Emergency C-Section Horror (long!)
KaylaO1024
member
So, this is 9 months late but I just started using this website and it's become my new addiction! 
It was a Saturday and I was 3 days past my due date. I started having contractions and they were strong and getting closer through out the day. My husband was working, so my mom came over incase this was the real deal! By the time my husband got home, I was getting nervous that this was it, my contractions were 2-3 minutes apart and we got the go ahead to come to labor & delivery. So we left for the hospital around 5pm. They checked me, and I was only 1cm dilated. My contractions were very close and strong, but they weren't making me dilate. I asked them if I could have something to make me dilate and they're response was "No doctor is going to come in on a Saturday night to induce you"... so the nurses offered me some Moriphene (which I denied) and told me they were sending me home...they told me to take some tylenol pm because it would break up my contractions, which it did.
I was able to get some sleep, and woke up in the middle of the night with my underwear a little wet, I just thought it was normal pregnancy discharge. Throughout the day Sunday, I was leaking which I continued to think was normal. Finally about 7pm I decided to call the doctors because I kept thinking to myself "Something just doesn't feel right...I better be safe than sorry". They told me to come in. After our experience the night before, my husband was begging me not to go because he didn't want to see me get upset when they told us to go home again...We went anyways.
They hooked me up to all the monitors and tested my underwear to see if I had been leaking amniotic fluid or not (water break) (Still to this day don't know if that's what it was or not). The nurse came back in and said that something was wrong with the monitor and they couldn't get an accurate heart beat, so she switched out the part that goes on your stomach. Still wasn't working, then she wheeled in another machine to my room to try again...still wasn't working. Next, they switched my room. When I saw my doctor come flying in the room, I knew we had a problem because I didn't even know he was called yet. He ordered a sonogram, he wasn't really telling us anything at this point. Next thing I knew, a nurse asked him a question, then he looked at me and said "We're doing an emergency c-section, we can't get a heart beat on your baby. You need to remain calm for the baby's sake".
As soon as the doctor said that...everything was in fast forward motion...IVs and cathedar (sp?) going in, people running around everywhere, my husband was balling his eyes out...I did the best I could to remain calm for the baby. They're wheeling me out of the room to the surgery room and I'm yelling "call my parents - I love you!" to my husband. I get in where I'm being preped, they're preparing my stomach so that as soon as I was knocked out, they could cut (I was under general anethesia b/c of the situation and my husband couldn't be in the room). 4 minutes after I went into that room, I gave birth to my beautiful son.
I woke up half an hour later to be told that he was doing okay but they were flying him to Childrens Hospital. His heart rate was 280 (near deadly I'm told) when he came out, it calmed down on it's own but he needed to go there since my hospital doesn't have a NICU. I got to see him, all strapped in his flight gear, for about 5 minutes before they took him. I got wheeled to my room, and my family left.
I left the hospital 36 hours after my c-section, and headed straight to the hospital to see my son...I haden't even gotten to hold him yet...when I got there, he had an IV in his head, and was hooked up to a ton of machines. It was so much to bear, so many emotions at once.
Turns out they're saying he has SVT, a heart condition that speeds up your heart rate. I'm not sure what to believe. My husband did have a doctor tell him in confidence that it could very well have been from all of those contractions and not delivering him.
He's good now, on heart medicine until he's a year old as a precaution but we haven't had one problem with it since he was born. Lesson learned is never think you'll have a nice normal delivery. I never thought I'd have a c-section, let alone an emergency one. Prepare for the worst!
Re: Emergency C-Section Horror (long!)
Wow that would be a scary experience. I am happy that he is doing well now.
To the PP, I believe her wording is off. I don't necessarily think she meant to prepare for the worst in the manner you are suggesting. Rather I think she meant to be prepared for the unexpected such as going to hospital expecting a vaginal birth but instead having an emergency c-section.
I should of worded it differently, what I mean is I never ever thought I'd have an emergency C-Section, let alone my child getting flown an hour away to a different hospital and not being able to hold him for 2 days after he was born. I took so many birthing classes and didn't even listen to the c-section parts because I never thought that would happen. So I guess what I should of said is to "expect the unexpected" and not expect a perfect delivery.
Very true! Until I got to the part where they sent you home you could have been telling my story (even down to the time you got to the hospital). Baby's heart rate dropped about 20 minutes after I got in so they just came in, told me we were doing an emergency c-section and got rolling. It was the same situation where they ran me down the hall while DH was kind of standing watching everything and then had to put me fully under. I had a hard enough time waiting 9 hours to hold D (they took him to NICU and I refused to go to sleep until they let me in) so I couldn't imagine having to wait 2 days. Glad everything worked out in the end, he looks like a pretty happy boy in your pics!
gosh! what an ordeal! the beginning of your story sounds like mine - fast, painful contractions and no progress i was 1cm, 90 effaced when i arrived..they tried to send me home but let me be and the finally things got going..see my story - its called be careful what you wish for! i was upset b/c they took my baby foir 4 hrs....i cant imagine 2 days!