My heart was broken after my first baby had to be delivered via c-section after developing preeclampsia and my baby got stuck in my pelvis after pushing for 5 hours. It turns out my sacrum is not shaped for natural child birth, according to my OB and my chiropractor. My plan was to have a healthy, safe, natural vaginal birth in a hospital for my first pregnancy, then if it went well I would feel confident trying for a home birth for my subsequent pregnancies. Obviously that can’t happen now.

I’ve been advised by all of my doctors (my MFM, OBGYN, nurse practitioner, and several other specialists I’ve been going to for my high risk pregnancy) that it would be physically dangerous for both me and my baby to try for a VBAC due to how my last birth ended, plus my chance for developing severe preeclampsia again, so I’m looking for any advice to help make my scheduled c-section experience as natural as possible (without dying, obviously). Last time I was able to do skin to skin and latch right away, but the doctors had to cut the cord before I could hold him. I tried to only use Tylenol for my pain, but in order to walk around and tolerate the pain without passing out I had to accept stronger pain meds while I was in the hospital, but stopped them when I got home.

Has anyone else here had to have a c-section? How did you make your experience more natural, and how did you deal with your mental state knowing your body is a failure compared to all of the vaginal birth mommas?