I have had 2 c-sections. I am not interested at all in watching any kind of documentary on natural childbirth. I am certainly envious of those of you who can go into labor before your due dates and pop out a baby in 5 hours. I am not one of those people, and I don't feel like people who have those experiences should get to have an opinion on what my deliveries should be like unless they have medical degrees and have previously delivered thousands of babies in all different sorts of circumstances.
My OB likes to induce at 40 weeks, but will let you go over if you really want, but then she will do NSTs twice a week after 40 weeks.
So with Mason I went in the night before my due date to be induced, and that experience made me SO thankful that she encouraged me to be induced on my due date. Mason's heartrate dropped into the 50's before they even inserted the cervadil. After they inserted the cervadil, not even half hour later 3 nurses rush in, flip me over, give me oxygen, and his heartrate had dropped into the 50's again and took a minute to come back up. After that they removed the cervadil and we planned for c-section in the morning. The next morning my new nurse asked me how I felt about the c-section, and said she would be there for me if I decided I didn't want to do the c-section and when my OB came in she said I didn't have to do the c-section. However I chose to go ahead because I was scared how he would tolerate real labor contractions. And I do not regret at all that I made that decision. Pretty much the second she cut me open, she said we would have ended up back there in an emergency situation because his cord was wrapped tightly around his neck twice.
So that definitely makes me believe in monitoring the baby. What if I had waited until I went into my labor on my own, and then if I tried to labor at home as long as possible to avoid medical intervention? What would have happened if we hadn't known that his heartrate was dropping like that?
With Shay I considered a VBAC, but I will NOT do an induction after having had a c-section. I would either have to go into labor on my own or have a c-section. I ended up going with the c-section. I started having some signs of pre-eclampsia, and my OB prefers to deliver BEFORE it turns into pre-e. They considered my birth with Mason to be pregnancy induced hypertension also because when I went in to be induced my BP was high and after my c/s it was really bad I had to be given meds to bring it down because my head hurt worse than I have ever felt in my entire life! So with a history of that, she wanted to take precautions. Also I had been having contractions regularly for 3 months, often for hours at a time less than 5 minutes apart, painful and extremely uncomfortable, but doing absolutely NOTHING! And while I am thankful that I didn't have concerns of delivering pre-mature, by 38 weeks it sure would have been nice if my cervix showed some progress and it didn't. I was sitting in the wheelchair outside the OR before my c/s having painful contractions, and I told DH that it was a good thing I was about to have the c/s because I couldn't take it anymore to keep being miserable with those contractions and not actually be in the process of actively having a baby.
I think it is easier to deal with the contractions, if you know you are in labor, and progressing, and going to be going home with a baby. However I was basically in non-active labor for 3 months, and by that point with no progress yeah, sorry I was DONE.
I will ask when "I" am supposed to go into the hospital, and all nurses that don't know my history, will be like when your contractions are 5 minutes apart regularly. I would have gone into L & D at LEAST 2 times a week if I went in every time my contractions were regularly 5 minutes apart for hours at a time.
I was also anemic with both and almost to the point of having a blood transfusion after having Shay. Technically I was at the point where most people would have been given a transfusion since she said they normally do that when levels are at 7, but since my levels didn't drop very much since i started at a 9, she didn't do it right away, and just monitored me, and I didn't have to one.