Birth story - Pegah and baby Tiam

Hi ladies. Even though I was not brave enough like most of you and didn't go for natural birth for so many personal reasons, I would still like to share my positive c-section story and, by the way, I am not ashamed of my choice one bit, "my body, my baby, my choice".

Just a bit of background first:

I had a bit of an scare at 6 weeks which affected my trust in the midwives and doctors. This was the start of my thinking about c-section. At 28 weeks I talked to my midwife about it and they encouraged me to read about hypnobirthing. By 36 weeks and after following the Positive Birth Company online course, I was ready for a natural birth when I was told that my baby was too large for my size and I needed to do have an induction a week before my due date. Despite all my efforts to believe in "my baby is perfect for my size" moto, the fear won out and I could not convince myself to wait until my due date and see what happens. I was also not the biggest fan of induction and add to that the mistrust in the doctors and I decided to set a date for c-section. If the baby came before that, I would go for natural birth. Otherwise, I would go with c-section and in the end the c-section won.

And the main story:

I was booked initially for the c-section for a day in Jan but a week earlier the hospital called and moved my date to a day earlier. The first positive feeling was that I never felt judged by my decision. Even though all midwives and doctors were trying to explain that the natural birth was generally less risky, they always tried to respect my feelings and anxiety.

I have severe health anxiety and am generally just very nervous so I was very scared of the whole procedure (the canula, the spinal injection, the surgery, meeting my baby, the recovery, etc). So, to feel more in control, I decided to write a birth plan following the sample given on the Positive Birth Company website.

On the day of my c-section, I got to the hospital about an hour earlier than I was booked. There were two other ladies booked at the same time and the doctors were going to decide who to admit first depending on all our circumstances. The anaesthetists and surgeons came to each of us one by one and explained the procedure in detail. They were quite kind and smiley and I started to feel a little at ease. They got very happy seeing that I had a birth plan and said that it would make their life easier. My main wishes were simple: I would like to see the birth, have a delayed cord clamping, have a gentle c-section, and dimmed lights. The last one they couldn't do but they were happy with the rest. Turns out I was the first to go in for surgery (I guess all the positive thinking panned out well).

I had also mentioned my phobia to needles. Because of that, they planned to lay me on the side instead of sitting me when administering the injection. They even went as far as numbing my hand first before putting the canula in. They even let my husband sit by my side during injection (which was not the routine hospital policy). All through the injection and the procedure, they kept talking to me about what was going on and making jokes to ease my anxiety. And turned out that the injection was really nothing to worry about, just slight pinching when numbing the area and then a bit of pressure when putting the needle in. I made more jokes in that half an hour than I had in the whole months before that. I enjoyed every minute of the whole procedure.

And then the birth of my beautiful baby. It was the most emotional moment of my life and I did not want to let him go when they put him in my arms. It was like all my worries just vanished in an instant.

The rest of it was quite fast-paced, going to the recovering room, learning the first steps of breastfeeding, and being transferred to the ward. And then came the whole learning process of taking care of the baby and breastfeeding him but what is most important to end the story is that I recovered very quickly from the scar. It healed within a week and I had no infection. I still have slight pain and take pain killers every once in a while but I think I could not have ever asked for a better and more positive c-section experience than I had, both during and after.

Good luck to all the rest of you mums-to-be no matter what delivery option you opt for.