wife is having a C Section

[Cyballz]

My wife is pregnant and due in June with our first child. Whichever way she ends up having the baby, I will not be peaking at anything. I don't need to see her body stretched to it's limits or opened up. I'm not sure if I could handle it.

Good luck with that brotha - you are going to see **** you don't want to unless you keep your eyes shut tight.

Also, when you see it you may not be able to "peak" for awhile after that

[CRcyclone6]

[QUOTE=saf;2624677]

all same here except my wife had a section on 2 of 3. our first child was stubborn, upside down, and got stuck. she was almost an emergency section. that was scary. other 2 were planned due to my wife's health and bigger babies than number one. if they let you cut the cord, keep your eyes forward and don't look around the sheet. welcome aboard!

Do most people not watch the c-section? I thought it was really interesting and it somehow made me feel better being able to watch it. Very neat experience.[/QUOTE

I watched pretty much all of ours. very interesting. I meant to say don't look if you dont want to see blood and all the out of place things.

[kberyldial]

[quote=CRcyclone6;2624803]

Do most people not watch the c-section? I thought it was really interesting and it somehow made me feel better being able to watch it. Very neat experience.[/QUOTE

I watched pretty much all of ours. very interesting. I meant to say don't look if you dont want to see blood and all the out of place things.

Our first was emergency so I did alot of hand holding. I watched the second. It is not for everyone though. Alot of respect for the doctors and nurses.

[ca4cy]

I don't have much new to add, but we both of ours via cy-section and my wife says now she can't imagine doing it naturally. Our first was breach (sp?) and the wife was hell bent she was going to deliver naturally. After a few minutes of trying to turn the baby and watching the heart rate spike, the cy-section was scheduled for the next week. All went smoothly, although when I was leaving the delivery room and they were calling for a unit of blood for my wife, that was a little un-nerving. (She ended up not needing it.)

The 2nd was very uneventful (as much as the birth of a child can be) but we knew exaclty what to expect so that helped. Blood doesn't bother me, but seeing my wife filleted open like a bluegill wasn't my thing so I didn't look over the curtain. She asked for a mirror so she could see everything....to each their own. As others have mentioned, be prepared for how much tugging and pulling they'll do to get the kid out. I focussed on my wife's face the whole time, and she looked like she was riding a roller coaster for a lot of it.

Good luck, and congratulations. It will be one of the greatest days of your life. Great to have another Cyclone in the world!!

[Bigman38]

nothing new to add, my wife just had a c section a month ago. You'll only be in the OR for like 10 minutes. I opted not to look over the screen in front of me, definitely have a camera ready because you will leave with the baby and your will will probably want pictures of them weighing the baby and stuff like that. I think it is 20-30 minutes after you leave with the baby before she comes out of the OR.

Be prepared to do almost everything for the baby except feeding, she won't be able to do too much for a few days and a slow recovery after that. At 3 weeks my wife was ready to most of what she could do before.

[CycloneChris]

You are going planned c-section. They have that down to a science. An emergency c-section is a completely different story. First kid was an emergency c-section. Went from half asleep in the labor room at 5:00 am to sitting in the operating room at 5:05 am in full scrubs. Thankfully everything went smoothly.

If we wanted to, we could watch. Didn't want to. The anesthesiologist diagrammed everything on the curtain so we knew what was going on.

Even with the emergency c-section, wife got to hold the baby for a minute before they sent me with the baby to the recovery room.

[BirdOfWar]

Good luck with that brotha - you are going to see **** you don't want to unless you keep your eyes shut tight.

Also, when you see it you may not be able to "peak" for awhile after that

Oh I'm sure I will see something, but I'm not planning to intentionally view either of those processes. Just one of the many reasons I could never have been a doctor.

[CycloneVet]

Hey bud dont worry about it we had 3. All went extremely well and my wife did very well. Only thing is if you are queazy DONT WATCH. You do get to see a lot. All 3 of my boys are die hard Cyclone fans and here in Cedar Falls its Hawk country and they wear their colors with pride, so at least being C-Section kids didnt affect their brains (trying to be light for you)

[VeloClone]

We've had two by C-Section. The first we scheduled after 41 weeks. Nothing was progressing and our doc said that there are no benefits from going longer, only detriments.

I'll agree on the pushing around. The first one decided not to come out so our doc had to go up into the abdomen after her. I wouldn't want to come out of the snug, warm, dark place to the cold and bright lights either. If your wife is prepared for some pretty vigorous pushing and shoving it might be a little less unsettling.

The only other thing to prepare for is a little more work cleaning out the kid's airway. A C-section baby doesn't have the trip through the birth canal to help squeeze out the fluid from the lungs so they have to do a lot more work to help clean him/her out. It can be a little scary if you aren't prepared for it. Remember, in this case the more crying the better. (the baby, not Dad) Even very congested sounding crying is a good thing.

The C-section turned out to be a blessing because after delivery the doc showed Mrs. Velo the cord with a perfect little knot in it. That would have tightened up during vaginal delivery and we very well may have ended up with an emergency Cesearean. We also learned the medical reason for the lack of natural progress so we had to schedule the next one as a C-section.

Mrs. Velo got a little sick (nauseous) from the morphine during the day after delivery, but otherwise it was fine. She obviously was laid up a little more drastically and a little longer. I stayed in the hospital room the whole time to take care of each of our kids. All she could really do was feed 'em in bed.

If you are concerned or scared about what you are hearing in the OR, just ask. Usually they have a nurse assigned to the Dad and she will fill you in. It is a lot better than you and/or your wife worrying because something doesn't sound good. They work fast and sometimes just getting it done and keeping on schedule so the baby isn't stressed more than necessary is misinterpreted by parents as something being drastically wrong. If worried, ask.

(By the way, if you get at all light headed, warn your nurse and SIT DOWN. They don't need two patients! There is no shame in it, it is one of the most intense experiences of your life.)

Sorry so long. Hopefully this proves helpful.

[AngryPanda]

I for one wont be looking behind the curtain

[acgclone]

I've seen dozens of C-sections and they are very routine. If you're squirmish at the sight of blood, or never been in an OR type environment, I would probably sit down and stay on the side of the curtain where your wife's head is. The other side gets a little messy and if you're not familiar with that, you'll probably get a little light headed or queasy.

[LutherClone]

First of all, a huge congratulations! I'm a medical student and you have nothing to worry about. Im doing light rotations with OBGYN right now and c-sections are fairly routine. Im sure your physician is well trained and has done many before. Just enjoy the day. Not being a father but having seen more than a few deliveries, my advice would be to keep YOURSELF calm. You being there to hold her hand, etc is a great way to make the process go smoother. Some dads get so excited they end up ******* of the wife and thats not a good experience for anyone (doctor included). But congrats!

[CyCrazy]

I've seen dozens of C-sections and they are very routine. If you're squirmish at the sight of blood, or never been in an OR type environment, I would probably sit down and stay on the side of the curtain where your wife's head is. The other side gets a little messy and if you're not familiar with that, you'll probably get a little light headed or queasy.

I dont have a kid yet but I hate hospitals. I had back surgery 4 years ago and had to get a sedadtive before I even went into surgery. I will be behind the curtain if this situation comes up.

[acgclone]

I dont have a kid yet but I hate hospitals. I had back surgery 4 years ago and had to get a sedadtive before I even went into surgery. I will be behind the curtain if this situation comes up.

Also, don't be surprised when the baby looks a little gray/blue when it first arrives. I remember the first time I saw a delivery, before I had my own kids, I was sort of surprised at how they looked. White, Hispanic, black kids, you name it, all sort of look the same blue'ish/gray when they first come out, IMO.

[CycloneChris]

And if you do stay behind the curtain, and hear them counting off numbers that go past 10, they are not counting fingers and toes. They are probably counting surgical sponges.

Before they handed our son over, they started counting what I assumed to be fingers and toes on the other side of the curtain. Freaked the crap out of me when they paused to find #9, then quickly counted #10, 11, 12, 13; then said they counted them all.