Having been present and a support person for both of my twin sisters 2 births, I guess I just naturally expected to follow suit. My Mother, like both my sisters had delivered vaginally for all of us and so whilst I was well versed in what a c-section was and would mean, I didn't think to much about having to have one myself!
My son TJ was tracking to have quite a large head, and given my small frame I went into be induced at 38 weeks, to allow me to have a better chance of a successful vaginal delivery. I was induced at around 7pm on a Friday night and after what seemed like a very very long night of no sleep and early labouring I was surprised to learn that I was only 2-3 cm dilated by 10am the next morning. I was told that given his positioning it was looking like I was in for a very long labour and they recommended an epidural and some rest so that I could reserve all my energy for 'a mammoth effort' I remember them telling me.
I will be honest and the rest of the day is very hazy and hard to piece together, but by late afternoon Saturday nothing much had progressed and they were starting to show some slight concern. I was also experiencing break through nerve pain and sciatic pain down my legs so with every contraction I was running my legs (as if I was running lying down – from the epidural) and my body was starting to really fatigue. By very late afternoon my Obstetrician quietly gave me the option of a C-section as I would really need to conserve my energy to push his head out given his position – but I really wanted to try for a vaginal delivery and knew that if I didn't persevere , I would feel disappointed. But by early evening when I was FINALLY fully dilated , baby started to show signs of distress and there was a meconium show. It became obvious even with 2 pushes that baby wasn't moving down at all – and they thought his head was positioned sideways and was starting to swell from the pressure.
At this point it really was time for an emergency C-section BUT an emergency c-section was rushed in before me and given it was a busy Saturday night I then had to wait. This was a bit worrying as I now had a high temperature and meconium was still presenting and baby was distressed, but nothing could be done.
Once in theatre later that night they realised that his head was lodged in my pelvis and they had to call a second Obstetrician to come and assist and push him up through my vagina as my Obstetrician pulled him out of my stomach. By this stage, given my high temperature and the temperature of my tissue ( it was now almost 9pm) it caused an internal rip through my uterus into my vagina, which in combination with anaesthesia / spinal tap etc caused my body to react and I started vomiting with tachycardia. I have little memory of the rest of my time in theatre other as it took a while for the team to get on top of things and I was in theatre for almost 3 hours! But finally in the recovery room I was able to see and hold my son and he latched perfectly and had a nice big drink! Apart from being very very dozy he was a happy and hungry wee boy!
The emergency C-section was completely unexpected, as were the additional complications, and I will admit, the recovery took a lot longer than I had thought. BUT! I was, and still am in awe of my body and its amazing ability to endure, heal and recover.
I had to have an elective C-section for my daughter and recovery was so easy and am on track for another for my third little boy on the way 🙂
