"I Never Wanted A C-section Scar On My Body" - Part 2

By Andrea Lane

I remember talking to a friend who was a midwife about getting pregnant again and she helped me realize that just because the first time around I had a traumatic experience it didn't mean that it would happen again as every pregnancy and birth is different. On my daughters 1st Birthday we discovered that we were pregnant again and expecting a baby in December.

Finally it was time to head to the hospital, The drive felt like it took forever. We arrived and were taken to a birthing room where they let me get in the shower to help manage the pain before hooking me up to the monitors.
The contractions kept coming and with every little bit of energy left in me I tried to ride them through. In the end the midwife suggested I have an epidural to see if that will help me get some rest before we pushed a baby out…..but again this little guy had other plans.
I remember heading off to sleep at some early hour of the morning to be woken by a doctor coming in to check out the baby's heartbeat. After some monitoring and a check the decision was made to do an emergency C-Section as the baby was in distress. I was rushed to the operating room where they quickly got to work. The doctor was great and had a chat with me about why this was important and what my hesitation towards another C-Section was. Once I explained that last time was so horrific and why they promised to give me extra medication to help keep me calm and more medication so I didn't feel anything (Last C-Section I could feel them cutting me open as the medication didn't work properly).

I lay in the theatre room feeling so deflated and like a failure. The room was full of staff, so many more than last time....turns out that they had students who were watching from the end of the bed.  Since I was tired and the room was bustling with activity to get the baby out so fast I actually didn’t have it in me to ask why everyone was there. I started to tune out to what was happening in the room and looked out an opaque window that I could see the shadow of the trees and a streetlight shining in.
The staff in the operating room and midwife were trying to talk to me about what was happening, but The thought of it all started making me feel so ill. I remember saying to the poor anesthetist that I didn’t care what was happening and didn’t want to know. I felt the panic and the flashbacks of the last C-Section started creeping in. All I wanted to do was run….but I couldn’t move from my chin down so there was no way I was getting off that bed. I looked out the window and watched the streetlight turn off as the sun started to rise and I knew that it was a new day (I had lost complete sense of time by then).

Baby was born not breathing and my husband went to watch as the staff worked on him to get him breathing. His Apgar score was low and the atmosphere in the room started to change. Everyone was quiet. In time they got him breathing and he turned from blue to a very pale pink. Once he was stable, they attempted skin to skin as I had wished for in my birth plan. At the time I clearly remember not wanting to hold him or have him near me. I was shaking and had a migraine from the medication. After a brief skin to skin I asked if my husband could hold the baby and do skin to skin as I was scared I would drop him and just needed some sleep…In total I had about 8 hours sleep in the past 4 days.

I don’t remember much after that, but do remember the midwife coming in to say she was going home and that either herself or my midwife would be in to visit later in the day. She reassured me that I made the right decision and that someone would talk to me about why the C-Section was needed after I had some sleep. I was transferred up to the ward and into my own room where I slept so well. The midwife visited and filled me in. Apparently, I was 9cm dilated and bubs was trying his hardest to get out. He got stuck and needed the C-Section as his heart rate was dropping fast.  

In theatre the midwife had to push him back up into the womb so the doctor could get him out the sunroof as he was well and truly stuck. Poor little guy had a cone head – flat on one side and pointy on the other from being in that position for a long time. I felt a little more reassured that it was the right decision, but I still remember feeling like a failure.

That same day I remember a midwife tucking the baby into his bed after his feed and leaving the room. At the time I was there alone as my husband had gone home to catch up on some sleep. I drifted off to sleep and woke to the sound of a text message on my phone....I looked at the baby before checking my message and the baby had gone blue again. I was in a panic, but unable to move. I buzzed the buzzer three times as they had put the baby's bassinet just out of arm's reach and I couldn't move to reach him. Once a midwife finally came in they cleared his airways and settled him down to sleep again. I never knew before, but apparently it is common for C-Section babies to get mucus stuck in their airways as they don't get it squeezed out like a baby who is delivered naturally.....lesson learned and I kept him very close from then on in and kept his cot on a slight lean so it would help drain the fluid.

 
We stayed at the hospital on the ward for two nights, then we were able to be transferred to one of the local birth units to continue to rest and recover. I only stayed one night and the following evening I discharged myself  as I just wanted to go home and sleep in my own bed. I was still exhausted and needed my husband to help with a baby who disliked sleep. So I spoke to the midwife at the birth unit and spoke to my midwife and thankfully they agreed to let me go home.

So you would think that two emergency C-Section would be enough and I'd be put off having any more babies......well I thought that as well, but there is part three and part four of my journey to motherhood...... So watch this space.