Hello,
I am due my second child in January (my oldest son will be almost 12) and due to having an extremely traumatic birth with my first son that resulted in being to sleep for an emergency section, I have (reluctantly) decided to go ahead and have a planned section this time around.
A few years after the birth of my oldest, I was diagnosed with IIH after a routine eye test showed a fuzzy optic disc and a subsequent LP showed opening pressure of 27 CSF. However, I’ve never really suffered with many IIH symptoms; occasional headaches and nausea, but most often pulsatile tinnitus when bending down or turning my head to the right.
Since then I’ve lost about 5 and a bit stone and haven’t taken Diamox for years as I didn’t like the side effects. Since becoming pregnant, I’ve spoken with my neurologist and had my eyes checked by the hospital and it has been decided that they feel I am either in remission or there is a chance that I didn’t have IIH in the first place as my opening pressure was in the grey area between 25-30 that can sometimes be “normal” for someone who was as overweight as I was, and that I might have a pseudo papilladema as opposed to a proper one. They will see me in another three months to assess any changes in pressure on the optic nerve and of course if I develop any symptoms I will need to contact them.
I’ve been referred to and am waiting to see an antenatal consultant who specialises in eyes/pressure etc. because my preterm consultant feels that they will want to see me and also that they will want to ensure I don’t have a natural birth due to the concern of doing damage to myself during pushing.
I might not see this consultant for a couple of months and due to my stupid autism and very bad OCD (the OCD is something I’ve had since childhood but got progressively worse after the birth of my first child) I’m getting myself in such a state that they might not let me have a spinal block and be awake for the section due to it potentially causing pressure increases.
Not a single person has said this to me but of course because I’m an idiot I’ve been on Google and gotten myself all worked up. The birth of my first son saw me diagnosed with PTSD and Post natal psychosis and up until just a few months before finding out (a surprise) that I was pregnant I have been unable to go near pregnant women or newborn babies for over a decade without having panic attacks or suicidal thoughts.
it’s pathetic because of course I’m grateful my son is healthy and that delivering him the way they did meant that the amazing drs were able to revive him as his heart had stopped completely for some time, but the autism can’t let go of how unjustified and unfair it was that I was 10cm and pushing and then I lost the moment to see or even hear my child be brought into the world. It was 12+ hours before I met him due to being unstable from the general anaesthetic myself, and other members of the family went and met him before I was even awake and I’ve never gotten over it. And I’m so terrified of the same thing happening that I’m having sleepless nights and feeling some quite dark thoughts. (I’ve got my MH midwife on Tuesday and I will be telling her about the turn my MH is taking, and I would like to reassure everyone that I have no plans to do anything because I love my children— both born and unborn— too much.)
So basically this long winded post is to hear from any other mums with IIH and find out if they were able to have a c-section with a spinal block or were you put to sleep?
Many thanks.