Didi delivery first time mom

[prudenceann]

I’m just looking to hear everyone’s stories— what you planned vs what happened & if there’s anything you’d change?

I’m 35+1 & I keep going back and forth between vaginal and c section deliveries. These babies would be my first, initially i went in with the idea that i wanted to experience a vaginal birth but as time went on and i learned more about risks of vaginal birth with twins i decided on c section.

As of now both babies are head down and within weight requirements. I did recently get diagnosed with mild pre eclampsia & because of this diagnosis I officially have a c section date scheduled in 2 weeks.

What I’m most worried about with a vaginal birth:
it turning into an emergency c section because babies aren’t doing well!

What I’m most worried about with a c section:
future pregnancies (that I’m not even sure will happen because i want to have these girls first lol). & of course being awake during surgery doesn’t sound great lol

I feel like a scheduled c section gives me peace of mind and would make me less anxious about things going wrong or turning emergent (like they could in a vaginal delivery). ( i work in healthcare so I’m generally thinking/ worrying of the worst case senario)

But i also don’t want to feel like i missed out on a vaginal delivery— and god forbid something went wrong during the vaginal delivery i don’t want to feel like it’s all my fault because i chose it knowing the risks.

 

[ishwashere]

@prudenceann I’m 6.5 weeks post partum with di/di b/g twins. I elected scheduled c-section at 38w but I only made it to 36w because my water broke. They still admitted me in and had a scheduled c-section for me on that day.

The babies were both down so I could have done vaginal delivery if I wanted to.

Why did I choose scheduled c-section —

1. I was so afraid of having to do vaginal delivery for 1 baby and emergency c-section for the other one. Having to recover from both would have been a nightmare in my opinion.
2. I wanted to avoid emergency c-section in general especially after long labor. I have heard that recovering from c-section after enduring long labor could be very difficult and more challenging.
3. I don’t do well with pain, so I was not too interested in going through potentially very long hours of labor. I started feeling some contractions while waiting for my scheduled c-section and I am glad to not have to go through any more of that.
4. I’ve gone through a quite challenging infertility journey with many pregnancy losses. With this, I wanted to feel as prepared as possible to minimize my anxiety level.
5. I knew we didn’t plan on having more kids after the twins, so I didn’t have any concerns about more c-sections in the future or VBAC.

I do low key wonder what labor/vaginal delivery experience would have been like. But the uncertainties really just trumped everything else and I don’t regret my scheduled c-section. I recovered really well and was able to walk around the hospital wings and have a glorious bowel movement within 24 hours.

Good luck!

 

[kennethzky]

@prudenceann 5 weeks postpartum here: had my di/di girls at 36 weeks due to preeclampsia with severe features. Started with an induction (I wanted a vaginal delivery for the benefits and to avoid abdominal surgery) and ended up laboring for 48 hrs before arrest if labor/I had some kidney failure and got a c section.

I also work in healthcare — definitely weird to know everything that was going on during the section.

C section recovery was not as bad as I thought—Tylenol and ibuprofen was enough for me.

Kinda wish I’d chosen to go straight to c section. Being on magnesium during the long induction was horrible. I was awake for 72 hrs and in hindsight, would have been nice to have gone into a section rather than being sleepless and delirious.

I did have a postpartum bump in blood pressures that required nifedipine/labetalol which is apparently more common after c section.

I don’t think there’s right answer though. I just wanted whatever the OB on call was most comfortable with ie if they didn’t do breech extractions, I’d hVe just gone to section due to the risk of twin b inverting (she was transverse at the time of induction)

 

[oak1683]

@prudenceann My motto was to "have babies" these were my first so for birth I had no idea what to expect.
I had an amazing team of doctors that were comfortable with doing a breech extraction, and that's exactly what happened with my baby B.

If I could go back I would have advocated more for myself. I was barely ever able to move much or even labor in a tub simply bc the monitor wasn't long enough.

I would have also asked for an epidural a lot sooner ..i made it to 6 cm but it involved a lot of nausea and i never want to do that again.

Basically I came in hoping to do a vaginal delivery but always had the expectation that it could end up in C-section. I think for any birth, just keeping your mind open is a good start.

I ended up hemorrhaging, and sometimes I wish I could have another pregnancy (a Singleton one) and have my redemption birth. But we are done having kids.

Edit to add: they did let me labor in a tub for like 20 minutes without monitoring but it wasn't relaxing lol.

Edit to add again: I have a friend who had an emergency C-section with her first but a scheduled one with her 2nd & 3rd and she told me that a scheduled C-section is so relaxing.

I almost did a scheduled C-section mostly because I was afraid of giving birth. But in ways I'm glad I didn't because my spouse isn't super helpful unfortunately.

 

[sadiq]

@prudenceann Just had mo/di boys on May 12th. I wanted vaginal and both were head down so that’s what we went for. Ended up being admitted bc mild preeclampsia at 35w6d, induced that night, labored Friday night to Sunday AM, epidural Saturday around 4pm (after they broke my first water and I did tub labor for half an hour… really seemed to get things moving bc I was in pain after that… but I think I was only 3 or 4cm when I got epidural and glad I got it when I did bc I was able to relax and watch a movie with hubby and sleep), went into the OR to deliver around 10:00am Sunday and an hour a half later both boys were here. Had a level 2 tear and hemorrhaged but not enough to need a transfusion.

Delivery itself was great and I wouldn’t change the way I did it. But I would read up more on the post partum part of pregnancy bc I just wasn’t prepared. And also read up on feeding issues when they’re born premie (anytime before 37w).

Like someone else said, my goal was to get two babies out any which way so I just followed my OBs recs and came home with two babes born at 36w1day with no NICU time.

Godspeed!

 

[keykeeper]

@prudenceann I have a singleton who I delivered vaginally. While I’m proud of myself for doing it, it’s not like anyone gives me an award or trophy for having done so. I will say that even though I only had second degree tears, it was still sooooo painful peeing for weeks afterward because the tears were near my urethra. It also took a long time for sex to feel good because I feel like my insides had been jumbled.

This time I’m not playing around. Both twins are head down but my OB said outcomes are better for twin B with a C section no matter what. While I could go for vaginal delivery, no one is going to give me a trophy for doing so and a C section just sounds so much easier. I know it also has its risks because everything does but . So far my C is scheduled for 38 weeks on the 19th but I’m reeeeeallly hoping I go into labor sooner because I am miserable.

 

[maria84]

@keykeeper Recent research doesn’t support the notion that c section is ALWAYS better for twin B. There was some older research suggesting that but more recent research suggests that neither vaginal nor c section is any better for twin delivery though there may be some differences based on how many weeks pregnant.

https://www.cochranelibrary.com/cdsr/doi/10.1002/14651858.CD006553.pub3/full

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/birt.12387

 

[amosqabbe]

@prudenceann Are you me!! I am in the exact same boat with mild preeclampsia as well but two weeks behind at 33+3. I too teetered but with all the unknowns and surprises of twins i feel that going forward with a planned c section is the least stressful with the most predictable outcome.

 

[bealive]

@prudenceann I ended up having my twins at 38+6 via c section after a failed induction that took ~4 miserable days. I wish I'd just done a scheduled c section in the first place. I'm terrified of surgeries and yet it was totally fine once we decided to just throw in the towel (a little weird to be awake but it didn't freak me out like I thought it would). I was dead set against c section initially tbh.

I'll have to cross the bridge re: future pregnancies someday probably. But for now I think it was the right call.