Any advice for others hoping for a MAC/S ? (LONG, sorry)
Hi MamaDuke
I apologise to everyone in advance for posting such a long and personal message in a public forum. I am a new member and I cant work out for the life of me how to do a PM.
MamaDuke, do you have any advice or info that you think might be helpful in convincing an Obs to agree to this type of C/S?
I am currently 23 weeks pregnant with my third child, and for medical reasons will be having an elective caesar. I am hoping to have a MAC/S as my last experience of an emergency caesar was quite distressing.
I would love to just 'sack' my current obs and switch to the guy who delivered Jacob, but I am living in Geelong and it is simply too far for me to drive to Malvern. I have a different obs this time, as my previous one has moved. To complicate matters further, it is most likely that the new obs will be on leave around the time of the baby?s birth, so yet another obs will probably end up delivering my baby.
I barely know either of these men (haven?t even met the 2nd one), and I have yet to develop any real rapport with them. So I am assuming that I will have a VERY difficult time convincing them to allow me to have a ?different? type of caesar.
Any relevant information you could provide would be GREATLY appreciated.
Sorry once again everyone for posting such a personal request, but maybe someone else out there might also find any answer useful.
Thanks, Nicole
Mumma to DS (born sleeping Apr 2005) and DD (born June 2006)
P.S. Just so you know I am not just some trend-follower who wants to copy the latest 'fashion' in C/S, I will tell you a little of my story (TRYING to keep it brief).
With my first baby I had a healthy, uncomplicated full-term pregnancy. However right at the end something went very wrong and my son died a day or so before he was born. No-one knows why. DH wanted me to have a C/S but my obs advised a natural birth would be better physically. I followed his advice and it was the BEST decision of my life. My son?s birth was excruciatingly painful, but also overwhelmingly positive. I can only describe it as an earth-shattering, life-altering experience.
So with my next pregnancy I really wanted to have another natural birth. But my daughter kept turning breech. I did everything I could to get her to turn, but she kept turning back. Eventually after many tears and much heartache I decided to have an elective caesar at 38 weeks. But when I got to the operating theatre, the obs checked and found that she had turned the right way around again! I am sure he would have preferred to just do the C/S and get it over with, but he gave me the choice. Of course I was stubborn and chose to go natural. I was induced and laboured all day and night. I got to 9cms but she just wouldn?t descend into my pelvis, the labour stopped progressing and her heart-rate was erratic.
So 24 hours later I returned to the same surgical theatre and had an emergency caesar. I found this experience very distressing. The only emotion I felt was relief that my baby was safe. It was nothing like the overwhelming joy of my son?s birth (even though I knew he had already died). I felt as though I just lay there paralysed and they hacked my baby out of me like she was some kind of tumour. To this day, there is a tiny part deep inside of me that can?t be really sure that the baby they handed me is indeed MY baby, because I didn?t see her come out and I didn?t feel her come out. I didn?t participate in her birth in any way. They just put up a big green screen in front of my face, did their thing, then held up a baby. I think this really interfered in the bonding process in the early days, and may have contributed to our failure to successfully breastfeed.
So as you can see, any improvement to the process would be welcomed by me. I just need to feel like I am an active participant in my child?s birth, not some useless piece of meat that just lies there paralysed and helpless.
