To Schedule or Not to Schedule a C-Section?

My doctor is telling me that now is the time to schedule a C-Section for my twins because the second baby is breached and is unlikely to turn before I go into labor. We’re waiting until 37 weeks to avoid complications having the babies too early or carrying twins too long.

However, I would rather go through a traditional delivery. And I have heard that the second twin can flip after the first one is born.

And not to sound weird, but I feel like everybody I know has had a scheduled C-Section for their child. And I can’t help but feel this is a trend among doctors to prioritize their time over the patient’s comfort.

Should I schedule the appointment for now and see if things change? There is still a chance I go into labor before then. [name_u]Or[/name_u] insist on no C-Section but potentially need one the day of?

This is a big dilemma I’m having. Any tips or advice would be appreciated!

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I definitely would not want to have a C-section, though I’ve never had twins before. I was actually born breech. The doctor who delivered me decided not to do a C-section on my mom. That was 29 years ago. [name_m]Can[/name_m] you ask a different doctor his or her opinion? I don’t think you should have to have a C-section if you don’t want to, unless it becomes necessary later on.

How many weeks are you now?

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Right now I am 30 weeks. But she told me to prepare to have twins at any point between 33 and 36 weeks and to schedule the C-Section for 37 weeks if they do not come naturally before then.

An additional concern that I didn’t state in the first post, is my blood pressure has been a little bit high this pregnancy. I have anxiety and I think the external stress on top of being pregnant is making it worse.

Right now it is not a big cause for concern, but she told me to consider scheduling the C-Section to avoid carrying the twins too long and taking on extra risks or potentially developing preeclampsia.

It wasn’t something I anticipated happening before my appointment, so I wasn’t really prepared for it. I have asked family and friends who had kids for their advice. And it seems a bit slanted because a few of them did have the scheduled C-Section for their kids. So I’m looking for more perspectives to compare the two options better.

Oh okay. Well I can tell you that my sister in law ended up with preeclampsia with her last child and she had to be induced a few weeks early. Her son was due the first week of [name_u]June[/name_u], but he came [name_f]May[/name_f] 15. Make sure you know all the signs of preeclampsia so you get checked out right away, but hopefully you will be fine.

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Thank you! Everything is changing so fast and it’s a bit overwhelming. We will be monitoring it. And hopefully I can avoid a worse situation. I appreciate your help.

I personally cannot relate but I have a friend who had preeclampsia with both of her kids (5 yrs apart). She had her son vaginally and all-in-all it was a fairly traumatic experience with a long labor and some bad tearing. When she was pregnant with her second, her doctor advised scheduling a c-section to avoid the same issues, and I think out of concern what further tearing would do to her body long-term. She did schedule a c-section, though had to move up the appointment when she was diagnosed with preeclampsia. I know she was extremely glad of her decision.

Everyone’s experience is different though, and I 100% understand wanting a traditional birth. If the second baby doesn’t flip they’ll do a c-section anyways (I’m pretty sure they don’t deliver breached babies vaginally anymore). So I’d think as long as there isn’t extra risk to the babies’ lives through a traditional birth then it would be okay to try that route.

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I’m not sure what advice to give you. I’ve given birth to twins in [name_u]December[/name_u], and I wanted a vaginal birth. The professionals at the hospital I went to were on board with the idea, but there were some conditions. One of them was that neither of my babies was breech. This didn’t happen, so I had a vaginal birth, but I think if one of my babies would have been breech I’d have gone with a C-section, no matter how much I dreaded it deep down.

Giving birth to a baby that’s breech is definitely a struggle, and could be dangerous for the baby (as you already know). I don’t think I’d be prepared to take the risk. And an emergency C-section while you or your baby are at risk is a pretty traumatic experience. I understand you want to feel comfortable and have some expectations concerning the birth of your children, but maybe going through with it at any cost isn’t always the best idea.

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I just had a friend give birth to twins vaginally, and one of the twins did flip during delivery (though I think they flipped into a breach position) however because she delivered at 34 or 35 weeks it wasn’t too big of a deal because the babies were both small enough that being breach didn’t affect the delivery too much. This might be why the dr. Suggests a c section at 37 weeks, the babies would be larger and twins do flip during delivery and if one is breach it could cause complications?

But I would suggest bringing up the topic with your dr. You definitely have the right to understand why the dr. is making a suggestion.

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Schedule. A no drama birth is best.

  • I wouldnt worry about other patients and other doctors. It seems that, in this case, doctor is recommending it in this case because baby is breech. And baby getting turned around can mean coord compression and all of the risks that come with that.

  • And you can totally try all of the recommended things with your doctor to try to flip baby between now and then. And tell doctor that, if you can get baby to flip, you would like to cancel the c section and attempt a natural birth.

Best of both worlds.

Ps my experience below. Parts below blurred out in case anyone has labor-relates triggers.

– My baby flipped on me last moment. We didnt realize until the csection, and only then did it make sense why labor was so grueling and not progressing Trying to birth a baby that is in the wrong position was pretty traumatic.

– My csection doctor, during the csection, said that if I continued trying vaginally, I would have suffered 4th degree tears and possibly a fractured tail bone. and would have been looking at being been-ridden for quite some time, with some follow up corrective surgeries to repair the damage.

– Baby got stuck during labor and came out all bruised up. The majority of the bruises took several months to slowly dissapate. Some of the darker ones stayed with baby and thankfully have been mostly covered by hair.

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I have not given birth to twins, but when I was pregnant with my oldest at about 12 weeks the dr told me that due to my physical anatomy I would not be able to give birth naturally. I was extremely upset for obvious reasons and ended up switching to a Dr that despite everything agreed to allow me to deliver my baby naturally.

At 40 weeks I had still not gone into labor so my dr decided to induce me… this was [name_m]Thursday[/name_m] night Dec 29th, even with the pitocin I hardly dilated. On [name_m]Saturday[/name_m] [name_f]Morning[/name_f] Dec 31st I was at 4 cm and my dr said that he will be taking me off the pitocin to give my body time to rest and that he was planning on doing a c section for later that day. I was devastated that after everything I was still going to have a cesarean but my dr said that at that point there was no other choice. [name_m]Saturday[/name_m] evening at around 5 pm, after having been off pitocin for around 6 hours my water broke on its own so my dr said that he was willing to let me wait another 24 hours before doing surgery and I was excited.
[name_f]Sunday[/name_f] morning, [name_u]January[/name_u] 1st. At around 10 am I developed a really high fever, I was so sick, throwing up, freezing cold, dilerious.
[name_f]My[/name_f] dr had to do an emergency c-section: general anesthesia, my husband couldn’t be in the room… from the time he made his decision until my baby was born was about 15 minutes but it was too late and my baby was born with an infection as well as a really high fever and ended up in Nicu for several days.

All of this could have been avoided if I thought with my head instead of my heart.
Yes c section is scary and yes it is much better to go natural but it is NOT worth risking your health or the health of your unborn child.

For my other kids I scheduled c sections and although I went into labor a week before the scheduled day with my second so they did have to do it randomly it was overall a much much better experience.

I do understand your desire to talk to other people and doctors however I do strongly believe that you need to do what is best for all 3 of you regardless of what you want.

Sometimes as much as we want to believe that we know what is better than the doctors do, sometimes we really don’t. And being so adamant about something and risky as naturally giving birth to twins while one is breech can unfortunately have really drastic and horrible results that can be avoided if you do what is right by your children regardless of how much you really really want to go naturally for whatever the reason.

None of this is easy and I really hope that you can be smart and make the right decision that will not endanger you or any of your children.

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I haven’t given birth to twins and I skimmed the comments so I could have missed something of importance but…

Does the hospital have a track record for high c-section rate? I completely agree some, maybe most even are c-section overkill but if this one isn’t that might be something to take into consideration with how they’re approaching you

Where you say they expect delivery between 33-36 weeks I would hesitate less with the idea of a c-section bei at 37 weeks. If they wanted you to schedule at 35 weeks that’s one thing but they’re givi be a week over the expectation

If you schedule a c-section will they check before the surgery to make sure the baby hasn’t flipped?

I had a unplanned c-section with my first. I demanded it after an incredibly long labor even though the midwives encouraged me to keep going. I’m happy Indidnt. BUT my second went breech towed the last weeks and Inhad her flipped and delivered VBAC a few weeks later. My third was also a successful vbac even though he momentarily went transverse in the last weeks.

One thing to be aware of that Inwasnt was that remaining breech can have a negative effect on baby. When my daughter was born Inwas discussing her delivery with my kids beloved pediatrician and as soon as he heard she spent any time breech he had us scheduled for turned out to be two ultrasounds and a later x Ray to catch any chance of hip dysplasia at the early onset as breech babies have an increased risk of developing it. So grateful he was on top of his game because she showed the slightest sliver of it and it was so insanely minimal to recover from (a few months of triple diapering / wearing a brace). Knowing this I personally would likely schedule for 37 weeks if it were me.

I always recommend looking into ICANnas a resource to those hesitant / feeling pressured on jumping into a c-section. It stands for International Cesearean Awareness Network. They have a fb for likely better direct contact but here’s their website. https://www.ican-online.org/

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First I want to thank everyone for their helpful takes on this issue.

After thinking it over, and talking more with my doctor, I have decided to schedule the C-Section. She assured me that when I go in for the appointment or when I go into labor, they will check the positioning and size again. If they are small enough or positioned in a way where we can try a traditional birth, we will. If the baby is still breech and they seem to big, then we will go forward with the C-Section.

It definitely threw me for a loop. But I do want to put my babies first. Thanks again for all the help!

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Good on you for doing a bit of research/asking around and giving it some thought.

I personally know two ladies who delivered full term (closer to 40 weeks, not induced) twins where the first one was head down and the second one breech. For one lady the second baby flipped after the first was born and for the other lady the second baby was born breech. She said there was no concerns/it was an easy delivery because she had already just delivered a baby vaginally so the path was cleared so to speak and there was plenty of room for the baby to manoeuvre and make it’s way out safely. They were both in the UK though and I think drs are sometimes less inclined to push C sections there than what I’ve heard anecdotally about the USA. That’s just a personal observation though- I don’t have any evidence to prove it.

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Yes! When I was a talking around my friend group, it felt like so many people had scheduled C-Sections. And instead of easing my mind, it made me concerned as to the true motivation behind it. But for now it seems like a last resort, so I’m following the drs direction.

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