Holding baby straight after elective cs

[CakeandRoses]

I had an emergency cs with DS and I'm booked in for an elective next month for dc2.

I was just nosing around looking for success stories about bf after an elective cs (and found lots ) as I was a bit worried it might be more problematic than with my emcs given I'd started labour with that one (and had no probs with milk coming in and bf).

I also saw an old post of 5goldrings4MONKEYBIRDs (Tue 04-Dec-07 16:12:59) which mentioned being the first to hold her baby:

... I discussed what I wanted at length with my MW and with the booking in people when I went in. Had a FANTASTIC anaesthetist - who really are in charge, the obs just do the cutting/pulling! She was quite junior but consulted with her senior when I said I wanted to be first to hold my baby, that I wanted immediate skin to skin and didn't want baby washed, aspirated etc... Both of them thought this was a fantastic idea and discussed with me while doing the epidural why couldn't they do this more often etc.. I'd really recommend it cos this time round the very earthy experience of holding my newborn first (not a husband, MW or O/G) was brilliant for bonding etc...

Wondered if anyone else had had a similar experience and has any tips or info about it? And I'm assuming someone had to pass her baby to her so she wasn't really the first person to 'hold' the baby - sorry that sounds daft but hopefully you know what I mean!

I can't quite remember the order of things that happened with my 1st cs but I'm certain I wasn't the first to hold him - and this time I'd like to.

I had this with both my electives - baby was delivered then passed directly to me for skin to skin. Anaesthetist took my gown off one arm after spinal went in & baby was tucked into my gown then a blanket put over both of us & a hat on baby. Had about 5 mins like that - ds managed to have a little feed, dd2 wasn't interested - then mw & dh dried, weighed, tagged & dressed baby while I was stitched, then passed back to me & tucked up next to me in bed before we left theatre. Both had long feeds in recovery.

Much better experiences than my emerg. section with dd1.

Thank you phlebas. Sounds lovely.

Did you have to make a big thing of being the first to hold them or do you think its fairly standard practice for electives.

With emergency cs, do they normally whisk them off for checking etc first? I think that's what what happened with mine but I'm not totally sure now (will ask DH later!)

I had ELCS and specifically requested skin to skin as I was going into theatre, and was told this wasn't possible. No real reason was given that I remember, just that the logistics wouldn't work, or they didn't do that at this hospital or some such nonsense.

So my husband held her and cuddled her when I was being stitched, and helped dress her etc, which was lovely and very bonding for him. I was able to see her a little bit, and I held my hand up to her and touched her, which was great.

Anyway, to get to the point.... She is exclusively breast fed and is now six months old - so despite the fact I didn't hold her for the first hour and a half - this didn't make a difference to breast feeding. Next time I would be more insistent on skin-to-skin, as she was taken to recovery in a little cot, and I had to ask again to hold her for the first time - I was about fifth to hold her!

I had two ELCS. In both the baby was delivered and then put straight onto my chest. It was really good. I would have much preferred to have given birth to them myself, and having them put onto me still messy and naked made me feel like I had something of that experience.

I can't really remember much about dd1 but I am pretty sure I was handed dd2 almost straight away after she was born (both by elective section).

However for me, more importantly, I asked to see them being born. It didn't really work with dd1 (I just saw a little waving purple leg - she was breach), but they completely lowered the screen with dd2 and I saw her being lifted out right in front of my eyes so I was the first person she saw (at least that is how I recall it). It was incredible. I was meant to be the one to discover her sex but in my confused state thought the umblicle cord was a willy....it was the aneathesist who blurted out "it's a girl" - I was so expecting a boy I couldn't believe it!

We also have some amazing pics of dd2 being born, the light was dimmed but gave her a sort of golden glow.

All in all a fantastic experience. Good luck!

I had the same, em cs with DS then a civilised planned cs with DD.

The consultant was very pro skin-to-skin after a cs. Although as I am a major worrier I was eager for the theatre staff to quickly check DD over before handing her to me. But TBH it was dead tricky to hold her what with the monitoring tubes in one arm so I only held her for a couple of minutes before passing her to P. Still a lovely experience though . There's a small pic on my profile of her all squashed up against me while I was still on the operating table.

I waited to get out of theatre to bf her and she took to it like a duck to water.

I had adrenaline so shook like billy-o. Could barely hold my hands on my wrists, never mind a baby! They did tuck him into bed next to me though. I had trouble breastfeeding but the milk supply was fine, came in on day 3 no bother - it was more to do with my nipples.

I've had 2 ELCS and both times baby was lifted straight on to my chest (still mucky) where they stayed while I was stitched up (well daddy had a cuddle too). Bf as soon as out of theatre.

Lovely to read these stories. Thank you so much.

I will definitely ask for skin to skin asap this time and with all the muck still on. Although I did get to hold DS in the theatre I'm pretty sure he'd been cleaned up and wrapped in a towel first.

I remember I did ask to watch it last time but they said no - possibly because it was an emergency and they didn't know what was going to happen. It's probably just as well as it was a bit of a disaster (they had several attempts and had to pull him out of the cut via forceps in the end!) so would have been rather traumatic to watch!

I will ask to watch again this time, maybe they'll be ok as its planned.

Forceps is usual when the baby is high, (esp if you're not in labour). I had forceps.

I meant normal, not usual. Usual sounds like it's nearly every time!

Shaz10 - No, I was in labour. It was another reason as to why he was stuck but if was v unusual so prefer not to go into here as it would out me.

That is interesting to hear re forceps not being uncommon as I hadn't heard of a cs/forceps combo til I had it!