Planned c section or not? Pros and cons please.

[Jojobear18]

I'm 30weeks pregnant with my second child. I had a rough pregnancy and birth with my first child (cholestasis, bell palsy, then I had to be induced at 37 weeks, he was back to back, pooed inside me whilst resulted in him becoming distressed and me needing an emergency c section. He was 8lb 8 born. I was going to opt for a planned c section with this baby but I'm really nervous. I want to try and give birth naturally but i'm worried I'll end up having to get a emergency c section anyway. The pregnancy is going well and I'm looking forward to her arrival but I just can't decide. Thank you

@Jojobear18 No one can tell you what to do because every person is different but I will tell you what happened to me and what I chose. My waters broke before I went into labour, I was given pethidine and then only allowed gas and air due to how fast I dilated once in hospital but I stopped progressing at 9cm for a few hours with a lip of cervix and a back to back baby. Ds was then in distress, I was exhausted as I had been awake over 27 hours since my waters broke and it resulted in EMCS.

I chose an ELCS, firstly for child care reasons. I didn't have family living close so it would have been difficult to sort that last second and I didn't want to labour or give birth alone if Dh had stayed behind to look after Ds1. Secondly, I chose it because I felt I had experienced enough of labour to not really want to do it again, mentally it was hard on me. I have an underlying medical condition that makes both pregnancy and labour painful. Thirdly, because I like to have control over things. I could plan around the booked c section.

I weighed up the risks of another section but I felt the rushed EMCS was more of a risk than a calm ELCS. I also knew that I would again be incapacitated from the surgery and I could put support in place for that. But as I have said, that is me and my cold choices for why.