previous traumatic c/s & PG again

Peachy050909

Hi,

I don't post much on TB but we've recently found out that we're PG with #2. I honestly had a terrible experience with the birth of DS. The DRs  pretty much told me that he was in distress (which after the fact I looked at my discharge paperwork and it says nothing about "non-reassuring fetal heart tones" etc.)  and that they wanted to induce. Then low and behold after 36 hours, failure to progress/ failure to decend. So I ended up having a c/s at 38 weeks. When DS was born he had severe breathing problems (PPHN and RDS) and ended up needing ECMO. For a while it was pretty grim and the hosptial had us go through bereavement counseling etc. He's a happy and healhty little boy now but he was in the NICU for 45 days and it was  pretty traumatic for me (1st baby, 1st surgery). Even still I wake up multiple times in the night to check and make sure he's still breathing, and I'm so afraid that his lungs will just stop working. When I asked the DRs why exactly this happened to him, they told me that it just sometimes happens to babies that are born via c/s (even though the odds are 1 in 500).

I've also had alot of difficulty with my c/s healing properly (mainly it still opens up, bleeds, oozes, pain etc)  and was supposed to go into surgery to have it fixed when we found out that we were pg again. Needless to say, I'm incredibly anxious about the birth of our next child. I'm so worried that if I have a RCS that things will unfold in a similar fashion or worse, but being on military medical insurane we're not really "allowed" to shop around for DRs if we're near a military treatment facility and the issues that I've had healing from my c/s complicate things a bit.

After that long post, I suppose I'm just looking for some advice and to  hear about anyone's past experiences with traumatic c/s or not healing properly and going on to have a VBAC.

MAprincess

SO sorry this happened to you and your experience is another example of something that could happen with a c/s that they never warn you about.  The fact that you haven't healed properly is terrible also.

That said, I have a friend on military insurance who said that military insurance does not cover VBACs.  You might want to check on that.  She is hoping they change the policy before she gets pregnant again but said she checked on it after her c/s.  Due to your experience, they should let you choose a different doctor, though.  Goodness.  Good luck to you!

Brownie_222

I'm so sorry you had such a scary, traumatic experience.  I can see why you have a lot of trepidation.  I hope your son continues to do well and that your recovery improves very soon.  That is such a long time to worry both about your son and your own health.  I feel for you.

There was a post about VBAC in a military hospital on The Unnecessarean recently.  Not sure if it will be helpful to you or not, but here's the link.  The first comment to this thread also talks about insurance issues: https://www.theunnecesarean.com/blog/2011/5/6/vbac-in-a-military-hospital.html.

GL.  Please stick around as we are all here to support one another.  (hugs)

lorryfach

I have a friend whose DH is military and she had a VBAC on base.

I don't have any experience about not healing properly, but if your incision is opening up when you aren't even pregnant, I don't see how that could be a good sign, sorry to say. If you do have to have a c/s again, ask what they can do to make sure you have a better experience. Would it help if they did an amnio to check the lung maturity beforehand, for example?