Hi all, I'm hoping to get some opinions on whether to have an ELCS or VBAC and to ask what other people's experiences of having made the choice have been?
I'm expecting DC2 and had a fairly traumatic birth with DC1 which ended (after 3 days) in an EMCS. I was induced after my waters broke and nothing happened. I was pushed into an epidural I didn't want by midwives who said I wouldn't cope with the induction contractions without one and, having already started having the contractions and being told they would go from zero to unbearable v quickly, I agreed.
I had to have my hind waters broken with a hook which resulted in me sitting in a pool of my own blood. There was an issue with how the epidural was put in which meant after an hour or so it stopped working. When I said I was in pain, the midwife told me I was being dramatic and that I couldn't feel anything - when the anaesthetist came back to check on me 2 hours later it turned out that there was a blockage in the tube and it hadn't been working.
I reached 8cm after 14 hours on the induction drip and the baby's heart rate started dropping to the point where they said they would do an EMCS. I lost a lot of blood during the op as still heavily contracting but not enough to need a transfusion luckily. The next day, my midwife told me she knew from the very start of my labour that DC1 would never come out naturally because they were mispresenting and stuck in my pelvis - meaning I should have been taken straight in for an EMCS and not had those awful awful 3 days first - I fully believe that my C section recovery was slow because my body was so exhausted from those three days.
I felt the whole way through that nobody listened to me or what I wanted and the whole experience is one I would much rather forget.
This time round, I don't know whether I should try a VBAC and risk going through the whole thing again and end up with another EMCS anyway, or whether I should go straight for a planned c section.
Does anyone have any advice? Xx