I don't have any objection to anyone who has a section for a very good reason. I had one because after 40 hours of labour it was clear the baby was stuck and my blood pressure was dropping rapidly. I laid down to sleep, and it is clear to me now I was laying down to die. The operation to deliver my baby was not a simple one. After 2 hours the spinal block was wearing off and the doctors had not even started to stitch me up. I had problems with internal bleeding due to the way they had to extract my baby (she had got herself well and truly stuck!) and was given a general anaesthetic in order that the doctors could continue to work on me. The head of the department was called out from home to advise. I was in a high dependency ward for 5 days, and my baby in special care baby unit for 2 days.
I am a very fit and healthy person. I pass stringent medicals on an annual basis just in order to keep my job, and I compete in my chosen sport at county level, and occasionally national level. I had a completely problem free pregnancy. I was the last person I expected to have such a difficult birth.
When I got home I was infuriated to be told by another sportswoman (albeit one who competes regularly at an international level and makes her living - a very good living! - from it) that, darling, I should have just booked myself in somewhere private to start with and had the baby whipped out, like she does with hers. None of that messy, nasty labour business. With her last c section she had the baby 2 and a half weeks early so she could get back to competition and won an international grand prix dressage the day she should have been giving birth.
I fully intend with my next baby to be prepared for an elective caesarean if I have a similar situation to the one I had this pregnancy. There were clues with this pregnancy which were missed, which in hindsight would have hinted at problems to come. But I would prefer to give birth naturally, and will be using all the facilities the NHS and private medical care have to offer to ensure that I will have the best chance of not nearly killing myself again.
Women who have elective caesareans because it fits in with their diary don't feature very high on my list of motherhood requirements, I'm afraid. If the date of the birth of your child is going to be so inconvenient, how about when it needs you unexpectedly, like when they are ill? Once you have child you have to be available for it. It won't just schedule it's illnesses in around your diary.
So there we go - just my two-pennorth.
and very painful due to infections and gaping wound.
