Second C-Section after Birth Trauma: Jamie

Love reading positive birth stories? You’re in the right place! Mum of three Jamie desperately wanted a VBAC. She ended up with a second c-section. She never imagined she could enjoy a caesarean, or find it healing following a previous traumatic birth – but she did. Here’s her story.

Mum of three Jamie has had three very different births and this is her third birth story; a category two emergency caesarean. Jamie went for a routine hospital appointment at 40+2 and decelerations were picked up on her baby’s heart rate. Jamie used EBRAN to choose an emergency caesarean and within 2.5 hours of her midwife appointment she was holding her baby in her arms.

My very positive enjoyable cat 2 section

I’ve had three very different birth experiences. My first – a very calm water birth that left me feeling empowered and on top of the world. My second was a rather hairy emergency caesarean done under general anaesthetic with a tricky recovery for both me and my baby.

As such – I never imagined a caesarean could be an overly positive birth and so when I found myself pregnant again with our third I decided I would do everything in my favour to achieve a VBAC (vaginal birth after caesarean).

Getting Prepped for Birth

I did everything I could to stack the odds on my favour. Swotted up on VBACs and Hypnobirthing techniques from The Birth Chapter. I religiously followed the biomechanics module, I saw a chiropractor for all of my third trimester, and when I was term I started doing all the safe things I could to evict baby.

So imagine my shock when attending a membrane sweep at 40+2 when our baby was found to be having decelerations and a Cat 2 emergency was declared. At this point I was given the option of having my waters broken, but with no promise of this not making baby more unhappy – plus there would be a need for me to still have a rather speedy delivery (ie a caesarean could still be on the cards, possibly a cat 1 like before) OR head straight for a Cat 2 Emergency Section.

Making Informed Choices

My husband and I were given a few minutes to discuss this and we used EBRAN to help us decide. Neither of us were 100% but we both swayed to heading straight for the section. We felt this gave us the most control at this point, and reduced our chances of a repeat of our previous traumatic birth.

The lovely registrar came in and went through the consent with me. Then I met one of the anaesthetists who again explained things to me. Because I’d been asleep for my previous section this was all new for me. I voiced concerns about being needle phobic, fear around the spinal and also worries about being sick. He was so lovely and reassuring and told me to communicate with him throughout. He did little things like taping my cannula away from me so I couldn’t see it as much. The anaesthetist who did my spinal was really patient, and they assured me they had anti sickness meds at the ready if I needed them. I also met my lovely midwife who when I told her I was nervous, gave me a big cuddle.

Heading to Theatre

I was then wheeled down the theatre. My husband was scrubbed up on route.

To give a time frame of events – my midwife apt showing decelerations was at 11:30am and the time was now 1:02pm.

In theatre we were asked if we had a name for baby by the anaesthetist and we told him Eliza. He said “oh like Hamilton!” To which were delighted as we love the musical. He then told us that the surgeon/ registrar also loved the musical Hamilton and so we scrapped our “birth playlist” (the one we’d made for our VBAC * eye roll *) and put on the Hamilton soundtrack.

It was the most bizarre thing – the 4 of us were singing along during the entire surgery. This was nice as it really reassured me everything was okay because the whole environment felt relaxed.”

The Spinal

I had a cannula put in, which I’d been dreading as I hate needles but it was fine. Then the bit I was dreading most – the spinal. My previous section was under GA so I’d never had a spinal before. Again this was nowhere as bad as I thought it would be. I sat on the edge of the bed and my midwife held my hands. I was given a pillow to “hug” and had to arch my back, but I didn’t have to arch it as much as I thought you’d need to. More of a bend rather than a full on cat-yoga-pose. They sprayed it with a cold spray (disinfectant I believe) then there is a sharp scratch just like if you’re having a blood test (I think this is a numbing injection) and then I didn’t actually feel the spinal at all.

I was then laid on the bed. You start to feel your bottom half go tingly – like you’ve got pins and needles – and numb. It really is the oddest sensation. Then came the ice cube test. One of the anaesthetists put an ice cube on my shoulder to show me what it felt like. Then he put it on my bottom half and asked me to tell him when I could feel it was cold. It had obviously worked because the surgery was confirmed to go ahead.

A Calm Healing Caesarean

I’d been told a caesarean feels very much like someone doing the washing up in your tummy. I can confirm this is a great explanation. Nothing hurt, but I felt “tugging” and pressure at times. At times I must have winced because the anaesthetist would ask me if I had any pain. I didn’t at all – the sensation was just odd. One of the anaesthetists stayed sat at my head with my husband the whole time which was really nice. He was checking that I was feeling okay, answering any questions I had and just generally reassuring me throughout.

In total there were 10 people present at my section, but the room never actually felt crowded. There was the surgeon, two anaesthetists, an anaesthetist assistant, the surgeons assistant, two scrubs, a runner, a midwife and a paediatric nurse. I think it never felt crowded because each one had a clear role in the operation.

I was in theatre at 1:02, the spinal in at 1:19, first incision at 1:39 and baby born at 1:45. The surgeon asked if I wanted the drapes lowered as the baby was born so I got to watch her coming out. Fairly awkward as I couldn’t really feel my stomach muscles to bend myself upright but I what I could see what really cool. The surgeon “birthed” the baby slowly so once her torso was out she then “jiggled” her out a little bit at a time. She was then lifted over the drapes and put straight onto my chest.

Hello Baby

I held her whilst I was stitched back together, this must have been for at least an hour. My husband got to cut the cord too.

It was honestly magical.”

I asked to see my placenta. Then we got taken to recovery to be monitored and enjoy some tea and toast. The midwife asked us if we had a nappy for the baby. We didn’t . We had nothing because we genuinely weren’t expecting to delivery a baby that day! The only thing we had was our birth playlist because it was on my husband’s phone! This really does make me chuckle looking back. How oblivious we were even just a few hours before her birth that we were going to meet her so quickly.

I never imagined another emergency caesarean could be healing from my previous one. I really thought I needed a VBAC to heal and had set my heart on it. But I can honestly say that the high I felt from my very first birth – my vaginal water birth – was matched by my second caesarean. It was an amazing experience.