Pls help me decide - C/S or natural twin delivery?

Hi everyone,

I am currently 28 wks pregnant with twins and am having so much trouble trying to decide how I should deliver the twins.

At the moment twin A is head down so if she stays that way I can deliver naturally. I had my DD naturally but it wasn't much fun. I was in labour for 30 hours, had heaps of gas, a pethidine shot and in the end a epidural. I had a second degree tear and lots of stitches. It took me a good 8-9 months to enjoy sex again.

A good thing about a C/S is you have a date to look forward to meeting your bubs (that is if they don't come earlier) and you know it will all be over in a relatively short time. The down side is the recovery and trying to look after 2 newborn and a 2 year old.

What I'm really worried about is that if I decide to have them naturally, I will deliver the first twin and then have to be rushed off for an emergency C/S to deliver the second twin. Therefore, having to recover from both which I can imagine can't be much fun.

What would you decide?

Thanks for your help.
Jane

Hey Jane

I personally would choose the natural.I had a emergency c/s after 23 hours of labour and wished that I could have had her naturally.The recovery wasn't to bad but everyones different and I'd imagine after delivering 2 via c/s would be tough.The worst was straight after the birth not being able to get up and being totally bed riden, being on anti biotics for infections and having a cathetar in, not being able to pick up your baby when they cry.The list goes on.I know natural can be tough to, with tears and that but some people also don't have sex for ages after a c/s as any kind of movement can be extremely painful.

The best person/s to ask about this would be Yvette and Kelly.Yvette delivered her twin girls naturally and Kelly was there with her!

Goodluck in deciding........

Hi Jane

Firstly congratulations on your twin delivery.

I feel only you yourself can answer your question, What do you feel is the right thing to do for yourself and your twins? Twins can be born quite safely naturally, hopefully Yvette will pop in and tell you about her birth.

Have you spoken to your caregiver? They should be able to give you the pros and cons of both sides of the fence.

A c/s is no fun at all, it`s not a walk in the park and off course takes longer to recover then a vaginal delivery as you`ve had major abdominal surgery and your not suppose to lift anything heavier then your babies.

Take Care andGood Luck in deciding.

Yvette's birth story is iether on her website or on BB too

Tam B would be good to ask too -

:

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Breifly and I will update in more detail in the birth stories, it was a 12 hour labour that ended in an emergency c/s at 9cm dialated due to Rylee going into severe fetal distress. To make matters worse I then went into severe Pre eclampsia and it took drs 5 hours to stabilise me.

However I have 2 wonderful babies. Rylee was born 5lb 8 oz at 1:08pm on the 2nd Jan and Declan 5lb 11oz at 1:07pm on the 2nd Jan.

We were able to take both of them home with us, after many tests to check for problems related to premiturity and they are both feeding very well at the breast.

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she knows it from both angles.

Yvette's twins were born vaginally, without tearing but not naturally. After and induction and one of the bubs posterior, it took a toll on Yvette and she opted for pain relief to help - she worked so hard and did a great job.

Whatever you decide, if you decide on attempting a vaginal birth (I am confused if you actually mean a vaginal birth or natural birth - natural birth means intervention and drug free not just coming out of the vagina) but if you do want a natural birth, you have to be completely motivated to have one - if you are having some huge contractions and you're exhausted - if all that is keeping you going is a nice ideal that you'll have a natural birth because it sounds good, that wont hold you. You need to have a true to your heart, strong motivation and belief for doing it or it will be too easy to pack it in during labour. See the article I wrote here: https://www.bellybelly.com.au/birth/natural-birth

JMO and not a judgement on anyone at all, I don't think that caesars or inductions for convenience is a fair deal for all involved. It might be convenient for mum, dad or the Ob for that matter, but what about baby and if she/he is ready? They don't get a chance to prepare for birth and this makes me worry about what the future will hold for birth. I truly believe that giving a vaginal birth a go is definitely worthwhile even if you choose pain relief. Twins can move about all the time, luckily at induction time, both Yvette's twins were head down after twin B dancing around in all sorts of positions for some time, but often they still come down head first.

There are far too many caesers of twins going on, Obs are losing their skills and are scared of a vaginal twin birth - I even heard a doctor say this, that if he wasn't the one delivering the twins, then a caesar would be required as the registrars wouldn't do it, they would be too nervous. This is why if you even want to attempt a twin vaginal birth, most will ask you to have an epidural in in case something happens and they need to reach in and get the second twin out. So it's a battle, a very long hard battle in the medical system if you want a natural twin birth but it is possible.

I know of several sets of twins born at home, I think even Sheila Kitzinger had twins born at home (by surprise though!) and the outcomes have been great. You'll also hear lots of stories of twins being born at home before doctors had such high intervention with machines to detect twin pregnancies and women having twins fine without even knowing what was coming. I'm not suggesting you have them at home but just some examples of twins being born beautifully.

Of course, there are come complications with twins for example witht he placenta (TTTS) but this probably would have been detected by now by ultrasound if it was a problem. Pre-Eclampsia is a problem which is not only a twin pregnancy issue, but it is a definite reason for a caesar and this is what we are greatful to the medical system for, saving lives.

We're all entitled to our own births and everyone can do as they please, but as someone in this birth industry, this it what concerns me that the baby(ies) iare not considered in all things convenience.

Just to let you know that I had to have my twins via c/section as they were breech and prem.

I recovered really easily with the c/s, and was out of bed and dancing around the next day. Ideally I wanted a vag birth - but it wasn't an option under the circumstances.

Whatever you decide, its your choice and what you feel that you want to do.

just wanted to let you know that i found a c/s no probs - and the scar is not as big as you think it would be - how they got two kids out of it - i do not know -lolol

good luck with everything

odette
mum to ariel and immogen -5/12/2002