Forceps and Ventouse

I have been finding that there is a relatively large (10-15% according to one of the health care professionals - I use that term lightly with those I've seen) percentage of forceps and ventouse deliveries.

Has anyone here had experience with either of these?  If so, could you share your stories?

I had a forceps delivery w/Aillidh, my first child.  She was back to back, and her hand was up beside her ear.  It was a long labour and I had an epidural at 4cm dilation.  It didn't slow things down, first time labours can be long.  I got 10cm and pushed for an hour and then the midwife called the consultant.  She determined that the baby's head was far down enough for forceps delivery, so the anesthetist topped up the epi and Aillidh was born a few minutes later.  She was breathing right away.  I recovered well and next time around I needed no intervention - Roisin was born 2.5 years later after a short labour.  I got to hospital too late for pain relief and had only a graze. 

It's not something I was really concerned w/until the moment arose.

A ventouse/vacuum was used in my son's delivery.  I was not happy that it had to be used, but by the time they brought it out it was too late for a c-section and I had no energy left to get him out on my own.  If you have a doctor/midwife who knows what they're doing (as I did) then there really isn't too much to be concerned about.  In fact, he barely had a mark on him from it.

However, the insertion was awful (this was NOT done by my doc).  I won't go into detail, but attaching the thing was almost as bad as the actual birth.  I'm happy to give more details if you want to PM me.

How long did your baby have marks from the forceps?  I heard one bad story about them from a woman who had her baby at the hospital I would go to.  Now, it sounds somewhat impossible, so I don't know...  But she said she was 5 cm and they were going to do a C-section, but didn't and then used forceps.  I don't know how they could have at 5cm, so she may have not known her own story well enough.  Her baby still had some very severe marks on her temples 2 weeks after the birth.  

How long did your baby have marks from the forceps?  I heard one bad story about them from a woman who had her baby at the hospital I would go to.  Now, it sounds somewhat impossible, so I don't know...  But she said she was 5 cm and they were going to do a C-section, but didn't and then used forceps.  I don't know how they could have at 5cm, so she may have not known her own story well enough.  Her baby still had some very severe marks on her temples 2 weeks after the birth.  

I don't see how it would be mpossible to extract a full-term fetus at 5cm.  There's no way the head would fit or the forceps blades would be able to grip the baby's head to pull it out.  The baby's head has to be far enough down into the pelvis, and the cervix dilated enough for the doctor to get the forceps on either side of the head.  It's more likely she was allowed to dilate fully or she quickly dilated and then forceps were used.

At the time I had a forceps delivery, I truly didn't care anymore.  It had been 24 hours and I was tired.

She had marks for a wee while - I think it was about 10 days or so.  But no permanent damage was done.  They just faded away. 

B/c I had a maxi strengthy epidural, I didn't feel a thing, the midwife even had to tell me when I was having a contraction so I could push - yes, even w/forceps or ventouse you have to help by pushing.

On a pain threshold, the all natural delivery I had this time was far, far more painful, IME.