My C-section Delivery

From the second I learned I was carrying twins, I knew I had a good chance that my birth story would involve a C-section. For most of my pregnancy, Baby A (or Bailey as we like to call her now) was head-down, but her stubborn sister, Baby B (Brooklyn), was breached. My doctor explained to me that I could try for a natural birth and hope that the second baby either flipped on her own after her sister was born or they might be able to manually maneuver her from the outside. If they couldn’t flip her, I would need a C-section. I wasn’t thrilled about the possibility of having both a natural birth and a C-section, so we decided that if Baby B was still breached at delivery, I would just have a C-section. When delivery day came, and she was still feet first, we prepared for the C-section.

My husband, Darren, was given scrubs complete with a surgical cap to wear while they prepped me for surgery. They took me into the operating room to administer the spinal tap while Darren waited outside. I was a little intimidated by the room at first. An operating room looks a little less inviting than the comfy delivery room we saw on the hospital tour, and there were a lot of people in the room.

Each baby had a team of doctors and nurses, plus another team of doctors and nurses and the anesthesiologist for me. The spinal tap hurt a little, but only for a few seconds. I had time to move onto the table and lay flat before my lower half went numb. They placed a sheet in front of me to block my view of the surgery. Then the nurse brought my husband back into the room, and he held my hand. The nurse provided a play–by-play of what was happening on the other side of the curtain, so we knew what was going on.

It only took a short amount of time until we heard our first little girl crying, followed a minute later by her sister. It took about a half hour or so to finish the C-section, then I was wheeled into the recovery room. I will never forget my first glimpse of my daughters. They were perfect.

Recovery from a C-section is really like recovering from any other major abdominal surgery. You will be sore and have some pain, but it won’t last forever, though the love for your new baby -- or new babies -- will!

Photo by Sharon McCutcheon on Unsplash