Pippa V

Both my babies were born by caesarean section. Although the ideal time for a caesarean is at 39 weeks, i.e. a week early, my first child was delivered more than two weeks early, because the consultant was off on a family holiday the next morning. We were keen to let this particular consultant deliver the baby because he had been involved in my care for the whole, difficult pregnancy. My daughter was fine, but she had a low birth weight.

So when we were given the caesarean date during my second pregnancy and it was even earlier, close to 37 weeks, we realised that it must be a mistake. I mentioned it at my next appointment - they agreed it was a mistake and that we should rebook for closer to 39 weeks. At two subsequent appointments the date was brought up again, but each time there was an issue with rebooking – the secretary was called away suddenly or the diary disappeared from the clinic. After the last appointment my husband and I decided to go with the date we’d originally been given, saying to each other that maybe this was God’s plan. I’d had some doubts about the baby’s growth in the last few weeks and I wasn’t too sorry to be delivering early.

The same consultant was there to deliver the baby. I was given an epidural and he began to operate. As he was making the incision he suddenly stopped and looked really shocked. He turned to me and asked if I’d had any pains. As it happened I’d had a significant twinge of pain the previous day in Sainsbury’s when I lifted my daughter into the trolley. Being a GP, I knew there was such a thing as uterine rupture, when a caesarean scar can reopen under the pressure of a subsequent pregnancy. It causes massive bleeding and can kill both mother and baby, but it is incredibly rare, so I ignored the twinge.

What the consultant could see just before he delivered my son was that the area around my previous scar was the thickness of clingfilm. He could even see the baby’s hair through the wall of my uterus. The scar had thinned to the point that it was in imminent danger of rupture.

Over the next few minutes, and then twice over the next couple of days, the consultant continued to tell me how rare this was and that he’d never seen it before. He kept pointing out how close to rupture I’d been and how easily we could both have died, especially if it had happened outside the hospital.

I now have no doubt that the original “mistake” over the date of delivery was no mistake at all and was at God’s instigation!