Have you thought about getting a second opinion? Perhaps from an independent midwife?

I dont know if your case would be the same but I was rushed to theatre and was actually put to sleep. I need 2.5ltr blood transfusion and the twins were taken to NNU. Because I had an infection and they were unable to establish where the infection came from I am allowed to have a section again this time elective.

My sister also had a section with her daughter after a long labour and she is also allowed to opt for a section.

x

Because I have had 1, I can opt for another, but i just don't know what to do! Its not like its even a concern at the min but its playing on my mind x

I also had an emergency c-section and it was quite traumatic since it all happened so fast and I felt like I had no decisions in what was happening to me. The recovery was horrible and I cried every time I thought about that night (and I hardly ever cry or get emotional.)

I'm hoping to try vbac next time and I really hope everything goes well. No two births or pregnancies are the same, so I hope it can only get better from the last experience.

I dont understand why the hospitals are letting you girls be in labor that long. My hospital said they wouldnt let me go a long amount of time because its hard on the baby too. Carter was just staying the same after i was induced nothing was happening i wasnt dilating or anything. i was having contractions for about 8 hours they kept telling me its as if he was sleeping so of course i was worried there was something wrong with him. He is such a chill baby so i guess it all makes sense when his heart rate started to drop with my contractions they said we gotta get him out of there. Next time i would have another c section easier to plan and can have the after care i need all setup better this time.

hubby doesnt understand why anyone would go through labour when they could have a section!

I ended up with an emergenct section and it plays on my mind all the time as we want to TTC at the end of the year.

On one hand I want to do it properly and actually give birth - to get the chance to push my own baby into the world, to be able to go home the next day or that day and be able to walk and bend and pick up my babies and try to BF..the section and drugs made it impossible this time around.

BUT...then I feel guilt even thinking about it...what if I do manage VBAC? Then I'd feel even more guilty than I do already that I couldn't manage it with my first|!

...and...what if it all goes to shit again and I get another emergency section and feeling like a failure again and all the shittyness of an emergency section after trying so hard for so long and the recovery being awful again?

..or...what if they need to do an instrumental delivery?? That terrifies me!

SO...should I book an elective so Hubby might manage to be in the room with me this time (he couldnt manage it this time too tired/scared/exhausted/hungry), I wont have to go through labour pain, my foof will remain intact, I'll have a nice neat date in the calendar and can organize help with recovering and looking after the LO's etc.

BUT I dont want to have to have major effing surgery again and a bloody catheter and being stuck on a ward again.

I dont know I'm torn.

I have a while to make up my mind yet though.

Hubby has said he'll support me either way but I think he'll push me for a section just in case of the scenarios I mentioned above.

Because hospitals are f**king horrible places staffed by people who dont care about their patients...or at least thats how my experience went.

I was in active labour for over 24 hours, and something like 5 hours of that were transition...I only made it to 9.5cm though CERVIX FAIL!

...and the final hour of that was forced on me by an OB who didnt listen to the MW or Dr who had been monitoring me all day, or me begging not to have to do another hour. She waltzed in, told them to turn the drip up to max and let do another hour.

That was fun with a failed epi.

Although i had a horrid time, i can't fault my hospital or the staff. They have been nothing but great for all the times i was in

Because it is perfectly normal for labour to take a while sometimes! Some women have very long latent phases (like days long). The NHS policy is for women to dilate at 1cm per hour once in established labour - which is ridiculous. Labour progresses in its own time and a long labour is not in itself dangerous to the baby, as long as things are calm and relaxed. Contrary to popular belief no doctor, midwife or hospital protocol can "let" a woman do anything! We still have rights in childbirth, we still have a say about what happens to our own bodies and our babies. If there is no medical reason to intervene then nobody has the right to do so.

I was only in established labour for 19.5 hours, according to my notes and because I was having a home birth most of the 36 hour total was at home and not being timed by a twitchy surgeon, that only started after I transferred! Usually the latent phase is a gradual build up of contractions, but my contractions started at 2 in 10 minutes and only increased in intensity once my labour was augmented in hospital, so my experience of the latent phase and established labour was exactly the same.

I asked 3 people already...

A family friend who is also a NHS midwife, who is a little cautious
My doctor in Switzerland (where I had G although we are now back in the UK) - again a bit pro intervention
BUT
also discussed it in depth with my independent midwife in Switzerland. She was the lady I was going to use for homebirth this time and she was very anti--intervention. She would even consider homebirths for breech babies etc but said that she wouldn't be happy to take on somebody in my situation; and I lived only 500m from the hospital over there. I trust her opinion unfortunately.