C section or Vaginal Birth

[CarlaBarcelona]

Hi there, I wondered if I could ask for some advice on C sections vs vaginal births. I'm trying to decide what's best. My pregnancy has been fairly healthy and I'm also quite a healthy person (despite being a slightly older mum at 37).

However, everyone I know who has had a baby in the last couple of years has ended up having unplanned C sections after long and difficult "natural" births. Our local hospital is well rated for maternal care but we've had a poor experience with some of the midwives so far. My thinking is just to skip the trauma of that and head straight for an elective C section.

However, is the recovery really terrible?

Any advice, very welcome. No judgement please :)

I had a planned c section for medical reasons (placenta previa) and honestly I was quite relieved the decision and choice was made for me. It was a really positive experience and my recovery was very straightforward - I was sore for a few days but took it very easy and after a week or so felt much more independent. I was only on hospital for 24 hours @PassportPhotosAreHorrific - in hindsight I should have maybe stayed longer in order to help establish feeding etc but postnatal recovery wards are not the most fun place to be and my husband wasn’t allowed to stay overnight so I was desperate to get out of there!

Also OP I would highly recommend C Section UK’s Instagram and course - even if you do go for a vaginal birth it’s good to be prepared!

I had mine on Monday evening and was out Wednesday morning. I was begging to leave sooner, the postnatal wards are terrible places to recover. I really only needed 24 hours.

They didn't allow partners overnight but also did ZERO to help you so I was stuck, completely unable to walk the first night, pumped full of drugs that made me drowsy, holding a newborn. They wouldn't even help change his diaper even though I was unable to get up to do it myself, having only just had surgery 3 hours earlier. We left hospital with a horrible nappy rash.

They said if I choose to give him formula they will care for him and let me rest but if I choose to breastfeed, they can't do anything to help me. And left.

I swear some midwives just hate women.

The sooner you get out the better.

The c section itself was a lovely calm experience. The recovery was totally fine. My scar is barely noticeable, no shelf. I breastfed successfully (in spite of the NHS discouraging it for no reason whatsoever). Highly recommend it.

Completely same as @AnimalFarm567 The postnatal ward is the Worst place for new mums IME.
No support, made to feel a nuisance, noisy, bright lights...
I was out after 1 night with both sections and wouldn't have stayed longer.

I didn't think I could handle a natural birth so I chose a section rather than being induced.
It was a calm experience and the doctor and anaesthetist were exceptional.

Only downside is I could not lean over and pick up my baby for weeks. Getting from a laid down position to sitting up in bed was very hard and I couldn't walk longer than a few minutes without getting sore for weeks. But it was not truly painful, it was always a low level ache rather than excruciating pain if that makes sense. I'd have another again.

I had an ELCS last year and it was a great experience (well, as great as childbirth can be...!) I chose to because I was being pressured into having an induction (reduced movements etc) and every person I know who was induced ended up having an EMCS. As PPs have said though, postnatal care was shockingly poor so I was out the ward ASAP at 48 hour mark.

It's difficult as you just don't know what will happen. I had it in my head I would opt for c section over forceps if that was an option, and that I ideally didn't want an epidural due to increased chance of intervention. I also wanted to be in the midwife led unit.

But I ended up with an induction on labour ward as my waters broke and no contractions started, against their advice I waited around 15 hours (as was also strep b positive but on an antibiotic drop). I found it shocking how painful the drip brought back to back contractions, and agreed to an epidural after about 8 hours, but then an hour later I had a very easy pushing stage where I felt everything and able to move and push and baby born no issues. So overall really positive, internal grazes were stitched due to blood loss but very quick and pain free recovery. Even post natal ward was fine, I was there for 1 night. Support with breastfeeding was adequate and was able to continue at home and go to breastfeeding support group for further help.

I agree with reading the positive birth book, hypnobirthing book just so you can be informed and understand options or even when options are taken away like the birth centre etc was for me.

Best of luck!

When I was pregnant with my eldest a colleague said to me.. the people who share their experiences with you in person are the ones with an experience to share. That means you will always get the awful tales of both options from those who had awful experiences.

This is so true. It's the same with serious illness stories.

Just to add balance to this thread, I had a VB and it was straightforward.

At 38.5 weeks my waters broke at 2pm and that's when my contractions started. We went to the hopsital and the midwife attached the tens machine to me. I tried gas and air, but I found it unnatural to breath through my mouth instead of my nose so I didn't bother. I asked for some pethidine and the midwife said not to as I was ready to push. DD popped out at 8pm. I didn't tear, nor was I cut.

I started to feel rather bruised a couple of days later but that didn't last, and six weeks later my body felt like I had never given birth at all.

The post natal ward wasn't a horrible place to be, and the midwives were very helpful and supportive.

Ive been induced, spontaneous, elective c-section and forceps, honestly the c-section was the easiest, was very calm and quick, but i hate having to stay in hospital, my first birth i was induced and ended up with episiotomy and forceps delivery and that was worse than my c-section for recovery, my second was spontaneous with no intervention and that was great i had baby and was home in bed 3 hours later and recovery was way faster than both c-section and forceps delivery, my 3rd was c-section (twins) i came home after 3 days (mostly due to twins being in hot cots rather than my recovery) and my last i was induced again which i was terrified about because of my first experience of being induced but it was the best labour and birth by far, nice and quick (too quick poor baby was born with red eyes as the blood vessels had burst being born so quick lol) unfortunately i had to stay in hospital because my waters had gone over 24 hour before she was born so we had to be kept in for observation incase of infection but would have probably been home nice n quick otherwise, recovery time was a few days xx

I had a VB & semi elective CS. Both pretty straightforward, a few stitches with the VB, discharged next morning after CS. The recovery from my VB was so much easier & I would choose that every time.

I was a similar age to you when I had mine. I looked up the pros and cons of each type of pain relief, some of them can give you a higher risk of interventions, and made my mind up from there. Ended up having to pretty straightforward deliveries although I know luck can be a big part of it.

I had two EMCS and would beg for the same again in a heartbeat.
I recovered incredibly quickly from both (two in a year as my twins were premature). Take your meds like clockwork after Csec is my advice to avoid pain.

Lots of good advice here. Also do consider what is best for your baby - evidence shows that this is a natural birth (not saying that everyone can achieve that but just talking evidence and statistics) but it's something to consider.
There are many reasons that so many women's attempt at a vaginal birth goes 'wrong', and one of the reasons is that the hospital environment and they way we think about birth are not supportive of what our bodies actually need. The more preparation and reading you can do, courses if you can, the better, and this will help to offset the factors that have a negative impact.
In my group of 10 friends, 2 of us read all the birth books, hypnobirthing course etc and we've both had 2 uncomplicated vaginal deliveries (both induced for one of those.) The others took more of a 'wait and see what happens' approach
and all ended up with forceps or emergency sections. This is anecdotal obviously and not evidence.
Of course I'm not saying at all that if you do all right prep you'll be fine, as many women do and end up having complications out of their control. But there is lots you can (and in my opinion should) do to prepare. Statistically, most women should be able to give birth naturally (otherwise the human race would have died out!).
Of course, if that's something you don't want to do then that's fine as well but booking a section 'just incase', when you'd actually like to have natural delivery, would be a shame as there is lots you can do to prepare for it.
If you're scared (and many of us are) then the more you know about birth the better. You can then make an informed choice.
Great books are:
Expecting better
Positive birth book
And while you're at it:
Anything on the 4th trimester and breastfeeding (these usually cover birth a bit as well).

Thank you so much! All this advice is super helpful.

like you say, I’m going to read up, attend the classes and have regular discussions with the midwife team who - luckily - are very available to us. I think I’ve settled on an ELCS but going to prepare for a natural birth too because in reality the baby could come early and I want to be able to adjust a plan for that too.

Will definitely research the fourth trimester and make sure I have the right care and support in place to aid a good recovery if I can. Especially with a CS, that seems to be almost as important as the labour itself.

thank you!

If you go into labour early and you are booked for an ELCS they will just add you as an ‘emergency’ if that makes sense. You’ll probably have the op that same day.

Ah, I hadn't thought about that. Will discuss with the midwives. Thanks so much for the heads up x

I had 3 vb. The first one was long and somewhat difficult - 36 hour labour and ended up being induced for failure to progress and had a tear that needed stitches, but was all ok in the end. 2nd one was a breeze and left hospital 4 hours after giving birth and picked older DC up from school same day. 3rd one was also straightforward despite planned induction at 38 weeks. Incidentally I've just had major abdominal surgery for a totally different reason and would never opt for that over at least trying a vaginal birth, plus vb has additional benefits for the baby