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Making decisions about birth after caesarean

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Aged 31-35

Interview 18

Interview 18

Age at Interview: 32
Background: Doctor with twins aged three and a half, husband is also a doctor. Ethnic background: White British. Played by an actor.

Brief outline:Chose to have planned caesarean with 1st pregnancy as expected twin. Felt fully involved and had 'stress-free' birth experience. Found decision difficult with 2nd pregnancy but decided on repeat CS to avoid complications with lichen sclerosus.

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She chose a planned caesarean to minimise the risk of her lichen sclerosus returning. It annoys her that people who don't know her reasons might think she is taking 'the easy option'. Played by an actor.
Print So, what's the overriding factor for you for having a section? Why I'm having it? It's the lichen sclerosis, which is fairly stable, just now. And I really don't want to go in tear and… then have to go through another day case operation, but… and also we're going to Australia for a year in July and then what would happen if we were out there, would I have to have it there, and it's just… Yeah, bit of a nightmare, isn't it? Yeah. And you, you say that you would have liked to… you thought about the possibility of having a vaginal delivery. Is there any way that you would have tried for a trial of labour? …Well, if I hadn't had the lichen sclerosus, definitely. I mean, I guess, there's a small part of me, even though I'm ninety-nine percent sure, there's a small part of me that if I went into labour now and if things were going great… I would be sort of partly tempted to carry on. …But it's a very small part [slight laughs]. There's, there's a little bit of pressure that I sort of feel in some ways I should be… going for a normal delivery. And that, a lot of people who maybe don't know the reason will perceive that I'm… I don't know, just being lazy or don't want to go through the pain or whatever. …so that does slightly annoy me. And in many ways, it would be great to have a normal delivery, because hopefully my recovery would be faster and I wouldn't have to, you know, wait for several weeks to drive but…so still, I'm pretty sure that a section is probably the right thing to do. I mean, you say you feel this pressure from outside, but do you really see it as an easy option yourself? Well I don't, I don't actually. No, really I mean, I did go so well the last time, but it's just with the boys… it's completely different this time. So, I don't want to not be able to drive for four weeks or whatever. I think it was about three or four weeks the last time. Because they're not going to want to be stuck in the house. Well, thankfully people will be coming over, so it won't be an issue, but… And I don't really particularly want to have another spinal or have another catheter in, but… So no, I don't think it's an easy option, but maybe…I don't know.

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