Elective c section

[Claire91]

Good morning everyone 🙂

Hope everyone is well.

I'm currently 31 weeks pregnant and the baby is measuring big. I am having scans every 2 weeks. My bloodsugars have been well controlled through my whole pregnancy. When I saw the consultant after my acan this week they mentioned about me considering an elective c section, because the baby could get stuck , but it's entirely up to me.
I was just wondering if people could share their experiences of an elective c section .

Thankyou 🙂

 

[Toucan]

Hello @Claire91
This is a difficult and very personal decision.
My daughter was faced with a similar situation. Having been through a very difficult time with the birth of her first child, she decided on am elective C for her second child. It certainly took the stress away from the pre-birth phase, and it all went well.
It did however take her much longer to recover from the birth.
Whatever you choose, I wish you and your baby well.

 

[Cleo]

I had an elective CS with my second and it was amazing !

The induction with my first failed miserably so I needed to have an emergency CS under a general anesthetic-so in comparison with that experience the elective CS was amazing .
Such a calm and controlled environment - for me personally it was a great experience. They did recommend that I take steroid injections to help with the baby’s lungs. I can’t rember how many weeks I was but probably around 32-33 weeks - think I stayed over night in hospital for monitoring as the steroids can increase your BGs.

Hope that helps

 

[Thebearcametoo]

It’s a very personal choice. Size alone doesn’t mean you wouldn’t be able to have a vaginal birth and scans aren’t always accurate. You’ll know how close your glucose control has been and whether that might be a factor with a big baby which may affect your choices. You can keep your options open and book an elective for a lateish date (39/40 rather than 38 weeks) and see how you’re measuring then. There are good reasons to choose an elective if you like to have a bit more certainty and planning and with covid-19 around that may factor into your choice too. You’re likely to spend less time in hospital with an elective than if you end up with an emergency csec but a vaginal birth may be even less time than that. At this stage I would make multiple plans, if x happens then y, if a happens then b.

I had 2 emergency csecs. (Neither very dramatic.) The second was an easier recovery than the first. Post op you will be restricted in what you can do (driving especially if you drive) but if you have some support at home that just encourages you to spend time with your baby. We can get very hung up on what is the right way to give birth but that importance tends to fade with time.

 

[everydayupsanddowns]

I really like Alison's pregnancy blogs on Shootup, which are interesting, factual and very funny. She opted for an elective c-section with her daughter.

I had a security warning this time so I suspect Tim may need to pull his finger out and renew the security certificate, so maybe don’t immediately send them your credit card number in a plain text comment, but the website is completely safe as far as I know.

How to get this baby out | Shoot Up or Put Up

Given the number of medics it took to conceive and gestate this baby, I've never been under the illusion that getting her out would be an all natural affair. I

www.shootuporputup.co.uk

 

[Drummer]

I had normal births with two babies over 9lb.
My daughter in law has just had her fifth child - I believe that all were due to be induced but the last one did not wait for the proper procedure to be done and was born when the midwife was busy elsewhere. The head size was thought to be too large to leave until full term, so they were all a few weeks early. The smallest one was over 7lb, and they all looked a bit like the Mekon.
Have they not even suggested inducing according to the weight or size?