Planned caesarian

[Confuseddot]

Can someone please tell me their experiences with planned caesarians.

When did you know you had to have a caesarian? Reason Why you had to? How many weeks were you when the consultant booked in when the caesarian would be? And how many weeks were you when you had the caesarian? How did it feel? How did it feel when you seen your baby? Did you have skin to skin contact? How did you find the recovery?

If you can't answer all questions that's fine, I ask a lot for them haha x

I had one as I was due 13 months after and emergency section and had low placenta. I had the option to go naturally but was happier to go with an emcs.

I decided at about 12 weeks and had it planned for 39 weeks. Recovery was OK, I wasnt as tired and stocked up on colpermin etc. I had a toddler who still needed carrying up and down stairs and couldn't drive for a while so was a bit housebound. I got postnatal depression second time around but don't think that was c section related.

The c sections - you can feel a bit of tuggy and its a bit weird but not painful. You do feel week for a while after. I was on morphine for seven days and I took my own supply of panadol in too.

Emcs - didn't see baby for an hour but elcs virtually straight away.... As we say in our house.. Both DC came out of the sunroof

Tugging not tuggy

Thank you. When we're you allowed home? If my placenta is still totally covering my cervix at my 20 week scan midwife said I'll need to see consultant and book in c section. I'm not sure when theyd book me in for as she said if I was to go into labour with placenta completely covering cervix she said I could bleed to death if I didn't get on hospital in time and it would be very dangerous! So I'm wondering if I do have to have c section when roughly it would be and everything it comes with. I always pictured a water birth but nothing ever goes easy with me haha x

Planned c section at 41 weeks after emcs the first time. 41 weeks is later than usual - 39 weeks more likely though don't know how the placenta position will affect this. I was lucky and had a very good experience - allowed home after 2 nights and swift recovery. Would advise lots of help from family or paid help for the first week or two if possible while you recover. Good luck.

I had one emergency section and one planned. Both were dues to breech presentation.
I was booked for my csection 3 weeks in advance. With my first I went into labour hence the emergency section which was 3 days earlier than planned. With my second it was bang on schedule with no labour.
Both times I felt nothing but pressure and a bit of tugging.
After I had very little pain just a bit of discomfort as air goes into your abdominal cavity, peppermint tea got rid of that pretty quick though. I took the pain killers offered to me even if I wasn't in pain just to be on the safe side.
Recovery time was ok, with my first it was around 3 weeks I felt able to go about my usual day only slower than normal. After my second I felt a little more bruised so took it slow for 6 weeks. Must add I wasn't tied to the house the whole time. I went out locally when I could.
Both times I stayed in hospital for 2 nights which was quite nice as I met some mums and stayed in touch after.

At 34 weeks DD was breech, I was booked for a section at 37+3. DD turned at 37+2When I presented for the section I was sent home and DD was born at 42+1. Just because you get booked for a section does not mean you get one.
I wish I had pushed to keep the section as DD was an LOP presentation resulting in two attempts to turn her vaginally (one without warning, both without pain relief), episiotomy, forceps and tearing.

Lonecat if I have grade 4 placenta previa still at 20 weeks it means my placenta completely covers the cervix. Therefore even in my cervix began to thin for labour I could bleed to death so there's no way I'd be physically allowed to have a natural labour. Some people even have to go in weeks and weeks before for pelvic bed rest and to monitor to ensure you don't go into labour. I'd much prefer a vaginally delivery if possible but midwife and sonographer both straight up said no and midwife explained that if this was a hundred years ago then I'd probably die basically, and to thank god for modern technology 😂

Thanks Amy main worry is not being able to do a lot. OH will be off work for two weeks so hell be a help and thankfully have so much family around to help us too x

I had two. I had an an epidural the first time and a general anaesthetic the second time. Both were fine. I had the most appalling horrendous birth with my first child and they were a breeze compared with that. I wish I had had an epidural with the second one though. it does take time to recover, but since it took me weeks to recover from a vaginal delivery i found it a lot easier. Sorry if i have frightened people who are expecting a baby but my case was complex and not the norm.

btw I was out of hospital and loading the dishwasher etc after five days with my second C section.

Baby was breech so ECV at 38 weeks (failed). Was booked in for 39 weeks exactly. Panicked a lot as the spinal was done. Didn't have immediate skin to skin as DS needed the resuscitare so he was only brought to me in the recovery area. Someone helped me latch him on to BF.

Was in hospital for two days. Probably should have stayed longer but was getting no sleep due to heat/noise and was miserable. Couldn't walk properly for two weeks and didn't drive for the full six.

I had an elcs following an emcs three years previously. I knew from about 20 wks, had it at 38+ wks. Out of hospital after 3 days, driving after a well, no problems looking after my 3yo. ELCS was a dream, emcs less so, I would ask for a CS if was Eve to have another child, which won't be happening!!

Sorry, didn't answer properly! No skin to skin with first, she was v poorly hence em cs, second time ,skin to skin, felt nothing both times.

@Confuseddot having help and resting while you can helps so much with the recovery process.
I'll be going in for my 3rd csection in October, dd3 is breech already and won't turn the same as my other daughters! Always best to take the safest option for you and baby.
Not everyone goes for what I did, but I asked for the theatre team to drop the curtain so I could see my daughters being born which they did, they cut the cord long so my husband could cut the rest of the cord, they checked them over and then passed to me skin to skin like a normal birth. I wanted it to feel as natural as possible.
You can discuss everything with your consultant and midwife. There are lots of options for csection births too which I don't think many people know about.

A position scan at 36+5 revealed DD was transverse. ECV at 37+0 was initially successful, but she turned back (and kept doing loops). At 37+2 I was booked for a c-section at 39+1, and told I would be admitted at 37+5 as there was concern that any attempt at labour (specifically my waters going) could be very dangerous for DD. Thankfully there were never any signs of labour.

With an elcs, there's no rush to get the baby out as neither you nor they are in distress. It took about 20 minutes from first incision for me, but I have got an exciting range of abdominal scarring from previous surgery, and the surgeon was being particularly careful. DD wasn't lifted for us to see, and the hospital didn't offer skin to skin in theatre, though I was able to do that in recovery. I first saw DD when she was lifted to put a nappy on (having already pooed over the midwife!), and my first thought was that she was much smaller than expected (6lb8 having been told 7lb7-8lb from scans).

The section itself was more pleasant than I'd expected, though I was sick (despite fasting). Afterwards I had to push a bit for pain relief. I was discharged after 24 hours, though I was offered an extra night (I'd been in hospital 11 days by this point, so was keen to leave). I didn't realise that DD was unable to latch and hadn't actually fed at all, and none of the staff had picked this up either - it was spotted when she was weighed at 3 days. Thankfully we avoided being readmitted. She had been trying to feed, and I didn't know what successful feeding felt like.

My recovery was OK - I'd been told by HCPs in my family to take painkillers on a schedule, not to wait until I was in pain. This definitely worked better when I remembered! My recovery was much better than some of my friends - I think the slower surgery helped. I'd had really nasty upper back pain in pregnancy, and that had been much worse than the recovery from the c-section, so I was grateful to be in less pain than before.