Having surgery under general anaesthetic in 2nd tri. Petrified!

[Montemouse]

I'm being urged to have surgery under general anaesthetic while I'm still in my 2nd trimester and I'm petrified. I have been told it is the safest time to have it but I'm still very uncertain about it all.

Not sure what to say montemouse but didn't want to read and run. It must be so horrendously stressful for you. I'm sure your doctors would have weighed up the cons and benefits of you having surgery at this time though and wouldn't be recommending it unless they felt it was really necessary. Obviously I don't know what you are having done but I hope it all goes well for you. xxx

Thanks, it is investigative surgery so I do have some sort of choice, but it is still so hard, especially since they definitely don't recommend surgery in the last trimester, so i feel time is a pressure. All the drs/medical etc I've spoken to are very keen to do it now.

I had surgery at 13w2d with DC3 to have a permanent stitch fitted to hold him in. I was under for over an hour, it was a full on laparotomy (like a c-section incision)

He was totally fine. They said baby just goes to sleep too. There were no issues with pain relief afterwards and at no point was anyone even vaguely concerned about the risks of the anaesthetic.

I know quite a few other ladies who have had second trimester surgery too - from removing cysts to removing cancer. One of them had surgery at 22 weeks to treat very early stage pancreatic cancer - she was out for over 8 hours. She's 32 weeks now and baby is doing just great, as is she!

I've had two spinals during pregnancy for temporary stitch placement and removal.. it's all been fine.

It sounds scary, but really, it's very routine especially if you are in the hands of people used to surgery in pregnancy. There's probably more risk to the baby from driving to the hospital.

Didn't stop me being nervous of course, that's natural! But with rational head on, it really is fine

I thought I might need a general during my pregnancy - now seems unlikely but I did a bit of research and got some good advice from here (including CrispyFB!). Of course there are risks with anything but I have not heard of any bad outcomes following a general anaesthetic. Of course it is scary but you should be fine. Hope all goes well for you!

Thank you crispy and plate.

plate that is interesting that you haven't heard of any bad outcomes, neither have I from what I have read but drs still emphasise the "generally ok" part which scares me as then obviously there are risks? But they don't elaborate on these risks

I had surgery at 28 weeks with ds2, it wasn't ideal but had to be done. I was told it was a relatively safe time to do it, all development already done, baby viable if he needed to come out. Maternity were on alert that I was having surgery just in case. Baby gets put to sleep too so we were monitored during and intermittently afterwards and I was on oxygen for hours afterwards to make sure he didn't go without, I think that may have been over cautious. All went well ds2 was fine we enjoyed a healthy remainder of pregnancy and a stress free planned home birth.

I hope you are reassured

I had surgery at 19 weeks to remove a dermoid ovarian cyst, it went fine as did the rest of the pregnancy and ds1 is now a perfectly annoying healthy 3 year old.
Good luck, sure it'll be fine