Anyone want to share their c-section story?

Cori - posted on 07/11/2011

Gabrielle, I feel your pain on the vest thing. My son had really tight tendons in his feel when he was born. He had wear these horrible corrective shoes for his first year. Definitely not fun.

Cori - posted on 07/11/2011

Sorry this is so long. It was a pretty traumatic experience for me. I've found telling it and retelling it has helped me cope a lot.



I purposely picked a midwife office so that I could have an all natural birth at the hospital. Everything was going along well until about six weeks out. My son had dropped down and was weighing on the veins in my legs. It shot my blood pressure up when standing. So I ended up on bed rest at home. It turned natural birth on its head. I was told I would probably have to be induced if my bp started going up when resting too and that they would want to do an epidural to keep my body from stressing out and raising my bp during labor. I was induced at 38 weeks. The nurses on duty blew out 2 different veins before calling the anesthesiologist in to do my IV. Then they put a stupid bp cuff right over one of the blown out veins. I remember being in the middle of contractions when the cuff would automatically go off. My husband said

I never yelled at any people but I said a lot of choice words to the bp cuff.



I labored for almost 24 hours (12 of it with my water broken and about 8 with an epidural). At 11pm I hadn't progressed past a 4, my bp was going up, and they were worried about infection from my water being broken so long. Konner was born by c-section at 11:54pm. While my husband was taking pictures of my son I threw up. My midwife was wonderful. Even though she couldn't do the c-section, she stayed with us and even held the barf bag for me. I remember feeling more sick than I ever had in my life.



Then the doctor said, "Hmm... there is something wrong with your ovary. You have a large mass but I'm going to try to get it off." I ended up in surgery for almost 2.5 hours. It turned out I had a large dermoid cyst on my ovary. It hadn't shown up in any of the sonograms or anything. I lost the entire ovary. My bp and heart rate dropped really low at one point during the surgery. I just remember my husband trying to get me to talk to him but I was so tired that I couldn't. It was all really scary. My husband said that when they did the big push down to get out the placenta and extra blood I started yelling, "I don't like it! I don't like it!" I had been in surgery so long that I started regaining feeling and they had to up the drugs. So when I finally got out of the operating room at 2:10am I could barely keep my eyes open to hold him. My family hadn't been told anything the entire time. They didn't know what was wrong or why it had taken so long. They were all oohing and ahhing over my son and I was the one that had to tell them that I had a tumor and had lost an ovary.



The loss of the ovary threw my hormone levels way off and I couldn't breastfeed properly. I ended up pumping around the clock to give him what I could until I dried up at 6 weeks. I also got a HUGE pocket of residual IV fluid pop up on my vagina. It was the the hardest experience of my life. I felt like such a failure. It took me a long time to get through it. I threw myself into being a mom and that helped a lot.



He is now a vibrant talkative 2 year old and we are expecting a little girl in September. This time we are scheduling a c-section with the same doctor who delivered our son. He found the cyst/tumor that no one else did. He is going to check out my remaining ovary for any signs of the same condition forming. Hopefully this time will be less traumatic. I know I'm having the c-section. He thinks everything should be fine with my ovary since I was able to conceive again so easily but it is better to be sure. I feel a lot more control this time because I can write my birth plan to having a c-section. I know I'm going to request the anesthesiologist do any IV/shots from the get go. My hormones have leveled out, so I'm going to try breastfeeding again too.

Tenille - posted on 05/13/2010

Hi Everyone, Here is my story... I finished at the hair dressers and got home and my partner was home... I went to the toilet and noticed that the water just kept dripping even when I had finished and Simon (partner) was in the shower... I yelled out I think my water has broken, we rang the hospital and they told us to come down. I got there about 7pm.. They did a couple of tests and yes my waters had broken. I then saw a dr who said I would be having the baby by 2am.. Excited and nervous I waiting for the contractions to start... Then they started but very mildly... After 11 hours I hadn't progressed, well my contractions were really strong but uterus wasn't contracting. They then gave me the syntocin to start my contractions even harder. the nurse came in to let me know the lady next door was having a epidural and did I want one as they were going to put the syntocin up again which would of just been more painful but before they did that it got to 10am and they said the dr wanted to see me, so he came in and did an internal and realised I was still only 1.5cms. In 15 hours I have dilated half a centimetre. So he said I need to have a c-section as I don't have much time from when my waters broke. I was absolutely devastated! I cried and I mean cried loudly from my birthing suite all the way into theatre. I did NOT want a c-section. Then I got put on the table in order for them to put the epidural in. After 45 mins and multiple tries, they were unable to get the spinal epidural they usually give she would just have to give a standard epidural. So after another 15 mins she gets the epidural in (remembering a caesar is only suppose to be 60 mins in total). I was then laid down and they put the sheets and everthing up. They then started the operation.....Half way through when they had cut my stomach, I felt an excruiating pain and I screamed.. I told them I could feel it, they kept going and asked whether I could feel pressure or pain, I was still screaming I could feel them slicing. And thats exactly what they were doing, they had just cut my uterus to get to my baby! After this they pumped heaps of drugs into me to try and make me numb, and they also held the gas mask over my face as it was so painful. After they pumped so much stuff into me they finally got my baby out. As soon as she was born I asked "Is she alright" as soon as they said she is perfect I said please pass her to her father as by this time, I had a reaction to all the drugs they pumped into me and I was shaking really bad. they stitched me back up and after almost 2 hours I was in recovery. By this time I was conpletely numb and so gthey couldn't let me go back to my room yet. After another 15 mins or so I was finally taken up to the ward.... When I got up there my family was waiting very nervously as they didn't know what was taking so long. When I was in my room the nurse came to check on me and she told me to make sure I top up on the epidural... I said i wasn't in pain anymore and will press it when I start feeling pain. My drip had then run out of fluids and when they came to check it, the drip had actually come out of my hand. The nurse said I can't have an epidural in without a drip so I asked her to take it all out as I don't want anything poked in me anymore. She said she'd leave the epidural in but will monitor if I am going to the toilet properly (obviously in a cathedar). After about an hour the nurse came back to ask if I had pressed the pain relief yet and I said No I don't need to and she said "well I would like you too cause your going to be in alot of pain soon if you don't" She said "I will press it for you" and when she did it sent a chilling feeling down my back & spine so I told her it hurts more when she presses the pain relief. She looked at my epidural and it wasn't in properly. This is why I felt it all and then it hurt to press after I had the caesar!

But luckily for me I had a beautiful baby girl, Tayla, weight 6lb 13.. She is 6 months now and is just an angel...

Heather - posted on 04/13/2010

I lost 2 1/2 pints of blood with my c-section. I had a bikin cut so I got 36 staples I was in the hospital for 3 days. The day I was ready to go they took out the staples and when she started to take them out I was like wow it doesnt even hurt but until she got to the middle it did. So when it was time to leave I had to walk all the way to the car they didnt wheel me out. I was home for a week and I had a feeling something was wrong bc I couldn't walk it hurt to much. When I went to get a shower the one night my husband would help me. We couldn't get the the wrap off of me and there was yellow and red all over the wrap and it was stuck to my skin. So we lefted for the hospital and they said I have an infection. I opened up on the one side that didn't hurt when they took out the staples bc it wasn't healed on that side bc thats the side I had to help me get myself out of bed with. So I was at the hospital they gave me some med-liquid. The wrap came off easy so I was happy about that we didn't get home until 3 in the morning. I was on infection meds. For 2 weeks and had to clean it every morning and night so the skin would go back together. It smelled soo bad!

Lerin - posted on 02/11/2010

I just found your group! My DD is 7 now, but the c-section memory is still a very vivid one. I had a easy pregnancy, no complications at all. Contractions started on Jan. 13 and had a checkup that day already scheduled, so I went and the doctor confirmed labor. I asked about her posistioning because at my last ultrasound she'd been breech, but I'd been doing the breech exercises. He said 'It feels like head.' So I went home and walked. The more I moved, the slower it go til they stopped all together. Went to bed. Woke up around 5:30a and couldn't get comfortable. After tossing & turning I got up to go potty and I took about 2 steps and felt a little burst and then warmth and realized my water broke. I got into the shower and labor progressed very quickly. DH called my mom who we'd already arranged to drive us since I don't like DH's driving on a normal day. We got to the hospital before 7 am- had to go thru the ER b/c the main doors were still locked. I remember my mom letting us out and the ER doors were locked too, I guess this was safety measure? It was kinda like a movie for a minute. I can't even stand up straight and I'm pounding on the door and there is young doctor that can see me and it took him a long minute to figure out what was going on- like he froze then all of a sudden it clicked. They wheeled me upstairs and took me to observation and that was the worst. My mom got to come in after I was settled- they don't let extra people come back but my mom was actually a labor & delivery nurse at that same hospital- her day off- (the other nurses kept joking that she should clock in). They finally put me in a room and we settled to wait. My mom had asked my dr. if we could call him to deliver if he wasn't on call, but he was. I eventually broke down and took one dose of Stadol, and they tell me I slept, but I don't remember. I'm finally completely dialated and the Stadol had since worn off (they later told me) and dr comes in and checks and my baby is breech. Within 15 minutes, I'm in the OR with a spinal block that the anesthesiologist tried to put in in the middle of a contraction and kept telling me to sit still (a guy, go figure). While they were wheeling me back to the OR, I felt the urge to push, and my mom told me to go ahead. In the time it took them to wheel me back, my DD's heartrate dropped when they moved me for my spinal, her cord got compressed). So they scrambled around. Since they were in a hurry, my mom didn't want to get in the way taking pictures and DH didn't want to look. (I wish they had taken the curtain down but they wouldn't). Once they got her out, she let out one short cry and the doctor said 'not breathing- get help' and everyone started panicking and my mom ran out to go get more nurses. I was so out of it, I knew what was going on, but I just couldn't process it. I've never told anyone this, but I laid there and thought 'okay, your baby isn't breathing, you need to start freaking out' but I couldn't. They got her breathing again- she went from an Apgar 2 to a 9. I don't remember much about recovery, just that my mom told me it was about an hour until they got me to my room and brought her to me. I was still so out of it and exhausted that I felt so detached from the whole experience. We were able to nurse, and had no problems there. My mom still to this day says that she wonders if my DD is affected by her traumatic birth.

When I got preg with DD2, I went back to the same dr. and on the first appointment I said I wanted to VBAC, and he said 'that's something we can talk about as the pregnancy progresses' so I ended up changing to a midwives practice, because we later learned that the hospital where my dr. delivered (my mom no longer worked there) changed their VBAC policy so that any VBAC patient had to have her dr. in the hospital the entire time the patient was laboring and my dr. was the head of commitee over that kinda stuff. So with my midwives, at another hospital, I was able to have a completely natural birth the way I wanted it.

Michelle Carpenter - posted on 01/05/2010

I am a chiropractor, so in my mind it was never a question of anything but natural birth for me and my baby...or not. My OB was a FABULOUS doctor who was very supportive of me and had a million questions for me about pregnancy and chiropractic-I always looked forward to our visits. Well 41 weeks came and went so he scheduled a NST to check on our little girl. She was great but it was decided to schedule an induction b/c no one lets you go past 42 weeks anymore. I went in for induction without incident-until about 2 hours in when the nurses come flooding into my room in complete panic hooking up fluids moving me around due to decelerations in baby's heartrate. Heart rate came up, everyone sighed in relief....I got off monitors and walked and walked and walked..I had lots of contractions, no pain just pressure...I thought, this isn't so bad!! Well, Dr came to check me, I was dialated only to 3 so he said...Go home and come back later, when you feel more into labor. Then he walked out to check some things and came FLYING back in with staff pouring in after him...he had checked her heart rate backlogs and realized she was in complete distress...I was in tears and complete shock...In 3 minutes I went from wondering if I would get any sleep that night to being rapidly prepped for c-section. In my heart, I knew it was best for her, but in my head I was terrified and confused. The c-section went fine, although I cried through the whole thing. My gorgeous daughter was born at 6lb 13oz, 19 in. It turned out her umbilical cord was excessively twisted to the point she was getting NO nutrition and hardly any oxygen. My OB sent it to the lab to check on it, b/c he had never seen it in 20+ years of practice. It was determined she would have died in a vaginal birth b/c the cord would most likely have torn. She is now a healthy beautiful 2 year old little girl...My 2nd pregnancy was based around a VBAC and we were so very excited about it. However, my body would not go into labor and they did not want to induce with a VBAC so I ended up with a scheduled C-section on August 20th, 2009. The entire staff was the same as with my 1st c-section and they all remembered me...as the chiropractor who cried through the 1st c-section...lol. The recovery was much easier without the labor and I have a gorgeous 4 month old son. Needless to say, nothing went as I planned with either of my birthing experiences but I am blessed to have both of my babies with me!!

Bethany - posted on 11/05/2009

Khara Basilio, Thank you for sharing your story. I am glad you had a healthy baby girl, But thats not to down play everything you went through. You went through a lot you worked really hard and than things just got crazy and scary for you and of course some disappointments when you were working so hard to have the delivery you wanted. You are an incredible mom with everything you did for your baby girl.

Bethany - posted on 09/24/2009

Paige Mcguan, Thank you for posting your story. I am glad you were able to find this group. That would be really hard everything you went through. Its also hard hearing other stories where things turned out more like the way we were originally planning but things just at the end end up not working out the way we were hoping. I know what you mean by the kinda dealing with it some initially but you are just so busy with a new baby that it does get pushed aside some but it comes back out after awhile and is just as hard to deal with as it was months before. It does slowly get a little easier though but takes awhile.

Paige - posted on 09/24/2009

I am nursing at the moment and can't type my whole story but just wanted to say that your stories bring tears of grief and joy to my eyes. Recently a friend gave birth naturally in water just as she had planned and hearing about it has brought on a lot of grief for me at the loss of my natural birth experience. Throughout my pregnancy I was so confident in my ability to give birth naturally and so excited for the emotion that I knew it would bring. But after being dilated completely for 19 hours, the baby still hadn't descended I had to have a C Section (water had broken 36 hours earlier). I didn't cry at the joy of the birth of my son because I was so out of it, I didn't feel proud of myself, I felt like I had disappointed everyone including myself, all the feelings I'm sure many of you have felt. That was 4 months ago and after "dealing" with the initial disappointment, I think I pushed it aside for a while, now those feelings are all coming back and so I searched and found this group.

Bethany - posted on 07/28/2009

I am so glad your VBAC went so well and that is really encouraging.
Thank you for being willing to answer questions.

Paige - posted on 07/28/2009

Thanks Bethany! I know what you mean, I couldn't talk to my friends and family about it because they didn't understand why I was unhappy because I had a healthy baby. Of course I'm glad I had a healthy baby! That doesn't mean it's not OK to mourn my birth experience. That's why I think groups like this are good. Women need to know that it's ok to be sad about it, you don't have to feel guilty for not being thrilledto have been cut open.

I'm happy to say that had my second baby via VBAC 5.5 months ago and it was a very healing experience. I think even if it had been a repeat csection it wouldhave been healing because I did everything I could do to have a VBAC. If I'd had a section this time I would have known for sure that it was necessary. If you have any questions or just want to talk about your upcoming VBAC please feel free to message me.

Bethany - posted on 07/28/2009

Paige Silcox, I am so glad you have a healthy baby and you are okay. But trust me i am not saying that makes everything else you went through any easier. It is hard and from what i found out afterwards most people don't understand and are just like you are healthy and the baby is healthy whats your problem. I am sure i don't have to say much though and that you have heard it also.
I am actually pregnant now with my second baby and i am really hoping for a VBAC also. I hope you will be able to have a VBAC for your second baby.
Thank you for posting your story

Paige - posted on 07/28/2009

Hello everyone! I'm glad to find this community. Here's my csection story. Sorry, it's sort of long, but it took me a long time to get the courage to write it. It wasn't until I was pregnant with my second child and hoping for a VBAC that I finally wrote it all down as a sort of therapy. A way to face my fears I guess. Anyway, here it is if anyone's interested in reading it.

I went in on a Friday to see my midwife. I was a little more than a week overdue at that point so they strapped me to the monitor to check things. Everything looked fine except the baby wasn't moving as much as they wanted. My midwife said just to be safe to go to the hopital for a NST. She told me that if I wanted to, just tell them I'm ready to have the baby and they'd induce me. That should have been my first clue that things might not go the way I was hoping.

So I went to the hospital and they decided that I was low on fluid. Fortunately the midwife oncall at the hospital was really understanding about me NOT WANTING an induction. Despite the doctor's recommendation (and my mother, and my aunt, and my grandmother) that I induce, the midwife suggested I go home over the weekend, drink tons of water and come back for another NST on Monday. I was very relieved to have another option.

I showed up at the hospital Monday afternoon and had another NST. While my fluid had not gone down, it hadn't come up either so the doctor, midwife, nurses, and my entire family told me to just get the induction. I still felt like it was the wrong thing to do, but everyone else was telling me to do what the doctor said and they kept insinuating that by NOT doing that I was endangering my baby's life. So I agreed.

You have to be 4cm to start pitocin and I was nowhere close (about 1 cm) so they used a Foley bulb to dilate me further. It was painful, uncomfortable, and invasive. They basically insert a ballon inside your cervix, inflate it to 4 cm, and it puts pressure on your cervix. When your cervix dilates to 4cm it falls out. The thing is connected to a tube that runs down your leg, which is taped there to hold it in place. They did this later in the evening and told me to sleep with it in. Yeah. Right.

By this time everyone had gone home because it was clear I wouldn't be in labor any time soon. There was no bed for Jason to sleep in so he asked if he could go home too. I wanted to say no because I was so scared to be there by myself, but I knew that if I did go into labor the next day I'd need him to be well-rested so I said that if he wanted to go he could. I don't think I actually believed he would leave me there alone, but he did. I've never been so lonely and scared in my entire life and I just lay there crying for a while. I felt abandoned and then guilty for begrudging him sleep. To my surprise I actually fell asleep.

I woke up a couple of hours later and had to pee so I went to the bathroom. While I was there the bulb fell out of me. There was a lot of blood and it was sort of frightening. I called the nurse and she just told me over the intercom to leave it in the bathroom. I was disappointed she didn't come in because I was still feeling lonely and wanted to actually talk to someone. I fell back to sleep, much more comfortable now that I didn't have a contraption inside me.

The next day my family showed back up cheerful and well-rested. I was feeling a bit grumpy myself, but tried to be excited that I was going to have a baby today. I thought. I asked the midwife if I could go walk around outside for a while before they strapped me to all the IVs and monitors because at that point I'd been in that hospital room for almost 24 hours. So I got my last breath of fresh air for a while and walked around outside the hospital. It was a beautiful day.

I went back in feeling much better and settled in for a long wait. They started the pitocin and an IV antibiotic (that burned when it flowed in! I could feel it all the way up my arm and into my chest). The first anesthesiologist came in and offered me an epidural. That pissed me off because it specifically said in my birth plan NOT to offer me medications. I wasn't even in labor yet for crying out loud! It would have been waaaaay too soon for an epi even if I'd wanted one. I just said, "No. I'm not using medications." He laughed and said, "I bet I'll see you later" and walked out the door. I was pretty pissed off, but my mom and Jason said "oh he was just kidding, you're making too big a deal out of it" so I tried to let it go.

After that it's a long, boring blur. Every few hours or so a new anesthesiologist would come in and ask if I was ready for an epi yet. I got irritated…then I thought it was funny. Especially since I still showed no signs of labor. They kept cranking up the pitocin, but nothing was happening. I dilated to about 6cm by early evening, the monitor showed regular contractions, but I felt nothing. The baby was perfectly happy and showed zero signs of distress. I laid there on my back and got up from the bed only to go use the bathroom. I started lying about needing to pee just so I could get up.

Sometime in the evening a nurse offered me a rocking chair. I was surprised. I asked if it was ok for me to get out of the bed and she said of course. Geez, I wish someone had told me that earlier!! I'd have been up moving around, squatting, rocking, kneeling on all fours, all the things I knew would help the baby move down. At that point I don't think I sat down again. I stayed on my feet except when they checked me for dilation.

I don't know what time it was when the midwives changed shift, maybe 8ish, but the new MW came in and it seemed like right away she decided she needed to know how strong my contractions were since I hadn't dilated past 6. She put an internal monitor on my cervix, which meant the end of my standing. I had to lay on my back and try not to move at all. It wasn't long before I felt the water trickling out. I let her know my water had broken and she removed the monitor. I’ve since learned that the water has to break when they use an internal monitor, but the midwife didn’t tell me that part when she said she was going to put it in.

But I got excited once my water broke because suddenly I could actually feel the contractions. I thought what I'd been waiting for for two days was finally happening- I was in labor!! I was thrilled.

Then the midwife came back. She said the monitor showed that I was having really strong contractions and that because I wasn't dilating despite the contractions she thought it was time to do a c-section. I felt like someone had literally punched me in the stomach and knocked the wind out of me. I started crying and said, "but I can feel the contractions now, I'm in labor." She told me I'd been in labor for a while and it wasn't progressing anything. I asked her if we could please just wait a little while to see if anything happened and she said she would give me one hour. If I hadn't dilated by then I had to have a c-section.

She put me in the "Pretzel"position, which apparently is supposed to encourage dilation (again, no one could have suggested that earlier??) but unfortunately makes the fetal monitor hard to keep in place. I spent the entire hour crying to myself, listening to my mother and Jason tell me it was for the best, and trying to ignore the friggin nurse who would not leave me alone and kept messing with the stupid monitor. I wanted to scream at her that surely after 13 hours of lying there with the damned monitor strapped to me and the baby had never once shown any signs of distress, surely it would be ok for the next hour. But of course I didn't. I just kept trying to help her get the monitor situated. She didn't try to hide her frustration and impatience with me at all. She clearly thought I should just go do the surgery and get it over with.

Then the MW came and checked my cervix again. Still 6 cm, so she said. I have my doubts about whether she would have actually told me if I had dilated, but maybe I'm just paranoid.

So that obnoxious nurse came in, much more cheerful now, and shaved the top few inches of my pubic hair. Someone came in and gave me a shot of something "to calm me down." I requested they wait to give me a catheter until after I'd been numbed and they said yes. It was the best decision I made all day, I think, but the nurse seemed to think it was weird.

They rolled me to the OR, which looked like a supply closet. They said Jason would join me in a minute. The anesthesiologist just happened to be the same one who'd been there 12 hours earlier. He said, "I told you I'd see you later." All I can say is that it was a damn good thing that they gave me that shot to calm me down because I remember being angry but just not caring. That stupid nurse who'd been badgering me for the last hour was there as well. While they are getting things ready they were gossiping about some guy who was "totally looking at" one of the nurses. I didn't understand how they could not realize that I was laying there having one of the worst moments of my life. I wanted to scream at them that I knew they probably did this everyday, but I didn't and it was really scary and emotional for me, but again that shot saved them from my wrath.

DH still hadn't shown up, but it was time for my spinal block. The thing I'd feared most throughout pregnancy- the reason I never wanted an epidural- a needle in my spine. I thanked the shot again. I leaned on the MW. Suddenly I thought someone had splattered boiling water down my left leg. I jumped and looked to see who'd dropped a cup but the MW just told me not to move. It was just the needle hitting a nerve. I laid back and they raised the curtain. I zoned out. The part of my brain not "calmed" by the shot wondered where Jason was.

Finally he came in. He seemed surprised they'd already started. Apparently he'd gone to get a cup of coffee and they couldn't find him.

It's all a blur from there until at 1 am I heard the doctor say, "Oh, what a beautiful baby." I remember wondering whether he said that about all the babies. I tried to look and see but the curtain was in the way. By the time they brought her to us she was clean and swaddled and had a little cap on, but she was the most beautiful thing I'd ever seen. Her face was so pink and her eyes were closed and she looked so peaceful. They handed her to Jason and I reached up and touched her cheek and said hello. I laid there with my hand on her cheek for god knows how long. It seemed like ages.

I started to realize that I felt a vague burning sensation in my abdomen. I told the anesthesiologist that I felt something. He asked me what it felt like and I thought for a second and said, "it feels like fingers in my belly." He said, "Let's get you a shot of morphine." They don't tell you this, but morphine makes you itch. It was terrible, it started in my nose, then my face...neck...chest. I was trying to focus on the baby but I was so itchy and I'd been laying there for so long.

Finally they finished and I was able to hold my baby for the first time as they rolled me back to my room. For a few moments all was right with the world. It wasn't so bad. My baby was healthy and I was OK. As soon as they parked my bed I put Nora to my breast and she latched right on. I was so happy. I slept with her all night in my bed with me, nursing and snuggling.

The next day I was in the bathroom when I heard my usual midwife come in my room. It was the first time I'd seen her since that Friday she'd sent me for the NST. I sat there in the bathroom afraid to come out and started crying. I couldn't face her. The last time I'd seen her I was pregnant and happy and confident and now I'd failed. She was going to be disappointed in me and I was scared to look her in the eye. I tried to clean off my face and look like I wasn't crying and walked out to see her. That was the first time I pretended like it didn't matter but it definitely wasn't the last.

Kayleigh - posted on 05/24/2009

I Did Yoga every Thursday and Saturday as soon as i found out i was pregnant, I ate healthy and did kegal exercises every morning. I was determined to have a natural birth. My mom couldn't have a natural birth with me because she wouldn't Dilate. at 34 weeks when i went for my Final Ultrasound I found out that my baby had its head shoved in my ribs and was told that it was really small for its gestational age and would have to be delivered by C-section. On Wednesday Feb 25th I got a phone call at 6 in the morning from the Hospital "Why are you not here" The nurse asked, "What" i replied confused, Well apparently i was booked for a C-Section and nobody told me the date, I had believed that it was to be the friday that i would have the baby. Unfortunately I now had to wait until the Monday March 2nd to have the baby, But was sent for NST's for the few days before to monitor the baby (because it was supposed to be really small) Finally monday came, at 7 am i woke excited and Hungry, It sucks that you arn't allowed to eat before you deliver the baby. we arrived at the hospital at 8 am I was going in at 3pm, I told the nurse i was hungry, she smiled and gave me an apple juice and told me that that was to be the last thing i had. Grrrr
It was the longest wait of my life, I tried to sleep and couldn't. My husband was by my side pressing all the buttons on the side of the bed, my bed was up then down and then almost bend in half, Until i finally told him to go get somthing to eat for himself, Thinking that he would eat it in the Cafeteria, but no he has to bring the bag of chips and coke back into the room, making not only me but the woman that was to go into O.R before me want to kill him.
Finally it was 1pm, My mother in-law came and started playing crazy eights with us to calm the wait.
2pm The woman beside me left to go have her baby,
3:45 They came in to get me, What a sweet nurse, She told me that the Anesthesiologist was really nice and I was lucky to have her. I am shit scared of needles just to be clear The anesthesiologist was so incredible, she did the spinal block and reassured me the whole time. she held my one hand as my husband entered the room, and he took my other hand, Little did I know but they had already started cutting me open. I was talking the whole time and crying, they had to make a note of that I heard a few times "Doctor just as a note the patient is crying" Then the anesthesiologist told my husband to stand up and look, he didnt want to so she grabbed him and made him, my baby had HIS feet and genitals hanging out, A Boy He yelled and I cried even more. I felt like i was in there forever afterward as the anesthesiologist took pictures for us in the O.R. I just wanted to get out of there, but finally when we did get to the recovery room I got to hold my son and feed him, The nurse tried to sit me up, only i was so dizzy and started puking badly, So i lay down and fed him. My husband ran out to go get his parents. I kept asking for food, nobody told me that i wouldnt be allowed to eat afterward. Not till tomorrow the nurse kept telling me. My husbands parents came in and i was half naked and covered in iodine and blood, the drew the curtain and my husband took my son to the other side to seee his parents, I was not too happy about this and just wanted my baby back!
Then My sister inlaw and her husband came in and i was hungry tiered and missing my son at this point. Finally i got to hold him and feed him a bit more. I spent the rest of the time in recovery puking, I react badly to morphine the nurse told me.
When i got to my room (I got a private one) I had to call a nurse to give me some benadryl my whole throat had started to swell from the morphine and i was itchy as all hell.
My inlaws and my sister inlaw and her husband were all still there, I finally got frustrated and told them i was tiered and i needed sleep!
after me saying it four or five times they got the hint and left.
And today i am left with a Smile on my stomach of where my son used to be :)

Bethany - posted on 05/08/2009

Anna Matsumoto, Thank you for sharing your story that really is hard when you are planning on an all natural birth and worked so hard to get there also but things don't work out the way we wanted. I am so glad you have a healthy baby girl now though :)

Bethany - posted on 05/08/2009

I did post my story like i said i would. I guess the best way to get to it is from the home page of Planning on an all natural birth but ended up having a c-section it is called
(One c-section story out of thousands more that are out there)

Anna - posted on 05/06/2009

I'll try to make this short... After 2 days of contractions, they were finally close enough that I went to the hospital around 2:00 a.m. on February 7, 2008, to have my baby girl NATURALLY. I had taken Bradley Method childbirth classes and I was ready!



Upon arriving at the hospital, my contractions were back to four minutes apart or so. Despite this, the baby was so low that my doctor said, "Oh, she'll be here soon!" I had horrible back labor the entire time, but just keep walking and having my husband massage my lower back. It was excruciatingly painful!



Well, after 13 hours in the hospital and fighting the urge to push the entire time, I finally gave in to getting a little bit of Stadol to relax my uterus a bit so it would dilate. My contractions were off the charts and because of the back labor it felt like my baby would be coming out my butt (some of you know the feeling, I'm sure). Luckily, the Stadol worked and I was at 10 cm and ready to push around 5:00 p.m. The doctor said she was so low that she should be out with 2 good pushes... yeah right!



I pushed for 2 hours and she still wasn't coming out. We finally decided that my contractions weren't strong enough (they had weakened a lot) and so I got a little Pitocin to try and help them along. I was pushing with everything I had for a total of 2.5 hours. I was so tired that I was falling asleep in between pushing and it was a DEEP sleep. Well, we finally realized that my daughter simply wasn't going to fit through the birth canal and I had to have a c-section. Luckily, I gave birth to a healthy 7 lb. 8 oz. 20 inch sweet baby girl at 8:49 p.m. some 60 hours from when my labor first started.



My perfectly natural childbirth had resulted in a major operation. I still to this day get really upset when I think about it. I didn't get to hold my baby to my breast right after she was born, and in fact, I was like the 10th person to get to hold her and it was over an hour after she was born. Not to mention, I was so exhausted that I couldn't even cry tears of joy when I finally got to hold her. Another unfortunate side effect was that my husband actually resented her for the first couple days of her life for putting me through such agony. You wouldn't be able to tell now though... they are connected at the hip. :o)



I guess that wasn't so short after all... ha ha!

Bethany - posted on 04/22/2009

Thank you for sharing your stories :) I am sorry that i have not yet, but honestly at this point i have told very few people and they are mostly only close family members at this point and a very few close friends.
Originally when i started this community I had all intentions of sharing also right away. That was a big point of the community to share, encourage, advice, or whatever else :)
Well anyways I appreciate everyone who has been brave and went ahead and posted, and I am sorry it took so long but I am going to post my story also.

Gabrielle - posted on 04/01/2009

I had a C-section with my DD. She was supposed to be "natural" but was late so we tried to induce. Nothing happened with the drugs for maybe 10 hours, so the doctor broke my water. After that I felt movement but not many contractions (I had an epidural). When they checked me 4 hours later, I had dilated to almost 9 cm, but my daughter had turned and was presenting breech. I was in surgery minutes later.



Everything went fine with the C-section, but because my DD had snugged down into my pelvis a little, she had some hip dysplasia. So she wore a special velcro harness called a Pevlac harness for 9 months and now there's no sign of it. Truly, that danged harness was the worst part of the C-section for me. That and I had really wanted to see her right after she was born, all "goopy", etc. But the nurse didn't hand her to me until she was already cleaned. And then, of course, dad had to go with her while they did everything else, and I had to stay and be stitched up. So I wish I could have been there for that, and been the one to tell my parents her name. But she's healthy, my scar is very small and low, and my doctor was great.



I hear you about the "no pictures". Our camera died and my parents' camera's battery died, so we hardly have any pictures. I wish we had taken lots, especially since most of her pictures for the next 9 months involved that stupid velcro beast (that's what I called it). And I remember noticing her hair, too. It was very black, like mine, and plastered to her head in little bang curls. She was born with a full head of hair - I guess that explains all my heartburn!