how long after a C-section did you....

[Ceelo]

not hurt
start going for walks
do the basic post-natal exercises
uterus start shrinking????

[Highlander]

pain completely gone after 2-3 weeks (but bearable after 3-4 days - only hurt when I twisted)

DS1 - big walk on day 5 ( 2 miles)
DS2 - can't remember

um, didn't do any. Was running after 4 weeks

uterus shrunk down to below belly button within 24 hours. Gone after 6 weeks

[LackaDAISYcal]

DS - EmCS

not hurt...about 1.5 weeks
start going for walks....one week
do basic exercises.....2.5 weeks
uterus started shrinking....immediately

With DD.....2nd and elective section

not hurt....about 4 weeks
start going for walks......about two weeks and then had to hole up in bed for another week.
do the basic postnatal exercises......at least six weeks, although I was trying to do core stability exercises before that.
uterus started shrinking......immediately as confirmed by the MW the day after that it was "going down nicely"

[Ceelo]

oh great you r a runner, me too. did you have to wait for dr approval to run or did u go when felt like it?

[Ceelo]

nobody had a flat tummy a week later though right?

[MrsJamin]

not hurt - 5 weeks I think, it seemed to take ages.
start going for walks - a good few weeks partly because it still hurt if I pressed it so the scar rubbed on my clothing.
do the basic post-natal exercises - what are these?!
uterus start shrinking???? - I BFed so it was as soon as that got going I felt it shrink.

I think it really varies from woman to woman. Why do you ask? Have you had a c-section or are you just thinking through what happens when you have a c-section?

[mumfor1standmaybe2ndtime]

I can't remember when it didn't hurt, a few weeks I would say. I started realising that I had forgotten to take my pain killers, so thought wow it is getting better!

I went for very light walks round my local park within a few days of getting home, but only for short amounts of time each time.

My belly seemed to be huge for few weeks, I would say it took couple of months to start looking more 'normalish'

Didn't really do any excerices apart from pelvic floors.

[mustrunmore]

ds1..
not hurt... a week
walks.... up a huge hill to pizze place on day 4
post natal exercise... cant remember, poss 3 weeks?
uterus shrink... about 5wweeks

ds2...
not hurt.... day 3
walks..... prob a wek cos we were in hosp 7 days due to ds2 infection
post natal exercise...
uterus.. its still there 2.5 yrs later, I swear

What I would say is that pre ds1 I was very fit (ran about 45km a week etc etc) and ate perfctly, and he was a small baby.
With ds2, I put on 3 stone, was unfit and tired, ate crap after bad gastric thing that put me offtrack Plus I bf ds2 for 10 months, and didnt lose any weight at all till I stopped.

In the last year (so from ds2 being 1.5 to 2.5) I've found the time and energy to begin traininig again and have lost 2 stone (3 dress sizes), but still have a huge belly and not very good fitness levels. Its gonna take a long time to recover from ds2!

The actual csection recovery is a mind in-the-miny though I'm sure, as I recovered quicker from ds2 becaise I knew it was gonig to be a section, knew what to expect, had ds1 to deal with, didint feel so sorry for myself that it had been a section (ds1 was an emergency after 54hr labour, failed induction, failed epidural!)

[Ceelo]

MrsJamin

had c-section last thursday...def. not elective & hurt quite a lot and wonder if i am lounging around doing nothing but sleeping when all these other c-sectioners are conquering the world.

you know...how much is a normal amount of activity? what does taking it easy mean?

[wasabipeanut]

I walked a reasonable amount about 1 week afterwards - did some very short gentle walks after about 4 or 5 days but I mean 5 or 10 mins just to get some fresh air.

It hurt for a good 2-3 weeks in terms of having to have dh pull me upright in bed to feed ds or I would turn on my side and use my arms but it didn't hurt as standard IYSWIM from about 5 days afterwards. I had amazing painkillers though - I can so see why people get hooked on codeine.

As for uterus I don't really know - the midwife said it was fine though. My stomach seemed to shrink back quite fast. I never really bothered with exercise either

[mumfor1standmaybe2ndtime]

Last Thursday! - You are still in very early stages of recovery. I tried to take a walk with the pushchair for a few mins each day to begin with, just pop to local corner shop or round the block.

[ShowOfHands]

I didn't hurt really afterwards. I was a bit uncomfortable, felt like I couldn't straighten properly but I didn't need painkillers or anything.

I took it fairly easy though for a few days and went for a walk on about day 5. Just did light housework and the odd bit of cooking before then, plus caring for/carrying baby obviously.

I waited until I'd stopped bleeding at 5/6 weeks to exercise as I was quite anaemic after the em cs and felt quite wishy washy.

My uterus started to contract as soon as dd latched on.

Stomach still not quite right at 15 months in, but it's getting there!

[ScaryHairy]

not hurt - 2-3 weeks, although I stopped taking painkillers at the end of week 1.

start going for walks - did 2 miles 2 weeks later, lesser distances after 6 days or so

do the basic post-natal exercises - umm, still haven't (2 years on).

uterus start shrinking - a few days. My DD was a monster suckler and my uterus contracted down quickly. That left the saggy skin flab which I still have, although less of it at least!

[kitstwins]

not hurt
Three weeks. Very painful for first few days as no epidural for pain management and then it just bloody hurt. I struggled with stairs, sitting in chairs, getting up. Awful really.

start going for walks
I walked to the end of my road (200 yards) a week after they were born and fainted. Too much too soon, which seemed ridiculous at the time given how fit I was before. But it was too much. As a result I developed a huge haematoma behind my scar (as a result of a slow bleed) so my message is to take things easy.

do the basic post-natal exercises
I did pelvic floors from the get go and tried pulling my abdominals in gently from time to time but nothing major. I started running at 12 weeks post caesarean and started gentle (non abdominal) pilates at around that time too. Started abdominals from around 6 months post birth.

uterus start shrinking????
Mine popped back quite quickly. I was in my normal clothes about three weeks afterwards, although I couldn't bear anything on my scar.

my tip would be to do less than you think you ought and be kind to your body. Caesareans can really take it out of you and although externally you can look healed after three weeks the internal healing can take much longer.

Kx

[FruitynNutty]

I was out walking to the shops 3 days after c-section but got a telling off by health visitor
I don't remember being in any pain but just felt tender. I was fine though from day 3 onwards. PRobably sooner if they'd let me out of hospital earlier

[MrsJamin]

I guess taking it easy means do short walks (to corner shop and back seemed long enough to me!), and just try things gently, build up to larger things like shopping in town etc. I know what you mean though, other mums who'd had c-sections didn't seem to hurt a few weeks after, yet I was still in quite a bit of pain. Best not to compare! Just make the most of people going to fetch you things, etc!

[kitstwins]

Can I also just say that there are quite a few 'conquer the world after a caeasarean' posts flying around and whilst I think that's fantastic for the people concerned it's not typical and you're certainly not abnormal if you feel utterly sh*te for a few weeks afterwards. Although I think it's wonderful if you DO bounce back quickly post-caesar it can be quite demoralising when you can barely sit up to read about people leaping up and down mountains a week after their op.

A lot depends on the caearean. Electives tend to be easier on the body than emergencies and the recovery seems to be much quicker. They're far less brutal and far less rushed so the abdominal trauma during an elective, whilst still not to be scoffed at, is perhaps not as pronounced as it is following a caesarean.

I'm one of the unlucky ones in that I had a very brutal caesarean and painful recovery (enough to put me off any more babies - I'm just too scared) and I get both demoralised and annoyed when I read of caesareans being described as minor surgery or in any way humdrum or 'the easy way out'. They've become more common, which has perhaps made them seem a standard procedure, but they're still classified as major abdominal surgery.

Take as long as you need to take and go easy. If you try to do too much too soon you'll only delay the healing process. And equally, go very careful with the running. You should ideally wait until your abdominals (rectus abdominus) have closed again (usually 12 weeks post caesarean) as any strenous exercise before this can place strain on these and 'fix' their position. This means that the gap will not close and you'll have issues with pelvic weakness, a slack stomach and the potential for hernia.

Slower is better. It's a killer not being able to run but, having waited, I'm stronger for it and I'm now back to the same fitness and shape that I was before.

Kx

[kitstwins]

Sorry - obviously meant 'following an emergency caesarean' in the second paragraph. Missed emergency out.

[FruitynNutty]

I had an emergency C-section and was out and about but I think the painkillers disguised it for me which is probably why I was so desperate to get out.
My friend also had an emergency c-section and could barely move for 2 weeks. My other friend has just had a v-birth 2 weeks ago and she's only just getting out and about. So I guess it really does depend on the person and pain threshold.

[nooonit]

I seem to have been lucky with my Em C-section - didn't hurt that much, def manageable with the pain killers they gave me which I took religiously on time to be on the safe side!

Times I struggled most were when I'd just got home - hadn't realised in hospital how painful going upstairs to the bathroom would be - I remember crawling up on my hands and knees in tears! Also after sleeping in adjustable bed in hospital my first night at home if I tried to sleep flat I felt like I would come undone! Only got comfortable with complex pillow arrangement under knees and DP helping me to sit up!

Walking on flat not too bad, prob by end of first week at home. As Riven said, my DD1 had been a "natural" birth but with forceps - lots of stitches, so walking after DD2's section was definitely easier sooner.

Uterus seeme to contract fine - not sure if I had a drip to help?

One of the worst things was the DVT stockins - awful!

[eandh]

Both dd1 & dd2 elective c sections

not hurt - about 48 hoursz after opertaion but tender for about 10 days

start going for walks went to tescos with dd2 on day 5 (and walked although its a short walk) proper walking around day 10

do the basic post-natal exercises - umm never did any

uterus start shrinking???? not sure but was back in normal clothes after a week (although am a tad overweight so that may not be for everyone!)

Slightly longer recovering with dd2 but thats because end of stitches got a tiny infection where they slightly come apart(think when dd1 accidentally jumped on me the day I came home from hospital in excitement of seeing me, she was only 2.4 at the time)

[Lib76]

Ceelo, i had emer c section after 30 odd hours of labour. i went for first very slow walk after few days but held onto DH the whole time. was really sore for about 2 weeks despite painkillers. was able to drive a t 6 wks but found still got twinges when getting pram in and out of car.

i think that it takes longer to recover from emergency c section. my sister had elective and recovered much quicker than me!

being a nurse i was pretty careful as to what i did in way of lifting etc, cause at end of day it is major abdominal sugery, which i think a lot of people forget!

hope you are ok :-)

[ShowOfHands]

Kitstwins you are absolutely right of course but the beauty of MN is that everybody has a different story and you accept that everybody's story is true only for themselves. I suspect I might be one of the people you refer to. I wasn't in pain at all after the cs (I did have an em cs after 26hr labour, 6hrs of pushing, episiotomy, failed manual rotation, 3 failed ventouse attempts and 2 badly torn muscles in an unfortunate place). My experience of pain afterwards is minimal and I post this so that people can see the spectrum of experiences.

If the op had asked about psychological healing we'd be here all day. While some people don't give it a second thought, I suffer ptsd 15 months later and still have nightmares.

If the op had asked advice I'd say take it as easy as you need to, don't rush and don't compare yourself. I would not use my experience to inform my advice.

[ForeverOptimistic]

Less than 24 hours
48 hours
48 hours
No Idea!

[kitstwins]

Showofhands - totally agree. It is wholly different from person to person and depends on a whole stack of variables (type of delivery, pain control, body's reaction to trauma/bruising, etc., healing complications). I personally think it has fck all to do with pain thresholds as mine is pretty high - I've run marathons and climbed high altitude mountains and had fairly intense medical treatment and NOTHING has compared to the pain I felt post-section. I don't think I had a low pain threshold, I just think I had a sh!t caesarean for reasons beyond my control. When I came round from the General Anaesthetic I could feel everything as the epidural had failed and the pain relief hadn't kicked in. And the morphine made me vomit, which is no picnic after you've had your innards rearranged. So I guess I started on the back foot on that one.

I have friends who've found caesareans okay and yet I could barely move for three weeks. And then I have friends who claimed to have felt "absolutely fine" post section and "barely a twinge" when I called them in tears after mine, but then when they later had another section ranted at length to me how sections were "blody agony" and they'd "never forgotten the pain of the first one". So sometimes there is a middle camp too of people who chose (rightly for them) to forget the pain.

I suppose I'm trying to do what you are doing - portray the extreme of a caesarean experience. Yours was pretty good, mine was pretty crap and hopefully the OP will hit the top end of the gamut. From personal experience it would have helped to know that sometimes caesareans can really suck and recovery can be really slow and painful and that I wasn't odd or being a wimp.

K