Footling breech.

Breech baby.

The baby had decels on the heart rate monitor. The cord was around his neck.

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

Severe PE and HELLP. It came on suddenly and I'm glad my OB caught it. My platelets were very low and they wouldn't give me an epidural. There was no way I was going to give birth w/o one so in the end, I opted for a c-section.

#1 breech baby, asked for it with #2.

A year before ds was born, I had uterine surgery to remove fibroids. The incision, while not cutting through the entire uterine wall, was deep and in the upper area where contractions occur. Going into labor and pushing could have caused the uterus to rupture, which according to my OB in her very calm tone, could be "catastrophic."

Mine was for failure to descend. I was induced at 41 weeks (my decision; I could have gone to 42 weeks if I wanted). I did end up fully dilating and pushing for 2 hours and even after that the baby still had not descended. She was OP and too big for the OB to manually rotate into position which probably would have enabled her to descend. Baby and I were fine so OB was more than willing to let me continue pushing, but by that point I was exhausted and didn't think the baby would descend so I opted for a c-section. I did get a VBAC for my second this past summer. The only difference was that I actually went into labor and luckily baby was smaller this time around so OB could manually rotate baby who was in OP position and after that he was out in about four pushes.

misshapen pelvic bones that block exit out of my body. My OB who saw it in surgery said my body would not allow a baby more than 4 pounds to exit that direction ;P

Didn't find this out, though, until I went through an induced labor with #1 and pushed for 2 hours. My first recovery took about a month.

Scheduled with #2 and was up and about fairly normally in about a week.

Badly impacted fetal head. Saved both our lives. I'm grateful.

I was on the fetal monitor at a routine prenatal appt when there were decels in the baby's heart rate and it took some moving around to get it to come back up. They told me to go to the hospital for further monitoring. I did, the baby's heart rate was fine and then all of sudden more decels. It was time to have the baby!

1st - baby in distress. It was a preterm birth (2nd trimester), so things were a bit crazy. Definitely necessary.

2nd - had a classical incision with #1, so necessary for this one. Also, baby was breech, so would have done a c-section anyway.

Breech baby

After four hours of pushing with a faulty epidural I was straight up begging for a C-section. They finally did one when her heart rate dropped dangerously low. In all honesty, recovery was a BREEZE. Much easier than it probably would have been if I had actually managed to push the 9lb, 22in baby out my hoo ha. So while I wasn't originally planning on a c-section, it turned out ok that I got one.

I keep reading that the c-section rates keep rising though the reasons to have them don't. I don't understand why the rates are so high and why it's becoming more and more common. So what was your experience? Did you want one? Was it suggested by your doctor? Was it in your mind necessary? I know they cost more and I wonder if that's an incentive. I am not opposed to one if medically necessary however it worries me that they are becoming more common with a solid reason why. Please share!