Vasa Praevia and elective c-section in two days!

[Maybebabynumber1]

Hi everyone

Just hoping for some reassurance that all will be okay. I was admitted into hospital a couple of weeks ago with suspected vasa praevia and placenta previa which has since been confirmed by a second scan with another consultant last week. I’d done my research and was aware that I’d probably have to stay in hospital with an early c-section between 35 and 36 weeks which has been confirmed and I now have my date for my c-section at 35+1 weeks.

This date is now in a couple of days and I’ve completely managed to spiral into some panic about all of it. Probably not helped by being in hospital with not really much to do to distract my brain. There are multiple things I’m bloody stressing about and obviously main one is that baby will be okay at 35 weeks. Although I have had reassurance from the doctors and a tour of the scbu to try and put my mind at ease which did help to be fair.

New panic tonight is about the actual surgery. I know it needs to happen and it’s the safest thing to do for this particular condition but I’m just absolutely shitting myself about it. I’ve been so worried about the outcome for the baby I’ve barely given it a second thought. Tonight it seems to have it me like a ton of bricks. Helped, of course, by the fun consent forms to sign where the doctor outlines all possible complications of surgery. He may as well have scribbled “YOU MAY DIE. SIGN HERE PLEASE” on a bit of paper as this is all my brain was capable of seeing at the time.

Anyone got any vaguely reassuring c-section stories they can tell me? Ideally truthful ones but frankly at this point I’ll also take outright lies and go to surgery in blissful ignorance.

Mine was 9 weeks ago and honestly was a lovely experience. It was classed as a semi emergency as my waters broke at 36 weeks but they waited a week before doing the section. In other words they needed her out but it wasn’t a full on emergency. The morning of I did get super nervous, especially with the Surgeon and anaesthetist came around but everyone was really lovely and reassuring.

The worst part for me was the spinal, but I honest just hunched over and closed my eyes really tight and did my best to ignore it. It honestly wasn’t as bad as the anticipation though. Once they laid me down they did loads of tests to make sure I was number enough before the surgery started. I then had DH and a midwife/anaesthetist by my side the entire time explaining to me what was going on.

You feel the movements and tugging, which is really strange. I told DH it feels exactly how you would imagine it would feel like if someone stuck their hands in your tummy and was moving everything about, but there was absolutely no discomfort or pain. It’s just weird! It also took longer than I thought to get her out lol. Once out DH got to cut the cord and then they put her straight on me for skin to skin while they stitched me up. Everything was very calm and controlled which I liked.

I would mentally prepare yourself more for the recovery. It really did take me aback but I know it varies from person to person. Keep on top of your painkillers it’s soo important, i felt a massive difference when they started to wear off. Take big knickers and nighties so you don’t have to bend over. Move as soon as you feel able but take it as slow as you need to. Your bladder may feel a little lazy for a few days after the catheter and pooping is still nerve racking so take some fybogel. Rest rest and rest some more. Take all the help you can get. Be prepared to feel disconnected from your abdomen/core muscles for a while.

I’m now 9 weeks PP and Almost feel back to normal. I look back st my c section experience in hospital as a lovely memory, I’ve had 2 vaginal births too and while different, it’s no less of a magical experience.

Good luck!!!

Hi I completely understand how you're feeling. I was diagnosed with previa at 20 weeks which then turned into acreta. I was kept in hospital from 33 weeks with c sec scheduled for 34 weeks. I was literally terrified... terrified I'd die and never see my baby. Terrified about my baby being born so early. And like you all the paperwork was so scary, the risks to me were huge!

I was warned there would be a lot of people in theatre and in the end there was 30 theatre staff and four senior consultants. So there was a lot going on... and internally I wanted the bed to swallow me up, I was trying so hard not to cry while they did the spinal. I had asked to stay awake, which they agreed but wasn't allowed dh with me. Getting ds out was fairly simple, but the placenta wasn't coming out at all. I saw him be born and they brought him up to my head for a few mins before he was taken to nicu, In the end it turned out I had percreta so my placenta was literally growing through my uterus. So they had to take my uterus out with placenta in situ. At that point I asked to sleep... and I woke up 3 hours later, one uterus down. I was cut from the navel down and I recovered fast. I went to see ds in nicu later that day in a wheelchair.

Ds was born healthy and 6lb 1, he came out crying and breathing on his own. They did put him on oxygen as a precaution but he pulled it out the first night and never went back on it. He was tube fed for the first week. But I had a bed in transitional care and he was with me in a normal hospital cot from the day after he was born. We were discharged 8 days later and he has thrived since, currently snoring on my chest!

You will be absolutely fine, the fact it's all been picked up before delivery means they will be 100% prepared for it and a baby at 35 weeks will be ok, if maybe a little small .

Sorry for the long post- but I think my situation was somewhat similar to yours. Lots of luck and just keep thinking of all those new baby snuggles x

Oh and just to add, if they give you Clexane please take it! A few tips that helped me;

• get oh to do it if possible.
• alternate sides of the stomach and pinch a soft area of skin before inserting the needle.
• knock the drip off the end of needle - that is the bit that stings!
• if you can numb the site with some ice. I did this and didn’t even feel it go in!

I've just realised my post sounds terrifying! It really wasn't... I was far more scared then I'd needed to be.

Sorry I wanted to say something that I wish I had known beforehand. My dd was born and was very grungy as she had a lot of mucus in her. Apparently it’s very common with c section babies because the mucus isn’t squeezed out while moving down the birth canal. dd had to go to special care for it and was put on cpap but I was told it’s all very normal so please don’t be alarmed.

Grunty not grungy!

Not me but a friend. Placenta previa, she and the baby both came through fine.

She went on to have another DC with a straightforward pregnancy and a standard section.

Absolutely go in blissful ignorance, it’s the best way 😊 I think the difference with the c-section is they terrify you with the risks and think nothing of having you sign these forms right before going in for it too. No one is, terrified, about to push a baby out of their vagina as someone stands at the side reading out all the awful things that could go wrong 🙈

Your case sounds very unique to you so I don’t have any experience of that exactly but I have just had a section. I’m sure your baby will be absolutely fine and on the grand scheme of things for the doctors, 35 weeks won’t even be early compared to some of the tiny babies who will be in there.
I had fully convinced myself I was going to die during the operation, just couldn’t see an alternative ending to it 😂 The night before and morning of the section felt so surreal in the end up I just went into denial mode and told myself it was just a normal appointment I was going in for. We arrived and hung about for a few hours in the recovery ward before going to theatre. This was the strangest bit.. just walking in with nothing wrong with me, putting a hospital gown on and lying down on the bed. I kept telling myself I could just get up and leave, the baby doesn’t need to come today 😂 They did a few checks on me and baby then all of a sudden it was time to go. I walked round to theatre (again, nothing wrong with me, I wanted to just run away and forget the whole thing)! For some reason I’d built up the spinal and cannula in my hand to be awful. The cannula was nippy but only for a few seconds. The spinal I don’t even remember going in but it was completely painless. There was a bee sting before it while they put the local anesthetic in. After they were done I was almost forgetting there was an operation still to go through because the bit Id been so worried about was over. One thing I was surprised about was how much you can still feel after you’re ‘numb’. They sprayed cold spray up and down my body and I expected not to feel it at all down my body but you can fully feel touch on your skin still so you can feel it, you just can’t feel it’s cold. When they started the op I had asked not to be told anything about it. The anesthetist agreed to this but said he’d tell me about a minute in so I would be surprised they’d started and sure enough, I didn’t have a clue they’d already started! It just felt like someone was pressing down on my bikini line, not even hard or an uncomfortable feeling. There were seconds of my section where I had the feeling like someone was doing CPR on me when they’re trying to get the baby down. That was probably the worst bit and still wasn’t bad or painful. All in all the baby being born part of my op was done in under 2 minutes!! I had no idea they could do it that fast. The recovery has been completely fine. The part in hospital at first you’re just a bit slow but I personally wasn’t in any pain. I’d imagine you’ll be in hospital a while longer if your baby is staying in too? The worst part of the recovery for me was about day 2/3 when I was home and doing far too much walking around the house. I didn’t realise at the time because I thought that if I wasn’t doing housework or any lifting then I was basically resting but I was just getting up to get things for the baby far too often. Because of this I started to bleed more than I had been and just generally felt sorry for myself. It still wasn’t sore though, not to walk about anyway. The only time it hurt was standing up from sitting down or lying down to sitting up when you had to tense your abs. I was just very careful about rolling over first and pushing myself up. By about day 7 I was able to go a short walk and have just built it up gradually from there. It’s been a million times easier than I would have expected and I’m still in disbelief at what a non-event the c-section itself was after all my worrying.

Really hope yours goes as smoothly. I’m sure your little one will be just fine 😊 good luck, enjoy it!

Maybe baby podcast episode with anna williamson is really good for a step by step account of it. She makes it sound so easy, I listened to that the night before and mine really was just like that!