Should forceps be avoided?

kindofagilr

So we have a right to refuse though? like if its not a life or death situation and they want to use forceps or ventuese can I say no and ask for a c section?

(as far as I know they only used forceps on me as mam had been in labour a very long time and was getting exhausted and not becuase I was in any danger)

KT1985

Alex was delivered by forceps (non-rotational) and I am so glad that he was. It escalated into an emergency situation and they needed him out or there was a good chance that he would have died. I didn't have a choice- a section would have taken too long. I was told they were using foceps, and from when the decision was made to him being born was 4 minutes. I am so thankful to all of the staff at the hospital that they just made the decision and got on with it.

I hate the Daily Mail- it thrives on panic journalism.

KT1985

kindofagilr wrote: »

So we have a right to refuse though? like if its not a life or death situation and they want to use forceps or ventuese can I say no and ask for a c section?

(as far as I know they only used forceps on me as mam had been in labour a very long time and was getting exhausted and not becuase I was in any danger)

I didn't get a choice as such- they told me what they wanted to do and then just did it. I think it depends how serious the situation is. With Alex it was an emergency, but they do also use forceps and ventouse to assist in 'normal' deliveries that are just a bit slow/mother is exhausted. You would probably get more choice if this was the case.

honeypop

kindofagilr wrote: »

So we have a right to refuse though? like if its not a life or death situation and they want to use forceps or ventuese can I say no and ask for a c section?

I don't think you can opt for a c-section instead of forceps/venteuse if it is not an emergency situation. C-section is last resort for a reason.

KT1985 wrote: »

I think it depends how serious the situation is. With Alex it was an emergency, but they do also use forceps and ventouse to assist in 'normal' deliveries that are just a bit slow/mother is exhausted. You would probably get more choice if this was the case.

Exactly, if it was to assist a vaginal birth I believe you could request they don't use them, but ultimately if it's in order to save your babies life and it would take too long to prep you for a section (and sometimes there's a queue for the op if several women need a section), then they would probably go ahead anyway.

kindofagilr

So it depends on how much of an emergency it is with regards to refusing them and opting for a c section?

Boy I wish I had read this after babybea had decided to show lol

jackieb

When my eldest son was born they used Keillands forceps (the same type used in the birth in the article). My son was also over 9lb. These are different from other forceps - they're longer and are used for when the baby needs turning and is still high up in the birth canal.

When my GP came in to see me in hospital, he looked at the tag on my son's crib, which said 'Keillands forceps, rotation and delivery'. He said my next birth would be better as it couldn't be any worse than the one i'd just had.

My son was fine, apart from a few scratches. I'd rather have had a c-section than go through a labour like that again. Turning a baby by the head can't be good - can it?

nikki2804

When I went into labour it was discover that my son was coming out facing skywards (which apparently meant he wouldn't come out without assistance)

I had heard so many horror stories about forceps, in fact my cousin was born with them 23 years ago and his head is still irregular, so you can imagine I was a little worried.

Anyway I was prepped for a C-section too, in case they couldn't turn him as he was starting to go into distress.

TBH he was out in a few minutes with the forceps, he had a teeny little bruise on his forehead but he looked like any normal newborn baby. Now, when I went home and showed him off everyone commented on how lovely his head shape was.

I think that years ago forceps maybe caused a lot of problems but these days I think there a lot better. At the end of the day its all about the babies welfare. The bruising goes down. Ok I was in pain for 6 weeks but I believe its 12 weeks with a C-section? Plus the PND rate is meant to be a lot higher with C-sections (according to my midwife at the time)

If I was in the same situation again I would leave the decision upto the medical professionals. They know whats best for the baby.

Only my opinion, HTH.

Sexy_Em

I spoke to my midwife about this yesterday, and she was very confused about why the woman signed for any kind of forceps as this isn't something they practise up here.

She also said that you only ever hear of the horror stories with these things ... how many sucessful births must there be in relation to the ones with complications?!

Good point i guess. At the end of the day, I'm fairly sure that doctors / midwifes / whoever wouldn't do something if they thought it was going to be very dangerous for the baby.

Each situation is different, no two births are the same.

Ms_Piggy_2

aliasojo wrote: »

I refused forceps during the birth of my youngest. I didn't know enough then about ventouse otherwise I would have refused that too!

Ventouse was tried but baby was stuck fast and emergency section was needed. Baby screamed and was very unsettled for months afterwards, doctors dismissed my concerns and said she was just taking time to settle after the birth. Eventually one of the more enlightened Health Visitors told me to go see an osteopath who found that the bones in my daughter's head were badly misaligned due to the ventouse used at her birth and were the cause of her distress.

Within minutes of the osteopath doing his thing, she settled and looked the calmest we'd ever seen her.

I'm so glad I'm past the stage/age of having babies, it's so hard knowing what to do for the best sometimes, especially when medical advice can be a little different depending on who you talk to.

I planned a HB but after 4+ hours pushing transferred to hospital where they tried a ventouse and it failed. I refused forceps and delivered him myself. He was compound presentation which is why the second stage was slow and also why ventouse failed as it couldn't get a proper grip. That said, it did pull him down far enough for me to deliver him.

We went to the chiropractor the next day and he needed only minor adjustments.

ETA: no episiotomy, no tears, I walked out of hospital just two hours later.

Ms_Piggy_2

tandraig wrote: »

but - women have been having babies for many thousands of years - more successfully than the current medical profession would have you believe.

Women *have* been having babies for thousands of years, but Mother Nature has a far higher tolerance for losing both women and babies than modern medicine.

Prior to the invention of forceps, women and babies died after days and days in labour. It happened and wasn't uncommon. Or the baby died inside the mother and had to be broken up and removed vaginally to avoid infection.

There is much a woman can do to avoid intervention - keep upright and active, avoid induction, be fully supported etc etc but sometimes intervention *is* necessary. And saves lives. It's all well and good saying "I'd never accept x" but life isn't like that - and life (and birth) isn't without risk. It's about informed consent and properly trained doctors and midwives and proper staffing levels.