C-Section Birth Stories: Macy Matthews

1. Please share the circumstances that led to your c-section birth(s):

I was induced for medical reasons at 40 weeks. The baby was posterior but they said my cervix was favorable and dilated to 3 centimeters at the start of induction. They broke my waters and started the Pitocin drip. My contractions picked up shortly after starting and they were already very close together. I was having back labor contractions which were hell. I tried to use positions that would encourage the baby to move. By only a few hours, I was 7 centimeters dilated. The baby had not moved positions. I was involuntarily pushing at this point and my blood pressure was rising and rising. I had to have the epidural and the relief was AMAZING. My blood pressure decreased and overall it was so much more relaxing. About an hour later, I started to feel contractions on one side. They told me it’s normal. I was then checked because I told her the pressure was getting stronger and stronger and I was 9 centimeters. Then it all went nuts.

My contractions came back FULL BLOWN. They again were shrugging me off when I was saying I was in pain and visibly showing it. I got to 10 centimeters and the baby was still high up. They wanted me to push. I pushed for 1.5 hours and he had not moved. The doctor was treating me like a sook for being exhausted after 1.5 hours of pushing with no change in my baby’s position. The doctor said that I wasn’t pushing properly because of the epidural. I kept saying the epidural wasn’t working.

They finally checked my back and noticed the epidural was not in at all and had fallen out. They decided to take me to theatre (operating room). I was still contracting back to back at this point. My husband was put in the waiting room. It took what felt like forever (apparently 50 minutes) to get the spinal in and then let my husband in. I was screaming for my husband the whole time because he wasn’t allowed in there and the pain and my fear were so high. They told me it took 5 attempts to get the spinal in and the only reason I was out to sleep was that the baby’s heart rate was normal. It didn’t take long for the spinal to work and I instantly felt relaxed. Shortly after, I met my boy. The worst and happiest day of my life. They said he was very much stuck and wouldn’t have come out vaginally at all so a c-section was needed. I didn’t get skin-to-skin. My husband did though and gave him his first syringe of my colostrum. I was still so incredibly happy and glad my husband had that moment with our son.

2. What surprised you the most about having a c-section?:

Definitely the tugging sensation. I was expecting to not feel anything at all. I also experienced very bad ‘shakes’ in recovery.

3. What kind of support do you feel you received (from friends, family, healthcare team) after your c-section(s)?:

My husband was amazing. He was able to take 5 weeks off work so I didn’t need to do cleaning and laundry. My mother also was very supportive and stayed with us for two weeks when my husband returned to work. I was provided pain relief in the hospital however was discharged with nothing but paracetamol.

4. What’s your #1 piece of advice/encouragement for a new c-section mom?:

Support support support. Don’t do this alone. Use all the support you can get. It’s major abdominal surgery.

5. How do you believe having a c-section birth(s) made you stronger?:

I’m still struggling with this and I still don’t know if I believe that it’s made me stronger. I know that it’s not my fault but the stigma of c-sections being ‘the easy way out’ is still very much alive. I think that it’s hard for me to hear that, as it was very hard for me and recovery was tough.

Name: Macy Matthews, Registered Nurse

Country of Residence: Australia

Instagram Username: @macymatt_