Elective being a cop out!!??

Exactly Lou! That's why I doubt that if I were left to my own devices I'd have the baby within the required timeframe

I got to 9.5cm after 46 hours lol, but that was with no syntocin, I went from 6cm to 9.5 very quicky once the epidural was put in, I must have relaxed enough to dilate.

My OB and MW were always upfront about the risks of both though being breech I wasn't given an option to VBAC anyway.

I did know about the fusing - one of the reasons I've gone with the OB I have because he also specialises in bladder reconstruction so I figure he knows his way around there better than most (although of course I guess it comes down to how the actual patient heals)

Sheena I was told they would give synoticin (sp?) as they don't want you to be in labour for too long so will speed things up. In actual fact just before my mw checked me and found i was 10cm we were having the "we will try the drip but looks like we might have to bypass the vagina" conversation (at this point I had been labouring for 12 hours and things had been going slowly, but amazing I had actually gone from 4-10cm in under 2 hours which shocked us both a little). They don't like to do the gel though. I don't really know much about induction having never had one so maybe it's different giving the drip if you've gone in to labour naturally?

Each hospital is different as well, I was told I could birth Spencer naturally if I wanted (he was breech) but that they strongly advised me not to as he was my first and they had no idea if he could fit out. I then looked up all the options and decided that in this instance c/s was safest (for him, not necessarily me). Turns out he should of been able to come out as Kyle did and he was huge compared to Spencer (head 2cm bigger than Spencer and nearly 2lb more).

I also was not monitored continuously and they let me labour for 14 hours and push for over 2, they used the vontouse in the end because I was in immense pain but if it wasn't for that they were gonna let me keep pushing (the pain was from his shoulder not anything to do with scar). So it really does depend on the medical people around, on their confidence to do a VBAC, there philosophy on it and so forth, and also your mindset, I went into it knowing that I might not get a great outcome and also that I could, if need be, ask to go to surgery, even whilst in labour.

And yep I am pleased we live in a time when they are available and not just available but very safe (on the whole)

LOL Paws!!!
I like to hope that it is something that people will take as encouragement. My home VBA2Cs was AMAZING & just proves how easy birth really should be. I only pushed for 18 minutes which was brilliant for the first time pushing a baby out! There would have to be a very good reason for me to EVER go back to a hospital again to give birth (not that I am having anymore!) as it is just human nature to "interfere". I fully blame the hospital environment for my first two c-sections. Especially for Blaire's birth.

I have my bladder, bowel and uterus fused together and the uterus was in the middle from cs number one hence the surgeons strong recommendation to not have anymore kids.

Edited by lilfatty

KA - I didnt notice any pains other than what I would have called "normal" pregnancy pangs.

I knew I had something funny going on with my bladder though, but thats just because its moved really high up into my torso (although I didnt know that at the time, the surgeon told me after she opened me up and saw the placement of things).

toniellis wrote: How many of you know that for EVERY c-section you have there is a good chance your bladder or other internal organs can fuse to each other during recovery & healing?

i for one certainly didnt know that! i know that things dont feel the same in that dept any more and i never expected that either!

[QUOTE=Bobbie]To play devil's advocate here - you can have some pretty horrific tearing and after effects from a standard vaginal birth too.

Yup....had more stitches with my VBAC than with my CS and other delightful things from pushing as well!

I had huge bruising after this one .. It was like someone had biffed a softball at my belly! (I think it was from the clamps)