Hiii,
I was wondering if anyone had experienced this. After a long and difficult labour that ended in forceps, I had urinary retention and couldn't pee. They said this was due to my bladder being bruised and that it "should" heal in time. They kept me in for 4 days and when it didn't get better, I had an indwelling catheter placed in and got sent home.
It was probably one of the worst weeks of my life - alls I wanted to do was enjoy my beautiful son, but I had to void the catheter every 3 hours (even through the night), and I was so sore down their anyway from being cut and the birth, and the catheter just made it 10 times worse. I was also living with the constant fear that I'd have the catheter for life 😣 I was so down.
A week later, they took it out and tested me to see if I could go it alone. I could, just barely (bladder scan showed I retained 98ml and the cut off for me needing to keep the catheter in was 100ml), so I was sent home and that was the end of that horrific experience. I know I was so lucky to get control of my bladder back after just 11 days.
I am currently 15 weeks pregnant with my 2nd child and I'm starting to panic already that the same thing is going to happen. So my question is - has anyone had urinary retention after 1st birth and then had a perfectly normal 2nd birth? Or do you think I should ask for a c-section to lessen the chances of this happening again?
Urinary retention after birth seems quite rare so if anyone can shed any light on this for me it'd be great x