c section horror stories

[Miss H]

I am trying to decide whether to have a c-section or VBAC for baby number 2. First was an elective c-section with no reason for it. I have so much info on VBAC and the midwifes are really pro VBAC. Everytime I mention the scar rupture and all the other things that can go wrong they tell me how dangerous a c-section is. Well, I have read many many stories about VB that have gone wrong and have found some horror stories for VBAC's were the baby has died after a scar rupture. So where are the stories about the c-sections gone wrong? Who has had their bladder nicked? Or the baby die? Or the mother bleed uncontrollably or all the other things the midwifes say can happen. They say there is a much higher chance of these things happening so where are these women?

[Beach Mama]

I am close to my due date and going for a VBAC with this pregnancy. Sure there are "horror stories" out there for everything both VBAC, first time births, caesers etc. but if you are going to make such a big decision I would base it on facts and studies rather than stories you find. There are risks with everything and birth isn't any different - you just have to weigh up the risks for yourself. Sure part of all the education you do includes birth stories and I have read many positive ones to encourage myself, but I have read books and studies from reputable sources to base my decision on. If I was you I would get my hands on Silent Knife, The Thinking Womans Guide to a Better Birth, The VBAC companion, New Active Birth and Labour of Love. They were my life lines when deciding what to do. Check out websites like ican too.
Good luck making your decision.

ETA: I had PPH too but was able to just take iron tabs... I think it was 700 mL... baby blues from being so drugged out of my mind I didn't bond immediately with my girl, and pain and numbness in my c/s site up to this day.

[Phteven]

I had my bladder nicked and walked around for 24hours (after I could get out of bed) with a bag full of bloody urine. It wasn't exactly a pretty look. Luckily for me I'm pretty resiliant and bounce back quickly because some women walk around with a catheter and bag of bloody urine for longer than I did.
I also had a pph in theatre - luckily they stopped it just before I reached the point of needing a blood transfusion. Funnily enough the normal blood loss in a c-section would be regarded as excessive if it were in a vaginal birth.
I would reccomend that you read through the birth de-briefs and c-section forums.

[~Raven~]

This is not my experience as I haven't had one but my SIL needed IV antibiotics for an infection.

[Phteven]

This is not my experience as I haven't had one but my SIL needed IV antibiotics for an infection.

OMG that reminded me of a mega-horror story - so I dug it up
https://www.bellybelly.com.au/forums...upsetting.html

[~Aveta~]

OMG that reminded me of a mega-horror story - so I dug it up
https://www.bellybelly.com.au/forums...upsetting.html

OMG that's awful!!! my BF had a similar experience after a hysterectomy, tho...i believe any surgery is darn dangerous.

i had twins in 1988 in Coffs Harbour. because i was a first birth and a public patient, no doctor really wanted to take responsibility. i got shunted here and there and eventually got a young locum who failed to pick up that i was becoming toxaemic. he booked me in for induction at 38 weeks, with my boy/girl twins being 7.5 and 6.5 pounds respectively. my boy was a transverse breech so a caesar team was on standby. after 4 hours of a very hard induced labour i gave birth vaginally to my daughter. she was perfect, good apgars, etc. the doctor gave me ten minutes, then started to try to turn my son. within half an hour of her birth i was on a trolley heading for surgery, and being abused by the midwife because i had refused an epidural - i had only a little gas at the end. i had an emergency c/s with a general anasthetic and ended up bleeding our to the point where they gave me seven units of blood and a plasma product that gave me a histamine reaction, so another tap was inserted and i was given more drugs. the surgical registrar was elbow deep in my vagina cleaning clots out of my uterus at 4am. i nearly died. in the morning i insisted the pethidine be taken away as i was afraid of it (i'd seen a friend die of morphine and heroin addiction) i didnt see my son till he was 14 hours old an didnt have any desire to hold or feed him i went thru the motions with him till i finally bonded when he was six months old. i had no trouble bonding with his twin sister, and i BF both to 21 months. . but.... 20 years later i still have adhesions, a crooked scar, an apron, and a fear of anasthetic. it took over ten years before i could stand any pressure on my scar, a fact that led to difficulties between me and my (now ex) husband.

my younger daughter was 8.5 pounds, two weeks late, and born at home with a midwife in attendance, 30k from the nearest hospital. no trouble birthing, no scar rupture, tho it was difficult to get the high-set placenta out over the fold in my uterus where the scar was.

if i manage to get that far again, i'm going for another vaginal birth - 16 years after my last. i personally found i recovered much quicker, without the nerve damage at the scar, the crook back from being shifted in the operating theatre, and i had less trouble brastfeeding without the drugs in my system.

i also suggest you do your research on the stats, and talk to midwives and homebirth attendants. the final decision is yours, and yours alone.

[christy]

My horror story is that I felt the procedure. The spinal block obviously didn't take effect enough. It was horrific & I went into shock on the table while my baby was coming out. It is all hazy what happened the first 24 hours of my daughter's life. I then reacted to the morphine...

My daughter was more affected long term than I was.

[AnyDream]

I recommend you get your hands on the excellent book about caesareans called "Delivery by Appointment". It goes through all the sorts of things that can go wrong and the type of impact it can have. The author is pro-VB but has written a very well researched and balanced book that anyone making this decision should read.

My CS experience was a very positive and empowered one however I did have problems with wound infection for a couple of months afterwards - definitely meant i was in more pain than usual and for longer than normal. However for all of that I'm still very happy with what I chose.

[paradise lost]

I have heard many horror stories, of both VB and CS. I know a woman whose son's eyeball was accidentally cut with the surgical knife and he lost it the next day. I have heard of literally dozens of babies being cut by the knife, many needing stitches and some being scarred for life. I have heard of women who lost a lot of blood, their uterus, their baby, their life. The same goes for vaginal birth, i know women who lost their babies there too.

Currently it is statistically safer for a healthy woman having a normal pregnancy to VBAC than it is to have a repeat section - that is in terms of both mortality (mums and babies who die) and morbidity (injury and ongoing issues for both mum and babe). BUT the statistics of safety for NEITHER are at 100%. That means that whichever you choose you risk injury and death. We all do. EVery birthing woman in the history of the race risked it too. The risks of mortality are lower than they have been, the risks of unnecessary morbidity are a little higher (women run the risk of intervention and injury that was not necessitated by medical need). The reality of the figures is that for the vast majority of women, whether they have a CS or a VB, will be fine. Within the choice, VB is slightly safer and reduces morbidity significantly (no surgical wound for starters).

Are you undecided? Or do you want to go for a section but feel judged or questioned on your decision? I had a homebirth, and NO homebirth horror story would have put me off, i knew in my heart it was what i really wanted, and part of that was the knowledge that unless something went wrong with the pregnancy it was also my safest option.

Read the studies, study the statistics, find your OWN decision, and when it's made you can tell everyone who questions it your reasons. If they would have made a different decision based on the same statistics, well, boo to them! It's your body and your baby, not theirs!

Bx

[~mamaspice~]

I have had a caesarean myself. The proceedure went well, apart from the epi not working and having to have a general anaesthetic - which scared me terribly emotionally. Also I got a baldder infection and my wee resembled a rose' wine.

I know someone who ended up with a twisted bowel after her caesar. Was in excruitiating pain and had to go back for more surgery within days of the caesar to fix it.

[Cherie]

I had an unplanned c/s - the procedure itself was straightforward, but a couple of days later, I ruptured one of my internal stitches which pulled through my abdominal muscle and rested on my sciatic nerve. Excruciating! I couldn't walk, or even place any weight on one leg.

I went home in a wheelchair (in a high-set house), with a shower chair, an over-toilet frame, and a prescription for doloxene, voltaren AND oxycontin, which gave me nightmares and, I think, affected my baby via breastmilk.

My OB has told me that this is a very, very unusal occurence, but I am terrified of having another c/s in case it happens again. No new mother should ever have to start her baby's life drugged up to the eyeballs, in a wheelchair unable to walk, and in enormous amounts of pain.

[Midwife Melissa]

Hmm. I see where you're coming from - sometimes they CS horror stories aren't spoken about - sometimes they're too trumatic for women to speak about, and sometimes the complications are accepted as part of the process. It's been suggested by recent research that you're something like 7 times as likely to die following a CS (but bear in mind the chances of dying are really low - about 8 / 100,000). The chances of the baby needing oxygen and having respiratory distress can be as high as 30%. Bleeding is very common but not every woman needs a blood transfusion. infections can be common too, but most are easily treated with antibiotics. I have known 6 women to need hysterectomies (this is in 8 years) owing to excessive blood loss or massive infection. DVTs, pulmonary embolus and blood clots are being seen more, and some hospitals have started treating women preventatively for this.

On the other side, the chance of uterine rupture is about 0.5% (so 99.5% unlikely).

[gardeningkate]

A friend of mine had an elective CS as her ob told her it was the safest way, this was several years ago, and her wound was not sewn up properly, she reopened, had infection, internal bleeding, lost her uterus and had to push legal action for 5 years before fault was admitted on the part of the hospital, initially they said it was a standard risk of surgery. Another one, who I don't know personally but at my work I was referring the husband to agencies that can give assistance, a newly arrived woman with 3 kids already was told CS was better, She thought I guess that a modern country like Oz would know best so had the CS in spite of the fact that she had her other 3 perfectly well with just the village midwife, she is now paralized as a result of the epidural piercing something in her spine.
I personally have had 2 CS, both questionable, and even though mine went "well" I have to say that I would not wish that 6 weeks of recovery time on anyone, the second one was worse, I could hardly walk, hardly pick up baby, my wound took a long time to heal the second time, and I required a blood transfusion. In most other fields of science methods are being developed to minimise the need for surgery, such as keyhole surgery, so why is society so determined to cut women open when they are pregnant, whether there is a need or not. Someone said that birthing, no matter how it is done is risky, and that is true, but CS do not get rid of risks, they just have a whole lot of new ones and that should be openly admitted by surgeons, not touted as the answer to everything as if it is a simple and risk free procedure. When they talk about safer my question is safer for who, me or the hospital. In this litigious society I understand that they have to take steps to minimise their potential exposure to litigation, but CS where most things that go wrong fall under the general risks of surgery to which we sign a waver is not the answer. Having said that every woman has the right to choose how she births her baby, and choosing a CS is a perfectly legitimate choice, and should be supported. SO LONG AS IT IS AN INfORMED CHOICE which often it is not as important things are left out. Most things that can go wrong with a CS can be managed by a good hospital, just like most things that can go wrong with VB. We don't get pregnant in order to birth a particular way, we get pregnant because we want a baby. My personal beef with it is that I choose not to but was manipulated into believing that I needed them, when looking back on my labour notes I didn't.
Hope this makes sense, good luck with whatever you decide to do, make sure it is what YOU want, not what is more convenient for someone else or because you were pressured one way or the other!!
Kate

[nickers]

I have had 2 c/s one emergency and one classed as elective (although i really wanted a vbac)
i was so scared of having another c/s after my first.
the procedure went as normal, wited in recovery but 30min after being taken back to my room i was in intense pain. It was like the drugs wore off too soon and i felt everything that had happened. I could not move a cm without screaming in pain (and i have a reasonably high pain threshold) It got so bad i think i lost conciousness and apparently i said i wanted to die or be put to sleep because i couldnt handle another second of the pain.
My son was sick in Nicu all i wanted to do was to go see him but this was a major setback and even after the pain was under control it set back my recovery, i could not walk until 48hrs after and even that was only from the bed to a wheel chair to be taken to see my son.....

so when i had the second c/s they gave me a self administered shot of whatever it was and it was good i felt no pain but was as high as a kite for the first 24hrs....

i'd do anything to be able to have a child naturally but some things just wernt meant to be.

[bon]

My SIL just recently had her first c/s, after having 5 kids vaginally (she had it because he was breech and her waters had ruptured). Her baby boy was born with cuts on his bottom from the surgery - apparently this is fairly common! She was also in a lot of pain afterwards and now, 2 weeks later, is still in discomfort and feels sore when walking around. I went to see her in the hospital after he was born and one of the first things she said to me was "Don't ever have a caesarian if you can help it". She said the pain of vaginal birth is nothing compared to how she felt after her c/s, and the ongoing recovery.

[little_Miss_Chez]

i had an emergancy c section , and if can avoid having one all together then i would encourage you to go for it ! .

for me it was 12 hrs before i got to meet my dd and today at 11 months it hard to think of her as mine . due to infection and being able to feel there insisions and amoungst all the other things that happened that day i find it hard to talk about it ashamed all most that i had no control over the way she was brought in to the world .i ended up having a histerectomy because of there mistakes im 22 .

But everyone is different and i think its wonderful you are concidering your options .Goodluck

[paradise lost]

Bon around 10% of breech babies born by section are cut by the surgeon's knife.

i ended up having a histerectomy because of there mistakes im 22 .

I'm so sorry. That's awful.

Bx

[Margery]

Miss H - I am soo gald you bought this up, there is NO information around. This happened to me June 2006 - and am very keen to find others.
Apparently it happens to 1 in 1000 - but my doctor failed to recognise that i was going septic and it wasnt for about 3 days and collapsed lungs that they then did an emergency laparotomy and I ended up in ICU for 3-4 days and in hospital for a month after I had my son.