Did you have a C-section? I’d love to hear about your experiences as Cesarean Awareness month draws to a close. Please feel free to share in the comments and help other women who may be facing a future section!
Here’s mine:
I had an emergency section and an elective section. My first was very traumatic but it was ultimately the fast acting of the doctors and quick delivery that helped save my daughter’s life as every second counted.
I was way past my due date and had already had a sweep. She was due in May and it was already June! I lost a little fluid and went for a check up, it was indeed amniotic fluid. I was very excited, she’d soon be here. I was told to wait at home for contractions to start. I had a couple overnight but nothing of significance. So I went in the following day. I was told I was 1cm dilated and could no longer have my baby at the midwife led unit. My husband drove me to the hospital and they monitored my baby. After about half an hour of monitoring the doctor told me he was not happy with baby’s heart rate and they wanted to get things moving fast. I had a cannula put in and my waters broken. There was so much meconium I was taken straight to theatre for an emergency C-section. It was one of the most terrifying experiences of my life, but they delivered my little girl in literally just the nick of time. They flashed a green baby above the sheet and there was no noise. She wasn’t crying. She was taken away to a corner of the room, which was now full of people and then swiftly taken out to go to NICU. I barely caught a glimpse of her. In recovery I was fairly spaced out after being given a concoction of different drugs. Around an hour later I was able to go and see her, only to be told her chances of survival were slim. She had meconium aspiration and persistent pulmonary hypertension. Luckily, she was able to qualify for ECMO and the team came and saved her life before transferring her to a hospital in a different part of the country where she stayed on ECMO for 36 hours and was airlifted back. I held her for the first time at four days old. Recovery from the section was ok. I spent all my time with my newborn in the NICU. I had followed her to the hospital where she was on ECMO, and the car journey was quite uncomfortable. But, as I was in hospital with my daughter I was able to use a wheelchair for the first week or so and didn’t have to move much. The first time I encountered stairs was interesting, it felt sort of like riding a bicycle underwater! I was fully healed by the time I got to take my daughter home.
My elective section was a completely different experience. I was advised to have my second baby via C-section for a variety of different reasons. Although I would’ve received support should I have chosen to go for a VBAC, I didn’t want to chance it. The first significant difference to the two, was entering theatre calmly instead of seeing my husband running in wearing scrubs and seeing the panic on his face. This time we got to be nervous together but it somehow was so much calmer. There were a lot less people in the room this time, which added to the calmness. Also, the whole process was a lot longer, as there was no urgency. My son was delivered and it could not have been more different to my daughter. He did nothing but cry! I was given immediate skin-to-skin and he had a drink straight away! It was quite astonishing as previously our NICU stay was prolonged as my daughter had feeding issues and remained on an NG tube for some time. I also got delayed clamping this time. The experience was completely perfect despite being in floods of tears since we saw our boy for the first time. These were more tears of relief and happiness. Healing seemed faster the second time around and I had to be up and about straight away with a new baby and a one year old! It was the healing experience I needed after my first traumatic one.
Did you have an elective or emergency cesarean? Would you like to share your story in the comments for Cesarean Awareness Month? I’m a bit sad I never got to experience “natural” birth but feel so lucky my two babies are ok, thanks to being able to have C-sections.
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