Preparing for a fight
7 July 2010, 18:39
So I went to the hospital for my monthly checkup. Said to the OB, “so when do I need to make my mind up about delivery”. He says to me, “Oh very soon” and so started the uncomfortable discourse between the obstetrics and the neurosurgical points of view.
The first OB I went to see before I ever got up the duff recommended that I had a Caesar at 37 weeks. The chances of rebleeding from the cerebral clip were very (very) (did I say very?) small, but just to be on the safe side, he would want to do a caesar. Fair enough.
When I went to my first appointment at the Mercy, the OB said “Oh no, we don’t think you’ll need a Caesar, we can give you an epidural and suck out the baby with a ventouse” which sounded so less traumatic (NOT!) but I was happy that I could possibly have a more “normal” birth. The issue, apparently, was with the high blood pressure during labour and the pushing of the final stage of delivery which might put pressure on the brain. Fair enough.
The OB last week told me of a woman who was currently in the same boat as me, who’d had an aneurysm clipped and wasn’t sure which way she wanted to go re. delivery. I asked OB what her neurosurgeon said. “Oh, he said under no circumstances would she be having a vaginal birth. But we have found that delivery puts no undue pressure on the brain…”
Hmmm, I wonder how they decided this? Did they strap on electrodes to measure the brain activity during birth? Think not. Did they decide this by virtue of the fact that no-one with a clipped aneurysm had ever died in labour?
I was advised to take what the head OB dude had to say “very seriously” which I will, but I think I’ll take what the neurosurgeon has to say with more gravitas to tell the truth. I daresay the risk of the aneurysm rebleeding outweighs the risk of a caesarean birth.
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