Elective C Section - Experience at Guys and St Thomas Hospital your experience

[Agatha1990]

I've been having extreme anxiety over vaginal birth due to the risks from tearing including anal sphincter tearing since I have a prior history of fissures. On speaking to a consultant midwife and obstetrician- both definitely pushed me towards vaginal delivery clearly highlighting the major risks from c section but not really informing me of the major risks related to vaginal delivery but I have spoken to others who've had traumatic experiences with vaginal deliveries, so I am well informed about both. The consultant midwife told me that it's likely that I would not be operated on a planned date for elective c-section at Guys and St Thomas and have to go through long wait times as they would have to prioritise emergency c section cases and those who would actually need it. Has anyone gone through an elective c section at guys and St Thomas and what has the experience been ?

Following as I am planning to request an elective c-section with them in April next year too. Have you had any progress with your request since you made the post?

Following. I'm due in Jan and know i will be induced rather than go past term. Wondering whether to go straight for an elective C.

No progress unfortunately.

Hello ladies, any news from St Thomas regarding your progress in requesting elective c-section on purely maternal request basis?

Anyone else who has any experices to share about this hospital and maybe advice on how can I go about requesting one?

Just started a similar thread but would also love to hear experiences! We are 5 minutes from Guy at Thomas so it would be ideal - but clearly we are pretty central so I could also do Chelsea Westminster. Especially given I want a planned c-section so travel across town in labour not really a factor. I wonder if Chelsea would take me though given I live practically on top of St Thomas! I have already completed the self referral form for St Thomas but don’t suppose that will be an issue, can just tell them I changed my mind.

Thought I'd add an update for anyone landing on this thread after a search. I put in a maternal request for elective c-section with St Thomas. No medical needs and I am low risk, normal BMI.

Put the request early before 20 weeks with a midwife where she logged it in the system. A few weeks after that I had to go through one call with consultant midwife where she explained all risks involved mainly for the C-section. This felt more focused on risks of C-section (which I expected) but I still said at the end that I would like to progress with my request. Following that I had an appointment with an obstetrician where the risks have now been presented a lot more balanced and included all the risks or a vaginal delivery, the chances of needing an instrumental delivery as a first time mother, the chances of needing episiotomy, the chances of ending up nedding a c-section. After he presented all the measures they put in place to prevent all the risks he then was happy that I made an informed decision and signed off my elective c-section request. It was a very balanced conversation and I didnt feel any influence in any way, simply facts presented and the decision left to me...just like I wanted.

Overall I'd say if you are finding yourselves shut down by the midwifes but want to carry on with your elective requests just continue to ask your request to be progressed. I didnt give much reasoning why I wanted it other that I wasnt prepared to risk vaginal delivery injuries to the baby of any kind (minor or major)

@AVTG that is brilliant news, I am currently 15 weeks, my first pregnancy and I am really dead set on having an elective c-section. I am also at Guy's /St Thomas. Did you make the initial request through my chart? Or if you don't mind letting me know the best way I can make the request as well please and thank you!

@Jessieber90 I have not requested on the app, actually at the 16th week routine appointment I asked the midwife if she can log in a maternal request for elective cesarean for me and I mentioned I expect it will take a lot of back and forth as its not something I expect to be granted easily so I want to start the conversation early. She agreed with me that there will need to be some good reasoning and explained at that stage it was just an internal email sent by her requesting that I have a call arranged with the consultant midwife to discuss my concerns. My concerns at that stage were the chances of ending up with emergency c section or instrumental as a first time mom are just too high to be comfortable for me.

The call with the consultant midwife took the longest to arrange. I had to call twice the reception number of the midwife teams I had assigned to check if my request is correctly logged in and still on their list. It was and after about 6 weeks I received the call to arrange this meeting, this call came from management not any of the midwifes - they suggested initially a very late consultant midwife call(around weeks 33) and I said again that I expect there will need to be also a call arranged with other professionals to progress my request as I am having no medical risks and if possible to put it earlier so that we have time for going back and forth. The gentleman from management was very understanding and put the call on around 24 weeks.
Once I had that consultant midwife call, then it was a good another 5 weeks until I had the meeting with the obstetrician to discuss further my request and that is when he signed it off.

I think the best way is to allow a lot of time, they do seem very busy and have just gone through a big IT system change so things can get lost. You might need to follow up a few times just to see if your request is still active, what the next steps are. I'd say keep the requests short and easy to understand for each staff member you deal with. IE if you call reception just ask them to check if they can see the request logged in the system nothing further. As long as everything is in writing made in requests internally they will get back to you.
Try to find out from midwifes the name of consultant midwife who will have the meeting with you and then quote that name if you follow up with phone calls. Basically make their life as simple as possible when you chase and they will be very helpful.

I was so prepared for the fight of my life to have this c-section and I was not ready to allow anyone to decide how I give birth except me but it was not necessary at all. I had all the % rates of shoulder dystocia, emergency c-section, instrumental delivery, asphixiation, Donna Ockenden reports - you name it...ready to quote and justify my decision. It wasnt necessary at all, they have been all very very lovely, all meetings were more a box ticking exercise and reassured me the decision was mine in the end.

Good luck and keep us posted!