, so that I can prepare myself.

If anyone has anymore info I'd be delighted to hear it. Also, apparently there is a greater risk of miscarriage/stillbirth due to incompetent cervix after a cone biopsy. Has anyone experienced this, heavenforbid? I'm currently 26 weeks but I'm counting the days hoping I'll make it up to term.

Thanks again.

Rochwen

Hi - I'm in much the same position, cone biopsy last year, now 19 weeks pregnant with first baby. My mw has referred me to the hospital for my next antenatal next week because of the cone biopsy so if I find anything out will post and let you know.

You won't know how it is going to go until you actually go into labour.
IME as a midwife, you can feel whether the cervix is going to dilate or not. Sometimes it can feel scarred and hard, not dilating with good contractions. Sometimes you feel the cervix like a 'pinhole' during labour where it has thinned (effaced) but is not dilating.
Usually women with previous cone biopsy are watched closely in labour to prevent long drawn out labours with no progress.

I have seen many women who have had cone biopsies have normal deliveries. It is very much an individual thing. Good luck. HTH.

Thank you all for sharing your experiences and thank you mears for the info.

Picalilly, let me know how you get on !

I have two friends who also had a previous cone biopsy and neither of them had a straight-forward delivery. One had an emergency cs after 30 hours of horrendous labour with all the intervention they could think of and my second friend (who had her baby about 10 years ago) ended up with a 'high forceps' birth. (I didn't even know there was such a thing - yikes) The baby was ok but she is still having problems 'down there' now 10 years after and needed repeated surgery. It sounds absolutely brutal.

The two consultant that I've spoken to all suggested a 'trial of labour' to see if I would dilate at all. If I didn't they'd give me a c/s but if I did only dilate slowly they would 'help along with drugs'. I'm not sure I'm all that keen on a high intervention birth. Realistically I know that my chances of having a 'natural' birth are very slim but if that's not an option I much rather have a planned c/s then go through hours of artificial labour with lots of interventions, and I really really really do NOT want a forceps birth (I'm totally terrified of that.)

The last time I spoke to a midwife (I haven't managed to see the same one twice yet) she told me that they would discuss my birth optins at my next consultants appointment, which is at 37 weeks. I think I might asked for a planned c/s but from what I've read sofar on mumsnet apparently it's almost impossible to get one on the NHS. What do you think are my chances of being given one? If there's really no chance I might have to look into private care (even though I'm not insured and I'd rather spend my money on my baby.) but that would have to happen asap as the private hospitals up here book up very quickly.

I know I'm still very uninformed about all of this but this is my first baby !

Rochwen

Rochwen,

I have also had a cone biopsy. Discussed incompetent cervix issues with a consultant at 16 weeks - decided not to proceed with any stiching as she didn't feel the risk was great enough (although apparently, my cervix is quite short!).

Was induced with prostaglandin pessary at 40+5 as my waters had broken. Went from no dilation to full dilation in 9 hours with no additional pain relief. Had a slight anterior lip which prevented pushing for a while. Ended with a ventouse delivery after 3 hours of pushing - but this had nothing to do with the results of the cone biopsy....dd just got stuck! Have also suffered no nasty after effects and now trying for number two!

Have to say that when I first mentioned the cone biopsy to my mid-wife early on - she didn't mention anything about chances of a poor delivery due to scarring!

Hope you get what you want...but the please remember that childbirth is a personal thing and two bad experiences that you know from friends, doesn't mean that you would have one too.

tiny bit of a hijack, but mears, once you've given birth after a biopsy vaginally i.e. you have (eventually) fully dilated, will you have the same problem next time? or once opened then next time you can't have that problem again???

I spoke to the consultant at my last appointment - turns out I had a LLETZ under general anasthetic, not a cone biopsy as I had previously been told, this was my second LLETZ. Anyway, the consultant said that in any event there's actually only negligible risk of problems and it's something that they deal with if and when problems arise.