Elective C-Section for 3rd child

I have a lady at work that asked me if she can elect to have a c-section for her 3rd child. She has had 2 vaginal deliveries (first one was pretty intense and second one was a bit traumatic for her and painful). She doesnt want to go through another vaginal birth and was maybe even considering having tubes clamped after this one. She would like to go public (most probably Logan Hospital or Mater Mothers if she can get in). I have read and printed out a thread that had a lot of posts about this same subject and it was made pretty clear that they only do c-sections if u have had 2 prior c-sections in public hospitals. I was wondering, if the last deliveries were traumatic for the mother, would the hospital consider doing to c-section?

Hello, I'm having a CS this time round (public hospital in ACT) due to previous traumatic experience. However it may depend on actual hospital & their guidelines. In my case I ended up with post traumatic stress disorder and probably PND after my first birth (pretty extreme example) but I was able to describe the negative effect the birth had on me, my bonding and my emotional well being for quite some time afterwards. It also helped that I ended up with a vaginal prolapse and had to go off for some anal surgery afterwards too. What I'm trying to say is she might need to be quite clear about what her trauma was and how it affected her, and amplify that with any other problems she had afterwards as a result of the birth, as just saying that it was horrible and she doesn't want to do it again is not likely to be enough of a reason. Having said that, a CS is not the answer for everyone, possibly a different setting with more support (like a doula) and better pain management may end up being the best thing for her. It's a discussion she needs to have with her own doctors and caregivers.

I rang the hospital before I even fell pregnant and spoke to the Midwife in charge about the policies and practices re CS at maternal request. Maybe this would be helpful for your friend too as she will get an idea of how sympathic each hospital is likely to be to her request.

I think there is much variation in ob willingness to allow women to choose an elective c-section. Sounds to me like this woman has every right to have her preference respected, but I'm not sure re whether they let you elect a c-section for psychological (rather than medical) reasons. If not, they should!

Yeah I told her that she would have to ring the hospital to find out what they would do. My OB does electives on request but Ive got private health cover. She is considering getting private health cover now.