Difficult caesarean birth. How can I help?

[NotUnderMyHeart]

For those of you who have been there and know the struggles (I’m sure there are many!), what can I buy/do/provide for my beautiful niece who has just had her little boy at 7:30 this morning? She’s only young, has had an awful pregnancy and really difficult birth resulting in a Caesarian with a general anaesthetic so neither her or the baby’s dad were there to see him born. We’re all absolutely over the moon that they are both healthy but know she’ll need some support. I’m an hour away but will be visiting of course. What will she need/what will help make things easier for her? I’m not even sure of recovery time or what her physical limitations will be.

Thank you!

I don’t have much to contribute but want to say this is such a sweet thread and you sound like a lovely aunt. When a friend was pregnant with her first baby I organized some other friends to cook for them. We filled their freezer with food that likely lasted a couple weeks.

Another thing around food is ensure they have good food like fruits and vegetables that can be eaten with one hand (berries, nuts, etc) to keep a balance of nutrition. Bottles of water delivered via a grocery store may help too so they don’t have to constantly replenish themselves.

Maybe give them a Netflix or amazon Prime subscription as a gift to entertain her while breastfeeding. You can gift one, two or three month subscriptions.

Another idea: ways to make showering easier. A loofah on a stick may help her reach places like her back and down her legs if she can’t stretch her middle area due to stitches.

You sound like a wonderful aunt

After mine what I really appreciated was easy to prepare 'naice' food. Slightly posher ready meal type things. Cooking was a struggle as couldn't stand long to prep the food. I actually cried when my MIL brought food with her, haha.

The best present I got when I had my first was posh chocolates. I craved sugar when breastfeeding and having a box of Thornton's to hand that I didn't share with anyone but enjoyed during the night feeds was a real treat.

Other than that, offering to pass baby to her will be appreciated I'm sure. It is difficult to twist and lift, and everyone thought they were helping by offering to hold baby when they saw me struggle, but I wanted the cuddles and wish they had let me get comfy with pillows and passed her to me.