Assistant delivery

[Thefaceofboe]

Hi everyone.

I am 11 weeks pregnant with my first baby (still have a long way to go but trying to get my head around things).

I have a rare heart condition which means any severe pressure can cause my heart valve to tear, therefore I was always told I’d have to have a planned caesarean. I have now been told the best way would be to have a natural birth but completely assisted by the doctors/midwives, so it would involve an epidural and then forceps, so no pushing at all. I will be induced at 38 weeks.

Have anyone had a similar experience to this?

@Thefaceofboe I found it quite a positive experience, remember leaving the hospital saying to my partner that I’d happily do it again!!! It was long and I wasn’t allowed to leave the ward, but I felt safe and confident that I was in the best place with lots of ‘back up’ plans for different scenarios.

Pessary 1 inserted 11am on the Thursday, think I had 1 24hr pessary and 2 of the 6hr ones. Waters broke naturally Friday evening and DS arrived at 7:53 Saturday AM.

I always knew I’d get very little choice in the birth so I never thought about water or hypno or anything like that. I found it difficult to come to terms with an epidural, and it being cited early (not if/when I needed it), but I tried to re-think of it as doing what I needed to keep us both safe and that it made me no- less of a mum for not experiencing the ‘full labour’ pain, if that makes sense?

I’m 17 weeks with my 2nd and the plan was to do everything the same and I was very happy with that. Unfortunately having a few complications (placenta) so looking likely I’ll need a section, but if that’s what needs to be done then that’s what I’ll do.

I really think a c section sounds better for you, but I don’t know enough about your heart condition to say for sure xx