G’s Caesarean Birth Story

I wasn’t writing my blog when I had Boo so, apart from my tongue-in-check birth story, I have never really shared it.

G has been a different matter. I feel I have shared quite a lot of this pregnancy so I have decided to fill you in with what happened on the day.

If you read previous posts about my pregnancy, you will know that as of about 32 weeks, Beb was breech. He did turn at 34 weeks to head down but was breech again by 36 weeks and stayed that way.

I was therefore booked in to have a scan on birth day and, if he hadn’t turned, I would have my elective caesarean.

In hindsight, if he had turned, I am sure I would have felt it. This is me when I arrived at the ward and, as you can see, there wasn’t much room left in my tummy.

 

Hubster and I waited and were seen by midwives, anaesthetists and doctors and I was beginning to think they were just going to do the section without scanning me.

Next I was sent to labour ward and assigned a midwife who would be with me throughout. Thankfully, I knew her from my many visits to the Antenatal Day Unit and I was settled in a room.image

A scan machine was wheeled in and the doctor came and performed the ultrasound. Baby was still breech and she made a note of how baby was lying and where the placenta was.

It was then a waiting game. I was the only elective section booked that day but the lovely Colette from Going on Adventure had kindly warned me the night before that I might be in for a wait and I am so glad she had because wait we did.

Being nil-by-mouth since the night before and heavily pregnant, I was starving but at 11am, it seemed to be hotting up and I was next.

Having had Boo naturally, with just one shot of pethidine throughout the whole labour and even that was early on, I thought I had quite a high pain threshold.

I was aware that I had funny veins so, when a lovely young doctor came along to put a cannula in my hand, I didn’t expect to leave the bed in such a fashion and cry.

I put it down to hormones but, after the third attempt, the anaesthetist was called to carry out the procedure as it turns out I have very small veins and they use very big needles. Ouch.

Lucky me, being diabetic, I also had to have another cannula fitted for insulin. I was having fun.

My excitement at being next was short lived as the maternity ward went into shut down because they were so busy and another emergency went in.

At noon, they came again and said theatre was being cleaned and I really was next so I walked over at around 12.30 with Hubster looking remarkably attractive in scrubs.

After everyone in the theatre introduced themselves, I sat on the edge of the operating table, with my legs up on a set of steps and leant over.

After pouring burning alcohol on my back, the anaesthetist said “Just a sharp scratch,” which honestly was the biggest lie ever told.

It took him three attempts to get the spinal block in, by which time I was crying again.

I had a blood pressure cuff on which made the cannula in my right arm really hurt but I had a lovely warm feeling in my legs and the tugging from under the sheet, told me something was happening.

Hubster held my hand and was an absolute rock. He told me after that he had been really worried but he hadn’t shown it and I can never thank him enough for being there for me. He really was brilliant and so supportive.

I expected it to be like on TV when the baby would be whipped out in a matter of seconds but it seemed to take ages before we heard the baby cry.

It seems there are a number of layers to get through before they reach the womb.

“It’s a boy! Do you want to see him?”

I have never said yes so loudly in my life but then it all went wrong.

Hubster stood up to take a photo of the baby with the camera but they never lifted the screen down so I didn’t get to see my boy when he was born.

It may not seem like such a big deal to some people but I was gutted and continue to be upset about it now.

I kept saying is he ok? The midwife kept saying yes, we are just cleaning him up and he was fine, he was just covered in a lot of that sticky stuff so had to be dried off but my boy didn’t get to meet his mummy for what seemed like hours.

He was eventually brought to me and I immediately fell in love.

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Husbter went with G and the midwife whilst he was weighed and they finished stitching me up. I was wheeled into recovery and G was put on me for some lovely skin to skin and, whilst Hubster went to ring his mum and get something to eat, I had some quality time with my baby.

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He latched on straight away which I was very pleased about and I was taken back to the labour ward.

When I gave birth to Boo, I felt a sense of euphoria. I didn’t get that with G. Don’t get me wrong, I was over the moon that he was here and alive but I couldn’t stop crying.

Whether it was relief that he was here, a culmination of thinking about how long it had taken us to get here and actually have another baby or the caesarean, I don’t know.

I think I really did not want the section and I was in denial about having to have one right up until my legs went numb and I lay down.

It wasn’t my idea of a calm birth and Hubster was shocked about it too. People have to have caesareans every day for medical reasons, like me for having a breech baby. When you hear of people opting for caesareans though, I am sorry, I think they are mad. I would go through ten labours to ensure I wouldn’t have to go through this again.

What came later in the hospital didn’t help either but that is for another time.

I will reserve the next part of the story for another time but, seeing as this part took me a month to tell, don’t hold your breath.

Our boy had arrived and we couldn’t have been happier.

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11 Comments

  1. Glad he arrived safely but I am sorry that it was not the best birth experience for you, lots of waiting and emotion for you. I hope you can quickly get over those feeling of disappointment. My second birth was clouded by a rough and ready old fashioned midwife who I still think about 3 years on, I hope this coming birth is a better experience!

    1. Oh yes the midwife tale is yet to come. Women remember their children’s births forever. It is such a shame that people and experiences can cloud that memory 🙁 xx

  2. Oh, I’m so sorry you were so upset. I think elective sections can be magical, rewarding births from what I’ve heard but they generally come after mum has had a previous emergency section. I’m sorry yours made you feel so bad.

  3. I am so sorry that your birth experience was not a positive one – things like lowering the screen seem such little details to those on the other side of it but as your story shows it has a huge impact for the mum if she doesn’t get to see her baby. I hope that writing it down has been healing for you but I wonder if it would be worth feeding that back to the hospital as it is something that could so easily be changed? Congratulations on your beautiful boy though – he is just gorgeous x

  4. Aww thanks for sharing such a difficult story and so sorry it wasn’t what you expected. It has opened my eyes about the experience a bit as you assume easier than a full on long labour but for you it wasn’t. It sounds like you have a beautiful boy and an amazing husband who helped with this. Hopefully you will be able to write the next part of your story to share xxx #maternitymondays

  5. I never wanted to have a C-section (and never have) but after going through a very difficult twin labour, with double forceps, no pain relief, a really rough doctor shoving his arm up there every ten seconds, followed by haemorrhage and both my kidneys and liver shutting down… If I could go back in time, knowing what I know now… I’d have without a shadow of a doubt opted for a C-section. Natural twin birth, was the single most horrific experience of my life. It felt like my insides were being ripped out. Sorry for the graphic story. But my point is, for every bad C-section story, there’s a bad vaginal birth story. Unfortunately none of us will ever know if the alternative would have been a better or worse option.

    I enjoyed reading this post though, it’s interesting to hear what C-section is like. And I also have tiny veins that usually require an anaesthetist to cannulate me!

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