Support thread for those of us who are requesting an ELCS after a previous traumatic delivery

[withorwithoutyou]

Hello everyone.

I have noticed a lot of threads regarding requesting ELCS lately, probably because I am in the process of trying to request one myself!

I just wondered if it might be useful for us to have a support thread where we can talk this all through as I know it can be a challenging process to go through.

Can I please also ask in the nicest possible way that anybody contributing to this thread can respect our desire for ELCS over VB? Thank you!

Anyway, I'll start - I have one DD, born 20 months ago by forceps after failed ventouse. She weighed 9 pounds 11 and I am concerned this one will be heavier! I am 30 weeks and have my first consultants appt tomorrow where I will be requesting an ELCS!

Yep, it's a dreadful hospital - I transferred out of area for both of my babies but had the misfortune to experience the labour ward when DD1 was admitted as a baby.

If you do think transferring out of area is at all possibly then I highly recommend NGH - they were absolutely wonderful for my ELCS just under 2 weeks ago and I can let you know the consultants name. The journey there wasn't too bad - around 25 minutes, we are just slightly to the West of cental MK.

I will email my friend and ask her the name of the consultant she saw at MK who offered her an ELCS - that was two years ago but hopefully the consultant will still be there. Otherwise, you could ask your m/w who is likely to be sympathetic. I'll let you know what my friend says though.

Yay I'm back.

Will update properly later but everything went well, c/s on Friday, came out today (Monday) and am utterly besotted with dd2, she is gorgeous. Very calm birth and all went smoothly. Will be back with more details later, off to drink a big celebratory glass of wine (it is the evening here!)

Congratulations!!

Good to hear that all went smoothly.

Getting a bit nervous now. Have meeting with consultant on Thursday morning and not sure what he will say. Midwife did say after last appointment that she doesn't think I will have any bother getting go ahead for ELCS but obviously it is not up to her at the end of the day.

Also they have requested my previous birth notes for a second time from the hospital, they couldn't find them last time. It has been two weeks since last request, do you think I can phone clinic to see if they have arrived? Would they be sent to clinic? That is where all my antenatal/consultant appointments are held.

I have been getting really strong BH past couple of weeks(now 35+5), strong enough to wake me at night and I have to get out of bed and walk around. I am so worried that I go into labour and have to have a VB.

Any one else have really strong BH with second babies?

Getting wound up and scared again!

whatshesaid - congrats! So glad it went well and you are both home safe and sound. Looking forward to the story

mumtoblaire - my notes got lost when I booked in for DC2, my consultant was very annoyed and muttered away about it being 'not good enough' etc etc. He said I should make a complaint he was so put out (somehow I think I wasn't the only one he'd had to remember rather than reread notes on ...)

Since your notes are important for your choice to have an elcs I would make a call to see if they are there for your clinic. At worst you annoy someone on the phone (but not someone who will be deciding whether you get an elcs!) and at best you will know you've done all you can to make this appointment an effective chat about your history and plan for this birth. Explain they were missing last time. Are they being sent from another hospital?

Being sent from hospital to local health centre. I am going to same hospital for this birth. Is only hospital in area so don't know why it is so difficult.

Will phone them the now.

Just phoned antenatal clinic and very nice lady says they don't arrive until day of appointment.

Just have to wait and see what happens.

Well done you for taking action! At least if you get there Thursday and they haven't arrived you can say you phoned. I hope they turn up, you would be well within your rights to say the appointment must be rescheduled urgently if they don't have them. Will the consultant already know your history or is it a new one?

Never met the consultant before and have never spoken to anyone since the birth of DD1. So will have to go through previous birth and post birth problems. Not looking forward to it at all. Needs to be done though.

Appointment at 9.15am so hopefully I will be in first and will not have to wait about to long.

This site has been very helpfull and I do have lots of notes and points to help me during appointment.

Would like to say thank you to everyone that has contributed to this thread. I never knew that my post birth problems were not normal and could be solved(well maybe!)

Hello everyone.

Just wanted to let you know that we had our little boy last Monday (5th July). And we have just been sent home.

We had quite a rocky time, I won't go into all the details, but ds had some breathing difficulties when he was born, and ended up in SCBU, whilst I was in postnatal recovering, I was then moved into a room on SCBU to be with ds.

I am finding recovery quite difficult - BUT - I am glad that I had an elcs, dds head was 99th centile and he was 8lb 9oz (I know it doesn't sound mahoosive, but I am only 4'11"!), everyone involved agreed I would probably have had some further tearing, so I think the decision I made was the right one. At teh beginning the consultant thought ds's breathing problems were due to the cs, but they have realised that ds has some lung issues that are unrelated.

I am so pleased to hear about your new arrivals Whatshesaid and Mookle (although sorry to hear your dd had some trouble at the beginning).

Hazeyjane - congrats on your little boy - you were in hospital quite a while there - hope your recovery gets easier - take it very easy.

Ok - I went in for my elective last Friday. Despite already having had a c/s (emergency), I was still quite nervous. We arrived 7.30 and were booked in for 9 but another c/s ended up coming in first so we went into theatre about 11. Dh and my midwife were with me (here in NZ you have the same midwife for all your antenatal appts and they are also at the birth and do the first 6 wks of postnatal appts).

It was all very quick. Wheeled into theatre in lovely gown, support stockings and attractive green net hat , sat on edge of operating table while epidural was put in - maybe the worst bit of the whole thing, it feels scratchy and there is some pressure. I felt a bit woozy and lightheaded after that and asked dh to talk to me about something random just to keep my mind of it all.

They checked I was numbed up and started the operation and within about 5 minutes dd was out and within about another 20-30 mins I was stitched up and out of theatre. They brought dd pretty much straight to me, she weighed exactly the same as my dd1 at birth - 7lb 14 oz - and exactly the same length too (50 cm!). She yelled straight away, her AGPAR was 9, then 10, she has a head of very dark hair and is absolutely beautiful, I fell in love with her straight away, which didn't happen with dd1 -0 maybe because of the shock of having an emergency c/s ladt time. I just can't get over how gorgeous she is, i just sit and stare at her .

The only downside was that my epidural line which is meant to stay in for pethidine pain relief post-surgery somehow managed to fall out in the next few hours. They couldn't put it back in without doing another full epidural insertion so they just gave me oral tablets (morphine, voltaren and paracetomol) instead on intravenous pain relief. So basically teh first 24 hours was more painful because oral pain relief tablets arent as effective as intravenous stuff, which is instant. It just upset me I felt I couldnt look after dd2 because I was in too much pain if I tried to move.

But DONT WORRY anyboby reading this, it's very rare for an epdural to fall out! My mw couldn't understand how it had happened. After about 24 hours the pain was under control, that was Saturday, by Sunday I was dressed and up and about on teh ward and on Monday morning I came home.

Dd1 is so far completely entranced by her new sister and this morning told her "You're my best friend!". Dd2 is so far unnamed but we're working on it. At the moment she is just sleeping and feeding and looking cute. Feeding going fine, she latched on for an hour in recovery and hasn't looked back since. My milk came in last night ( 4 days after c/s) so it's a bit sore at the moment but hopefully will calm down soon.

Apart from the "epidural line falling out" complication it was a very positive experience and I feel very very lucky to have my two beautiful girls. Lot and lots of happy baby hormones in the Whatshesaid household at the moment

whatshesaid well done and so pleased you had a (generally) very positive experience

hazeyjane congrats on the birth of your DS, well done, but sorry to hear of the complications, its so frightening when anything is wrong, I hope you are all doing well at home now.

Whatshesaid and hazeyjane, well done and big congratulations to both of you!

Hazeyjane, sorry to hear of your DS' lung issues, I hope he's doing well now.

Hey, can I join? Having an ELCS next week on Thursday and just starting to get the jitters . Already had one with dd2 7 years ago but it feels as though I've forgotten most of what happened.

I'm interested to know patterns of recovery, when people were walking, driving, lifting comfortably?

Hi duejuly well I'm 6 days post elective c/s and I went out for our first trip to the park yesterday, obviously dh did all the driving and lifting but I felt OK for a short timein the park holding dd2 while dd1 ran around. We then went to the shops to pick up a few bits and I felt ok, so we were out for about an hour but I feel I might get a bit tired being out longer than that at the mo.

I feel I'm recovering loads quicker than with my emergency c/s 2 years ago, I got a wound infection then so it took quite a while to get over that (on antibiotics for about a month).

Obviously I don't want to do too much too soon but I feel fine carrying the baby around and doing light stuff around the house as long as I get a rest now and then. Reminding myself to drink lots of water, eat lots of fruit and veg and eat proper meals, I think it can make a big difference to recovery. Also taking arnica tablets, not sure I really believe in all the homeopathic stuff but I had some left over from last time and I figure it can't do any harm.

Hope to be driving week after next, i.e about 2 and a half wks after c/s. Just locally, to shops, playgroup etc. It's more lifting prams etc in and out of cars that worries me than the actual driving.

Been up since 4.30am this morning. Couldn't sleep. Have consultant app at 9.15am today and extremely nervous.

Wish me luck!

Antbody get elcs done before 39wks?

Thanks for that Whatshesaid it's amazing how much you forget! I seem to remember being told that I couldn't drive until 6 weeks after a section? I'm not sure where I heard it tho, would love to be driving asap after as I live in a small village and will go out of my mind!

mumtoblaire I'm having mine at 38+6 because they were booked up the day after and then it's the weekend. When I went for the consultant appointment tho she did check with someone else (some god type doctor I think ) to see if they could do it 'more than a week before'. You may have trouble requesting one before 39 weeks.

Appointment went great. Seen registrar as consultant very busy. Registrar was a woman and I found it much easier to talk to her.

I told her about my post birth problems last time and she read through my previous birth notes(glad they were there)and said that an elcs was fine. Told midwife to phone and book there and then. She is also recomending a gyn review after delivery.

So I am really pleased and can now relax for the next 3 weeks.

I have a 38wk appointment at which I will sign consent forms and get tablets to take the night before.

Booked for elcs on 4th August

mumtoblaire - thats great i bet you feel so much better knowing its all sorted

duejuly2010 - hi and welcome to the thread, i am 14 days post cs and feeling pretty ok can do most light household tasks just trying to take it easy for fear of damaging internal stitching whch is what the miswife warned me about. the external stitches are almost healed though. i was told by anaesthetist i cannot drive for 6 weeks due to insurance company rules but that in reality probbly safe to drive at 4 weeks. actually had more pain from bleeding nipples than cs!

apologies for lack of punctuation...am typing one handed whilst feeding dd!

Congrats mumtoblaire, so pleased it all went well and it's sorted.

Glad to hear the recovery is going well mookie. I agree about the early days of breastfeeding being more painful!

ealey - who knew abdominal surgery would hurt less than vampire babies!!? LOL!

Hope you are doing OK? x

Congrats whatshesaid - hope you're making a speedy recovery now.

mumtoblair - so pleased you're sorted - must be a HUGE relief for you.

duejuly - I'm 5 wks post elcs tody - have felt GREAT since about 5 days post surgery & have had to make a conscious effort not to do too much! I called my insurance company who were happy for me to drive once a GP or midwife said it was ok - I saw the GP at just over 3 weeks & have been driving since then - all insurance companies are different apparently so give them a call. Good luck with your cs.

I'm sure some of you have seen the story today about babies being born out of hours having higher death rates than those born during 'office hours': www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-10631092

What struck me when reading the article was the researchers' statement that they excluded planned CS births because it is known that the risk of death was so much lower for these babies than those born vaginally. I was just a bit shocked to read this stated so firmly, as I found it nearly impossible to find information on this aspect when I was researching my options.

Onebabyplease - It is a huge relief to know that I wont have to go through that again. And now that I know my post birth problems are not "normal" I will hopefully be able to get some of them sorted after this little is born.

At vampire babies!

I have to keep telling myself that I may not recover as quickly as you guys and not to get my hopes up with regards to; hospital stay - may be difficulties & might have to stay longer if needed.
May not be up and about as easily and will have to take it slowly.

The good thing is that DD1 is going to visit relatives on 2nd August until 10th and has said she still wants to go and will see baby when she gets back. My elcs is 4th August so I wont be worrying about her. I will also be able to totally relax when I get home from hospital and not be thinking that I should be doing stuff with DD1.

Hello everyone.

Just wanted to say, that I know everyone is different, and that a lot of people do heal quicker than they say after a section, but so far my experience has not been like other recent sections on this thread.

After the section I was really ill, vomiting and delirious for the whole of the next day, my blood pressure had plummeted, I was allergic to the normal painkillers, so had to have morphine and had lost nearly 1500ml of blood. I had to be up and about because I wanted to get down to SCBU to see our ds, but I had to be wheeled down in a pushchair, I couldn't stand up to have a shower, and felt pretty awful. I was discharged on day 4, day 3 was the first day I had been able to walk. I moved up to SCBU and had to push Tom's crib around and carry on as normal, but it was definitely too soon, and I had a reaction where my thigh swelled up (phlebitis) and I came out in hives. I had paracetemol and codeine for pain relief, but felt I needed something a lot stronger.

I am day 12 now, and still feel pretty crap, my scar is very sore, and I don't feel as though I would be up to walking very far.

I don't want to be the voice of negativity, but, just wanted to say that, if you do take longer to recover, then really look after yourself, and don't feel bad about it, we all heal at different rates, and have different types of sections.

My experience wasn't helped by the fact that ds had to go into SCBU within half an hour of being born. He is being treated as a premature baby now, because of losing so much weight, and the fact that he had respiratory distress syndrome. The consultant will review him in a couple of weeks, but MW does seem to think that him being born at 39 weeks could be a contributory factor.