Did you have a c-section? What were the reasons?

Anonymous
Breech baby who didn't turn despite me trying everything possible. Turns out the cord was wrapped around my baby three times. So yeah, medically necessary.
Anonymous
My water broke but no contractions. I was induced 4 hours later with pitocin, but made very little progress as the hours went on. Finally after laboring 19 hours I pushed for an hour & a half and he wouldn't budge. Emergency c just minutes before I hit the 24 hr mark of my water breaking. When they opened me up he was huge (over 9 lbs) and stuck in a weird position like he was trying to turn and just got stuck.

The recovery sucked after all of the laboring and pushing then surgery plus baby had complications as we'll unrelated to c section. I would've much rather had a traditional birth but he is okay and that's all that matters
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:Both my sister and me felt railroaded into c-sections. Went into labor, got excited and went to the hospital too early in retrospect (about 4cm when admitted, maybe a little more for my sister). Contractions hurt very bad, got an epidural, couldn't move, baby's heart rate had decels, both of us ended up with c-sections.

We both got a doula (we used the same one!) for our second births and had successful VBACs. I wish I'd gotten a doula for labor #1


How is it railroading when it was your own stupidity that caused it?
Anonymous
My baby was not descending well enough. I had been in labor for 18 hours. Started at 10 p.m. My contractions were fairly close by the middle of the night. By noon next day, I requested epidural. I think this was a mistake but not sure. I was in agony and needed the pain to go away. It seemed to have slowed things down. Baby was not in distress, but they tried a vacuum extractor and it didn't work. They said I could push for 30 more minutes and then either choose C section or forecepts...I chose C section. I think my pelvis was just too small. A C section and a healthy baby is a good thing. My sister knows too many people who have babies with Cereberal Palsy which is a birth/loss of oxygen problem. She said - it is better to have a healthy baby than a perfect birth experience and she is right.
Anonymous
Baby was in distress - heart rate over 200 (tachycardia) had to get baby out asap. Prepped for csection and baby was delivers in 15 min.
Anonymous
Luckily I got both the perfect birth experience (whatever that means, it still hurt like hell!) and a great baby. All this talk makes me nervous to have another one!
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:Luckily I got both the perfect birth experience (whatever that means, it still hurt like hell!) and a great baby. All this talk makes me nervous to have another one!


Oh, shut up. You could've kept that to yourself. I planned for a hypno birth, ended up with a c-section - but my experience was "perfect" too. Not a drop of pain and my recovery wasn't nearly as bad as I feared. Don't like the implication that a c-section is an imperfect birth experience for any mother. Some people elect to do them. Others have no choice. At the end of the day, a healthy mom and baby are really all that matter.
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:
[snipped]

No, they don't back up your point. Your post strongly suggested that EFM is just a meanie "intervention" that causes c-secitons, and has no other purpose. The research shows that it increases c-sections and decreases neonatal mortality. Which makes sense - the babies in trouble got c-sections. Some of them would have survived without c-sections, but that's not a reason to ditch EFM or claim that it is unjustified.


ok, wow, you really need to do something about that chip on your shoulder. You'd think I was advocating unassisted homebirth for OP, the way you are pushing back on my fairly mild post. Which, for reference, was:

OP, I count 5 mentions of "decels" as the sole reason for their c-sections on this thread. In addition to the factors OB PP mentioned, continuous fetal monitoring is often cited as a factor in the increased c section rate. Look into hospital-based midwives if you want to avoid this. They will already have fought the battle with the hospital policies to allow them to do intermittent monitoring.

from this you are getting that I am implying that the 5 pps had unnecessary c sections, that I think EFM is a "meanie intervention" with no other purpose than to CAUSE c-sections, and that I am advising OP to ditch EFM and claiming it is unjustified?

You are putting a lot of words in my mouth and it's pretty irritating. An electronic fetal monitor probably saved my baby from a major birth injury, I am not against electronic fetal monitoring. It is obviously a technology/technique that can do good, as c-sections are. But "technology is neutral, like the jungle"--how it is used matters. To deny that CONTINUOUS fetal monitoring can have unintended consequences is to deny current reality in our health care system. OBs aren't denying it. According to the papers YOU posted, the field is quite aware of the knife's edge they walk with CFM/EFM pushing docs to make the surgery decision, and the work going on now is about how to make better decisions with the data.

OP wants to avoid an unnecessary C, as do many. It's easier said than done because we all have different risk thresholds. I'm sure everyone involved in the decel pp's births thought the Cs were necessary at the time. That doesn't mean they were--as the OB on this thread said, "I find the rise of c sections rate alarming but I am pushed in this direction." I am not saying they were unnecessary. What I am saying is, it's possible that they could have had equally good outcomes without surgery. Nobody will ever know, and if OP wants to avoid such uncertainty, she should seek out practitioners who are philosophically inclined to avoid surgery. The OB on the thread gave her the SAME ADVICE.

I'd engage you on the papers and what the research shows, but I don't think you understand them well enough. I certainly don't, and I have a PhD in a related field. So unless you are a researcher closer to or in the field, you have nothing to teach me about them, and I won't presume to pretend that I can teach you, or that I am an expert after having read a few of them.
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Luckily I got both the perfect birth experience (whatever that means, it still hurt like hell!) and a great baby. All this talk makes me nervous to have another one!


Oh, shut up. You could've kept that to yourself. I planned for a hypno birth, ended up with a c-section - but my experience was "perfect" too. Not a drop of pain and my recovery wasn't nearly as bad as I feared. Don't like the implication that a c-section is an imperfect birth experience for any mother. Some people elect to do them. Others have no choice. At the end of the day, a healthy mom and baby are really all that matter.


I was responding to what a pp said about having a healthy baby vs. a "perfect" birth experience. Did you read my post? Rather rude of you! :/
Anonymous
I'm just glad to know I'm not the only freak out here with jacked up pelvic bones

I can grow them, but they are never coming out the "right way". Mother Nature thinks she's so damn funny ;p. of course, I have a bunch of complaints about everything related to growing my babies.

Eh, whatever - my lovely ladies are all that matters in the end.
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Luckily I got both the perfect birth experience (whatever that means, it still hurt like hell!) and a great baby. All this talk makes me nervous to have another one!


Oh, shut up. You could've kept that to yourself. I planned for a hypno birth, ended up with a c-section - but my experience was "perfect" too. Not a drop of pain and my recovery wasn't nearly as bad as I feared. Don't like the implication that a c-section is an imperfect birth experience for any mother. Some people elect to do them. Others have no choice. At the end of the day, a healthy mom and baby are really all that matter.


I had dreams of a "perfect (unmedicated) birth" as well. I ended up with placenta previa, placental abruption, and an emergency c-section. It made me much more relaxed about the birth experience. Motto with the next one was "whatever works".

Women put too much stock in the way their babies get here. Who cares? It's not as if college kids are asking each other whether they were birthed vaginally or not. Such a first world problem.
Anonymous
I don't care about the "experience" just want a healthy baby.... But would prefer not to go unto surgery unless it's necessary. In one practice I asked what happens if I am not comfortable with one of the docs I the rotation or on call, the receptionist suggested " oh you can just schedule a csection for the doc you want".... No I am in my first trimester with no medical need for one. I was surprised she would make such a suggestion so Blaise about it like if it isn't major surgery for scheduling
Anonymous
I had three:

Number One: Baby was breech so the Dr. scheduled a C-section on my due date.

Number Two: Baby was three weeks overdue and I still had not gone into labor. During an ultrasound, it was discovered I was critically low on amniotic fluid so I was immediately scheduled a C-section to deliver baby.

Number Three: Dr. told me if I didn't go into labor by my due date, to just go to the hospital on my due date and have the C-section since I already had two previous ones.
Anonymous
I think the OB made some wise comments about doctors no longer being trained to perform breech deliveries.

But breech babies seem to run in my family and my grandmother delivered her first baby breech and couldn't sustain another pregnancy for eight years (second trimester miscarriages) until she finally successfully carried again.

Another friend in Canada delivered breech and had a 4th degree tear.

I had a c-section for my breech babies. I don't think, with all due respect, that delivering a breech baby vaginally is necessarily a lost art form.
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:I think the OB made some wise comments about doctors no longer being trained to perform breech deliveries.

But breech babies seem to run in my family and my grandmother delivered her first baby breech and couldn't sustain another pregnancy for eight years (second trimester miscarriages) until she finally successfully carried again.

Another friend in Canada delivered breech and had a 4th degree tear.

I had a c-section for my breech babies. I don't think, with all due respect, that delivering a breech baby vaginally is necessarily a lost art form.


Try and find someone willing to do one and get back to me. Doctors under 40 straight up don't know how to do them and doctors over 40 are discouraged from doing them from the hospital administration standpoint. Plus then you run into "well yes I do know how to do them but I haven't done one in 7 years and my boss really looks down on it" and it becomes tough. (Not that a doc would actively tell you that response but trust me its going through his/her mind)
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