General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Forced C-Section [View all]laundry_queen
(8,646 posts)was probably one of the worst horror stories I've heard...30 hours of labor with a posterior baby (back labor!) THEN a C-section under a general anesthetic (because they couldn't get the spinal going after 11 pokes). The vast majority of my was intense, with the last 4 hours I don't even remember - as previously mentioned, I was augmented against my will and the last 4 hours were just one long multiple peaking contraction with zero breaks. Afterwards, I read that what happened to me is very dangerous. I was also in a hospital that didn't have epidurals, so I was given narcotics (which did nothing, I kept asking when they were going to work and was told they should've already taken effect. Um, no.) It wasn't until my 2nd labor - which was by a lot of standards, also crappy but compared to my first it was a breeze - I realized how much those breaks between contractions help. I had a 17 hour labor with my 2nd and a vacuum extraction at the end. And I was thrilled, LOL.
My grandmother also had a few horror stories - being under 5' and birthing 10 pound babies. Sadly, after having a C-section, and also being someone who has broken a tailbone, I'd take that over a C-section any day. C-sections are absolutely invaluable in certain circumstances (placenta previa, transverse babies, true cephalo-pelvic disproportion) but are WAY WAY overdone now-a-days. The risks of a major surgery like a C-section are actually quite large compared with a vaginal birth - even a complicated vaginal birth. Doctors do them now because as the saying goes, you are more likely to be sued for the C-section you don't do, not the one you DO do. However, that didn't hold true for the doctor in the article. It's been theorized that the reason the maternal death rate is starting to go up again is too many C-sections and their complications.
Anyway, I could go on for hours on this. I studied it intensely (read: was obsessed) with this stuff for the better part of a decade.