thanks for taking the time to reply, I really appreciate it! I do feel they want me to try for a natural and sometimes when people talk they make out as if your less of a woman if you haven’t given birth naturally! My experience with the c section was same as yours. Only thing stopping me from c-section would be that I have 2 other kids to look after aswell the newborn so may be tricky but then again if I have an episiotomy again I’m in the same boat! Lots of thinking and weighing my pros and cons I know . Hope your pregnancy is going well and your section goes smoothly for you x
Hm. I had an episiotomy with the first. This was because my female OB who says that womens' bodies usually tear in the best way for them compared with episiotomy, which often causes a bigger tear, was out of the country and I had a young male doctor instead. So when he did cut me, the cut split deeper, but I didn't have as bad as some women get as a result of episiotomy.
I told him beforehand that I did not want an episiotomy, but when the baby's shoulder was stuck (not for very long, but this scares doctors because the baby needs to come out soon at the shoulders otherwise the cord is compressed and the baby can die...), he cut me anyway without asking as he probably deemed this a medical emergency. On the otherhand, I had already told him no about screwing an electrode into my baby's head to more closely monitor the heartbeat. I told him if the heartbeat got below his comfort level on the normal monitor, I woukd go in for a c-section, but I was not going to screw something into the top of the baby's head!
What should have been done when the shoukders were stuck is (1) a new mom should never deliver on her back, so change position to something more desirable like hands and knees. A fiest time mom's vaginal muscles have not yet stretched before and she will not have enough space in per pelvis in a back position to help a first time delivery. Then, if the baby gets stuck at shoulders, there is a window of time (maybe a couple minutes) and something like two pushes the woman can try before it is an emergency. I doubt the doctor had me try two pushes - he certainly didn't get me in a better position (the hospital staff asked if I wanted a birth bar at the beginning of labor, I said yes, and they never brought it). The doctor should also manually turn the baby by putting his finger just inside the woman, catching the baby under the under arm. He can pull each should out and/or spin the baby (I don't recall the correct order). I think when doctors panic, they snip because they don't want to perform the other manuever for whatever reason.
Babies rotate as they come out of the birth canal. The shoulders should be delivered so that one shoulder is pointing toward the mother's stomach, and the other toward her back. So the head comes out usually with the face toward the mom's back, and this means the shoulders are also in the birth canal horizontally (if the woman is lying on her back), the body then gets rotated in the canal in order for the shoulders to be delivered. This haooens naturally, but if not, the doctor can assist with rotation and can even get the baby pulled out by delivering the arms, etc.
I supoose one reason thry may not want to do this is because parents might be upset if a newborn baby gets a dislocated arm or something. Maybe they get sued? And so maybe legally it is better to cut the woman before performing any other manual techniques on the baby. But it woukd be nice for them to discuss this fully with the woman and for the woman to be in the best birthing positions from the get go. Also, they numbed me in my private part for labor, which they did not ask me about and I did not want. So it's possible that interfered in some way. For example, right before the head comes out, the woman naturally stops pushing. This gives more time for blood flow around her perineum which helps her stretch without tearing, and plthat probably contributes also to whether or not she can quickly deliver the shoulders.
But after that first delivery, I did *NOT* ever need another episiotomy because my lady part had already stretched before. I don't even think I ever tore again or if I did, I never needed stitches, and I've had five babies naturally.
Also, when I had the episiotomy, it was something like a 2nd degree cut. But I didn't seem to notice any difference in recovery times after the vaginal births where I did not need stitches. I've heard c-section takes six weeks to recover from, but I rebounded very quickly after natural childbirth. With my first, of course, that was different because everything was new to me, but itnwas nowhere near a six week recovery by any means.
I am thinking episiotomy should have nothing to do with recovery unless it is significant, like 3rd or 4th degree tears (I have no idea how that affects someone).
Otherwise, if it wasn't a significant degree tear/cut, do you think that you may have had a drug interaction from any drugs you received during the vaginal birth that would have been different from drugs given for the c-section?