Retinal detachment

No personal experience with this myself. A colleague did, and her doctor put it like this: "You can choose: you can give birth vaginally and never see your baby, or you can have a C-section and actually see your baby." She had both her kids via C-section. Maybe a bit blunt of that doctor, but the pressure during pushing is so intense that in cases of (risk of) retinal detachment, it's really not advisable. If I were you, I wouldn't just talk about it with your midwife/gynecologist, but especially with your ophthalmologist.

Hi Edith,

Thanks for your reply. I was quite startled by it. I’d looked up a few things and the opinions were quite conflicting, but my gut feeling says the same; definitely not a natural birth. My ophthalmologist previously said something like: we just need to monitor this closely, so I hope they’ll let me make the choice... To give you a bit of an idea: I’m 30 years old and have had 2 retinal surgeries, and over the past 2.5 years (since it started) I’ve had laser treatment about 20 times because it keeps detaching again.

My eye doctor is already aware of my pregnancy since I had laser treatment 2 weeks ago, so I mentioned it during the follow-up visit, but we didn’t really talk about childbirth then, although I had asked about it before.

Wishing you lots of strength with the decision-making! It's certainly not easy.
Honestly, my gut feeling about your story is: don't take the risk with a natural birth. A C-section is certainly not ideal either, but it doesn't compare to the consequences if something really goes wrong with your eyes during labor.

Indeed, you're absolutely right! Thank you for your comments.

Hi Maya,
I’m really curious how your birth went. I’m in the same situation.
Thanks in advance for your response!