Ive never met any one in RL who had a general anasthetic for a c section. Have any of you had one?

[sunburntats]

I did, it was classed as emergency apparently.
Undiagnosed breach.

Twas a horrific birth up till the drugs.

Ds has slash marks across the small of his back to this day and he is 6.

I have never met or spoken to anyone else with the same experience.
Do you know any one or did you have a general?
Why did you have a general?
And what are your memories of it? Good or bad?

i did, horrible birth story, you sure you want to hear it!

I know 2.
Both have been in the last year.

yes i would like to hear it if you dont mind. Obviously not if it upsets you.
This will be the first time i have spoken about mine in 6 years. i would like to share, and compare.

Yes, a friend had an emergency under GA last year. Was very grim. She and the baby both nearly died.

She was in a state of shock for a few months, I think. I mean proper clinical shock. She had counselling for a while.

I did, but it was an elective c-section. I had had a failed spinal before, and although tried a spinal block it was just too painful to insert. So general was given. No harm to ds2, so your description of slash marks is rather horrifying.

I do regret that Dh wasn't allowed to be present (though he doesn't mind). I think that the weirdest bit was waking up to ds2 to find that he was so tiny. Ds1 was 9lbs 4, and the growth scans had indicated that ds2 was bigger (which was the main reason for the c-section). Ds2 was 7lb 4 and looked absolutely tiny. But otherwise the spitting image of his brother.

was 2 weeks overdue with DD, booked in for induction on weds evening, started having contractions an hour before we left for hospital!

Contractions speed up, get more intense, they move me to labour ward and I get gas and air. (no idea of time so just guessing here) few hours later get a shot of pethidine.

Then it's morning and pain is unbearable, so I ask for an epidural. Pain dies down for a little while and they carry on monitoring me and DD.

Then they can't find DD's heartbeat, so they put one of those things up my fanjo to try and get a reading from the top of her head. They can't find it still.

Decide I need an emerency c section, get ready to break my waters, then they break on their own anyway! Then a nurse comes in to shave me, and a consultant attempts to get me to sign consent forms......I think I swore A LOT at him

So they're wheeling me down to theatre, spraying this cold stuff on my bump, to determine how far up the epidural has numbed me. Except it hasnt......I can feel everything........but they don't believe me!

So I'm screaming and swearing my head off, they don't believe the epidural hasn't worked properly, and they start cutting into me. I don't know how I finally managed to convince them that I could feel everything, but the next thing I know I'm out for the count.

Turns out, the umbilical cord was wrapped over DD's head like a head band, which is why they could only get my heartbeat.

Phew! that was long, sorry. Amazingly, it hasn't put me off having another baby!!

One of my friends had one after she kicked the anaesthetist in the face when he said that she couldn't possibly be feeling the knife going in ...

it was horrendous.......but totally worth it

DD hasn't got any marks from the scalpel, didn't know that was possible tbh.

The slash marks are from them trying to break my waters about 15 times....waters of course would not break because ds's butt was plugging the hole!

had pre eclampsia so was induced.

I got to 10 cms dilated before they realised he was breach, distressed and litterally shitting meconium probably with pain from the slashes and not moving any where!!

I have no memory of anything else.
Woke up and vomited. Didnt believe that ds was mine as i hadnt given birth.
Was then left to it, trying to lift him out of his plastic fish bowl by his babygrow because he was screaming his tree off and i couldnt move.

Dont know where dh was, think i woke up in the early hours and they told him to go home, so he did.

Hoe do i go about having a look at my notes? Would like to read about it and fill in gaps.

I had a planned csection under GA because I had a brain hemmorage (sp!), caused by being pregnant (pituitary gland went into overdrive in response to pregnancy).

The most scarey bit was being awake in the theater while they put drips in and goodness knows what else (I think they like to do all that stuff before they do the anasthetic). Having 20+ people hovering around my naked from the waist, form was weird too.

DS is now 2.5. My memories are OK, I was just relieved everything was OK. I missed his first few hours and was pretty out of it for most of his first 24 hours due to morphine. DS wasn't scratched and was fine.

I have some disappointment at the experience as it is so different to what I had initially anticipated- but I tell myself that many many mums do not have the birth they hoped for!!

I was quite down for a few months and exhausted which may have been due to the experience - who knows??!!

Yes I've had one - when i have DS2 - it was emergency and my labour was long and hard. It was a VBAC and started to go very wrong when I got to the pushing stage I try not to recall it & DH is still haunted by the sounds from the forceps (not too sure why this is all he's said I'm surprised he heard anything over my screaming and yelling).

At times I feel angry at hell that I didn't get a birth were I could see or hold my baby after he was born or a recovery where I could sit or stand or even wee by myself in the days after. I'd of liked it if my son hadn't of had to go to ICU immediately and not be able to hold him for three days.

However overall I feel OK about it in the sense that i realise that both him and I would be dead without the crash section. But saying that it has left me intolerant and with an overwhelming urge to tell women who gush on about their wonderful births to fuck off I'm not interested. Especially ones who seem to think that it was all down to how they prepared for it. The tossers.

I do know some people who've had them

some were traumatic, some not

i would approach the hospital you delivered at and ask to discuss , altough has 6 years has passed, you will most likely have to pay for your notes

I did (also 6 years ago). Another mum in my antenatal class also had a general.

Mine was a failed induction, cor round neck, foetal distress turned crash section. By the time they said they were knocking me out I was so relieved. I had a had enough and the idea of going to sleep while they did the rest was VERY welcome.

All of the events that led up to it were not much fun. But, then, I never experienced the pain of delivery so I fgure I got a fair deal.

Not wanting to repeat the experience I went straight for the elective section on baby nuber 2. A much nicer experience.

Yes, I had one with my first baby. Long labour (3 days or so), failure to progress and then the epidural didn't take enough to do the C-Section under that.

I feel ok about it now, but mainly because I've had two vaginal births since then which were very peaceful and positive (one at home) but I spent a long time feeling awful about it. My 8yo dd still has a mark on her forehead (pretty sure they pulled her up and out with forceps because when she was newborn, she had a bright red mark on both the front and back of her head).

It took longer to bond and it was difficult to establish breastfeeding. The GA was scary and when I woke up, I couldn't breathe which felt awful.

It's worth talking over a bad birth experience and finding a way to work through it. Birth trauma is horrible.

I had a C-section under GA for twins, after a failed induction, 16 months ago.

The week I spent in hospital was the most traumatic and awful experience of my life. (I have had some seriously traumatic experiences in my life prior to the birth of my kids, so I am not saying it lightly. It was truely horrific.)

I will never have another baby, not by choice.

One of my friends had one a few years ago, something happened to both her and the baby's heartbeat and they said there wasn't time for an epidural. Taciocardic? Something like that anyway. She was okay about it.

My brother was born with a general and my mum said it took her a long time to come to terms with it just having her baby pointed out to her, but he was very premature so she couldn't hold him to bond for weeks either.

I had to go over my notes after my EC as I couldn't come to terms with it. It did help.

I did. I was trying for a vbac for dc5. Everything was plodding along nicely, labour started fine, and then suddenly the pain became unbearable, noone can tell me why but it really was bad. Then I started getting scar pain on top of that, so bloody glad I'd not had an epidural or I'd never have felt it. Before I knew it there were people everywhere and all hell seemed to break loose, It may sound daft but I couldn't open my eyes the pain was so bad, was rushed to theatre and out like a light.

Half my scar ruptured along with my bladder and bowel and I lost a lot of blood, we are both lucky to be alive. I feel sad that I don't really remember the first 48 hours of ds2s life and I do still wake up at night thinking about it so no, no good memories. In fact not really any memories at all apart from the pain as was totally out of what exactly was going on. I was lucky in that my postnatal care was good, I think they all felt sorry for me! I have decided that after christmas I will be getting a copy of my notes to fill in the gaps as dh can't talk about it. I have been trying to put it all behind me and get on with it but it's just not happening.

I had one, a terrible experience. DT2 was in severe distress and was rushed for 'crash CS' not knowing if he would live. I came round in recovery for a while not knowing if DT2 would live (rushed to NICU) then was told 'we think you have internal bleeding' and rushed back to theatre. Was horrified and scared and begging to be put under, didn't want to be conscious if was bleeding to death and would never see my baby. I was put under my 2nd GA of the day and arteries were repaired, i lost 3/4 of my blood volume and was very ill in HDU. I didn't see DS for 3 days as was tubed up on machines. Awful time. My belly was black with grapefruit sized hemotomas underneath. Thankfully DS and me made a good recovery and I was just grateful that I had live babies after a stillbirth the year before.

Interestingly, I have since had another c section (planned under spinal) and had no bleeding or other problems. I was scared to death throughout though. the planned section was a million times better.

Yep, had one. Elective - anterior placenta praevia. It was supposed to be a standard cs but scan the day before I was booked in showed a complete blockage so they wanted to do a GA. I was worried but tbh I actually preferred the idea of being knocked out, I really didn't want to be awake or aware of what was going on, I really didn't (am v squeamish). So a bit of a relief to me tbh

Always a traumatic event with you all it seems.
Not just me.

Also many of you are saying that you feel it was for the best for the sake of ether babies life, your life or both.

intersting about "having baby pointed out to you" this is my experience so i didnt believe them.