Tell me your C-Section story and PP story

I’m 5 months PP and only recently came out of the fog with my baby. Here’s my story, I started out with a normal process, waters broke naturally about 7am 4 days before due date, laboured on the ward overnight for 24 hours before being brought down to delivery ward the next morning at about 10am laboured there until about 2pm and was told I was still at 4cm and they recommended a c-section I opted to wait a little bit longer and they kept monitoring so about 6pm I’m still 4cm and they again suggest a c section which I agree too as it’s 36ish hours and I’ve had the epidural and had been using the gas and air before that. I get brought down to theatre with my husband and everything is fine I’m all calm and so is he and so is everyone else. I’m popped on the table and given a top up to the epidural and they say let us know if you feel like getting sick or feel light headed. I’m lying there all chill saying will do 👍🏻so they do their thing I’m lying there holding my husband’s hand we’re both excited we’ve waited so long for this (IVF pregnancy) so our son is born a healthy 8lbs 13oz and they put him on my chest for a few minutes then take him to clean him up, and then boom I’m starting to feel like I’m going to be sick and tell my husband who let’s the doctors know and I get sick a few times and then I lose consciousness when i come around I assume it’s only been a minute or two then I go again and as I come back around I hear a doctor tell my husband he needs to take the baby and leave the theatre and all I see is the back of my husband walking out of the room before I go again when I came around this time they are wheeling me out of theatre and I see what was either cloths or bags of cloths covered in blood in the corner. I’m wheeled to recovery where my husband is waiting with our son and while there I’m in and out of consciousness the whole time so that was the birth and thank you to the doctor who told the nurse to get out as it wasn’t happening I was in no position who kept insisting I do skin to skin and breastfeed immediately even though I was still going in and out of conscious and still getting sick, she also gave me a disgusted look as I was vomiting, I also had a severe case of the shakes I couldn’t even hold my baby! turns out the doctors told my husband that I lost so much blood I could have died and they were considering giving me a blood transfusion which I thankfully didn’t need in the end, my husband also told me that as he was leaving he seen a doctor waiting with those resuscitation pads (not sure what you actually call them) but they luckily weren’t needed! So that was my C-section birth, I had a bad case of baby blues also, when I got home I couldn’t be alone with my son I was just too anxious my husband had to be with me the whole time he couldn’t even go to the shop to get some food I made him do a Tesco delivery instead and I just kept crying for 2ish weeks among other things, doing waaay better now and actually starting to leave the house with my son for walks I couldn’t go anywhere on my own with him before I was too anxious! Tell me your story how did your both go and how are you doing now??

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I went into labor at 32 weeks. I didn't even know my waters had broken the night before as I was being sick just thought I had caught a bug. Rang the midwife the next day as I wasn't feeling well still being sick they got in touch with the labour ward who rang me up. Had started having pains in my belly by then they told me to come in to he checked out. Put on a monitor to check the baby I was 4cm dilated when they checked baby was in distress and wasn't happy and moving with the contractions. They were getting me and my partner ready to go in for a normal c section then the placenta ruptured so was rushed in on my own for an emergency c section. My daughter was born weighing just under 4lb

I went to triage at 35+4 weeks with reduced movement. CTG indicated baby's heart rate was in distress, so doctors suddenly told us that they wanted to do an emergency c-section. We were in theatre twenty minutes later and baby was born. I also felt sick and then headache and then sick again - the anaesthetist told me that was my heart rate crashing, then shooting up too high as they gave me epinephrine, and then getting low again as they eased off and found the right balance. Recovery was really hard. I was in agony the first few days and baby was on NICU. Unfortunately I was given baby to care for before I was mobile, plus others on the ward were really loud. I literally went five days with just two hours of sleep in that whole time. Ended up breaking into floods of tears and feeling like I couldn't cope. We're a month out of coming home and it has been really tough. I'm still not recovered, and this makes me feel incredibly anxious and like I can't care for my baby. It's awful.

@Sarah that sounds so scary 😦 hope you’re doing well now C-sections take their toll! ❤️

We are both doing really well. She is now nine months old. She was in the hospital for five weeks before she could come home. Now she doesn't stay still shes learnt to crawl

@Beth I was the same I couldn’t cope in the hospital and I was left to look after the baby when I couldn’t, I couldn’t even walk my legs were too swollen to stand on and the midwives were no use, I know they are overworked but they were so bad IMO I asked one if she had any settling techniques as my baby wouldn’t stop crying it was on the second night 😂 and she said yeah I know a few things you can try and then she walked out of my room and never came back 😂🤦🏼‍♀️ I barely slept in the hospital I made my husband stay on the last night I couldn’t bare being on my own anymore I sobbed until he agreed to stay even though the hospital staff said he couldn’t, I couldn’t wait to get out of there

Yeah, I couldn't believe they gave me the baby so soon. That seemed like a big mistake. Surely if you expect me to care for him, I have to be able to get out of bed and be able to walk at least decently, no?! I also kept asking the midwives and nursery nurses for help and, again, while I definitely sympathise with them being overworked, I got so little help, I feel like it has contributed to the fact that one month later I'm still struggling with stress and walking.

@Beth once I got home the anxiety settled in very quickly and I got the baby blues really badly for the first two weeks, on the first evening home I went for a shower and while in the shower I started thinking about how my son deserved a better mother someone who knows what they were doing and for the briefest of minutes I thought about taking the crappy razor blade I quickly got out of the shower and just sat on the bed and sobbed, for about two weeks I just sobbed all the time I wouldn’t let my husband go anywhere I needed him to stay with me I was too anxious to look after my son alone I was afraid I’d do something wrong and hurt him I still have days where I’m so tired that I get frustrated with him I’ve only started taking him for walks as in he’s had 4 walks and he’s 5 months I’ve really struggled with my anxiety

I still feel incredibly anxious if my husband leaves the house, mostly because I'm still physically incapable of looking after my baby. We haven't taken him for a single walk yet, I try to justify that by saying his feeding intervals are so crazy short it's just not possible right now. We have sat out in the garden with him a few times, let him enjoy the outdoors. I have often had the thought go through my mind the past five weeks that I can't possibly be a good mama since I'm incapable of taking care of my baby's essential basic needs.

You don’t have to take him for walks I started wheeling him around the back garden just to get some strength in my legs back the first time I wheeled him down to the shop I was physically shaking with nerves but I had no choice but to go we had no formula left and my husband was at work, I used my fear of dogs as an excuse not to go out because the house across kept leaving their dogs out so I couldn’t go out and then I had my son in November so I used the fact it was winter not to bring him anywhere

@Beth you don’t have to justify anything to anyone or even yourself I know that’s easier said than done! do it all when you are ready

I was diagnosed with complete placenta previa at my 20 week scan. Unless it moved, I would be booked for a 37 week c section. Scan after scan, placenta hadn’t budged, so I had a planned c section at 37+0. I arrived at 5:15am but surgery got pushed until 1pm due to an emergency. I was just thankful o wasn’t the emergency!! Spinal tap experience was absolutely horrible and 0/10 recommend. Felt both claustrophobic and out of body until I went fully numb after 10-15 minutes. Surgery started without my spouse there so she walked into a blood spattered room and wide open abdomen… baby arrived at 1:31pm! I hemorrhaged and ended up losing 1600 mL of blood. No transfusion was necessary 🙌🏼 spent the next six hours vomiting and feeling itchy as heck until the right meds made me feel better. Supplemented with formula until I could produce enough milk. Hoping for a vbac in the future, but it went as well as expected with previa

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