My experience with an elective c-section (mostly pros, a few cons)
I am a first time Mom, I have severe vaginismus and vulvodynia. My second thought when I got the positive pregnancy test was "Oh my god there is no way I can give birth). I inquired about a c-section at my second OB appointment, and I was diagnosed with vaginismus, referred to pelvic floor therapy, and my OB assured me she was happy to give me a c-section.
I have to admit, I let some of the social media crunchy moms get in my head, and I almost backed out. I remember climbing into the car at 4 a.m. the morning of delivery and thinking "why the hell am I doing this?"
The team at the hospital was so kind and encouraging. My delivery team was all female, something they cheered about as they all entered the operating room and saw each other.
I panicked as I was entering the operating room, and wondered if I was making a mistake. Then I got my spinal, which wasn't super painful at all, and I felt a lot calmer thanks to whatever drugs they put in that thing! My husband stood by me the whole time, and the most uncomfortable I felt was when someone was pushing on my ribs (presumably to push my son into the proper position). After what seemed like 5 minutes, I heard his cry, and they announced the time of birth. My husband got to trim the umbilical cord and hold him while they wiped him off and used a little massager to smack the fluid out of his lungs. While they were stitching me up, my OB told me "it's a good thing you decided to have a c-section, I don't think delivering vaginally would have gone well."
My pelvis is super small, and something about the way my organs shifted had put part of my OB bladder between my son and the birth canal. I felt so relieved. My son was healthy, 8lbs, and passed all the newborn screens.
We got skin to skin during the twenty minutes or so that we were in recovery, and my son was able to get some colostrum out of me. My milk came in the second afternoon that we were there.
My recovery after leaving the hospital was fine, I had a few days where my incision hurt like shit when my ibuprofen was wearing off. I didn't take the hydrocodone they gave me as I was worried I wouldn't wake to feed him and also I am pumping and didn't want to miss night pumps as my husband and I take turns doing bottles/diaper changes in the night. My OB did my incision really low--right at my public line. I think this helped with recovery a lot.
The cons: Trying to wake to feed while on drugs--it took so long for the drugs from the spinal to wear off, I had a hard time feeding him the first day and night. My poor husband had to rouse me and try to latch him on me and hold him while I was falling asleep. The first pee--maybe it's the same for vaginal deliveries, but I was crying in pain the first time I tried to pee. Not sure why exactly, maybe just the effort of engaging my pelvic floor. Getting the catheter and IV in.
Overall, I am so glad I got a c-section. I listened to my body, and it turned out that this was probably the best choice. The first few days were so foggy and groggy due to the drugs, but I'd rather deal with that than have horrible complications from a vaginal birth gone wrong. If you are like me terrified of a vaginal birth, listen to your body. Educate yourself on birth, and if you still feel like you can't do it, please get the c-section. It doesn't make you any less of a woman or a mom or whatever.