c-sections

[Lilsquish]

Currently in hospital having underwent a section yesterday.

AIBU to expect/request stronger pain relief other than two paracetamol??

i mean, for christ sake, 16 hours after major surgery they are requesting that i get out of bed and shower with 2 paracetamol for pain relief???? why??

its not like you cant have anything stronger, they even have it stored on their little drug trolleys, so why not offer it? or better still, when i say im really struggling with the pain, offer the bloody morphine without insinuating that its a major deal!!!

Any midwives/doctors shed some light on this?

im getting a bit fucked off feeling like i need to beg/justify reasons for getting stronger pain relief every 4 hours.........

Please please please complain to PALs. nothing changes because we just get on with it and don't complain enough

They didn't even check your wound? What in the flying fuck.

If I didn't check a laparotomy wound there would be hell to pay. I check the dressing every day and before discharge I do a whole redress to make sure everything is okay under the hood and whilst I'm doing it I give advice on the care of it, along with giving a few dressings to last until the woman can buy new ones. Jesus Christ the care is just sloppy.

Watching Bodies on iplayer brought this all back - if you're pregnant do not watch it!

I hate reading how poorly women seem to be treated antenatally as standard. After I had DD2 I had a serious PPH. The drugs that they gave me to stop the bleeding caused severe stomach cramps and unholy diarrhoea. I have IBS so knew the signs when the gripiness started and asked for buscopan as it’s the only way to stop the gripiness becoming dreadful pain. I was refused by the midwife who said it was just after pains. I knew it fucking wasn’t. Ended up in the loo on the ward basically shitting myself inside out for the next two hours and sweating, crying in pain and when my husband went to ask again about giving me some buscopan and maybe some Imodium as well as pain relief it was once again dismissed as “after pains”. It was only after I fainted getting off the loo that anyone took me seriously. Bastards.

Even if it was afterpains... why not treat it? I just don't understand the rationale of not making someone comfortable when it's perfectly doable

I understand the pressures but there's just no excuse for some of the stuff I'm reading here.

Yes, I remember being in agony with afterpains and being told you don't get pain relief for afterpains

Why the hell not? As a previous poster said, there is no way men would be expected to put up with them.

There does seem to be a very Puritan streak running through maternity services whereby you must suffer, it is your place in life as a woman and you should know your place.

I did blame the midwives - they were not run off their feet, standing and sitting around chatting every time I saw them. In the NHS if you don't ask very assertively you don't get - I get that morale is low. I had a high risk pregnancy, going Private wasn't really an option. The NHS is limping along struggling to cope - on my last day in hospital I was due to check out after ward rounds in the morning - it took till 10 O Clock at night but I was determined to leave - hospital was hell...I did get an opportunity to discuss my experience with my consultant at my 6 week check - she asked what they could have done differently - I said care for mothers or let them have a partner or a friend stay because the staff don't do it. The only caring staff I came across were the Health Care Assistants - they were amazing!

I'm a midwife.

In my unit we happily give out oramorph and di-hydracodeine post-section, as well as paracetamol and ibuprofen. I encourage women to buzz for more pain-relief if they feel they need it as it's easier to keep pain manageable when taking regular analgesia, than let it build up and then have to throw everything at it with a lesser chance of it working.

I'll never forget a Labour Ward Lead mocking me when, as a student, I suggested di-hyracodeine for a lady just coming out of recovery after a section. She pretty much marched me to the oramorph!

I will say, though, it's incredibly difficult to give people the care we want to on the post-natal ward. On Labour Ward you give 1:1 care as standard, but on PM it's normal for us to have 3 midwives and 2 maternity care assistants for a full ward of around 20-25 women. And often it's only 2 midwives at night. We are run ragged, we don;t get breaks, we're exhausted and we absolute hate not being able to deliver adequate care. No one came into this profession to give crap care. Sometimes I miss being a stsudent as it was easier to spend time with women supporting BF, or helping them to mobilise. As a qualified midwife you only have the time to do that when the ward is relatively empty. The problem runs a lot deeper, it's at an institutional level. We need more midwives on the wards, so we can care properly for the women (and we need the bursary re-instated so we can recruit the best students, not just those who can pay, and midwives need to be paid properly so we stay in the profession, but that's another thread!)

I get what you're saying absolutely and I know there's struggles everywhere. My ratios have regularly been 2 nurses to 26 patients and mine are acutely unwell, immediate post OPs, ICU stepdowns, sepsis, obese bed bound folk etc etc, but I still haven't given my patients the attitude that seems to run through some maternity services. The attitudes discussed in this thread have little to do with actual time, but actual lack of compassion. It's rare I'm late with pain meds but if I am I apologise, I explain why I'm so late, let them know I understand why they're peed off. I don't come swanning in 40 minutes later acting like they should be grateful I've even bothered. When a service is so stretched something has got to give, but the actual basics of care should be a priority. I wouldn't dream of sending someone home without checking their surgical wound. Wouldn't dream of letting someone go without water because they couldn't mobilise yet, not assessing pain levels appropriately and dealing with them to enable optimal recovery. We can talk about staffing all the time because there's a major issue throughout the NHS but we cannot deny there's a horrible misogynistic undertone to the neglect woman have experienced here.

It does seem like we have to take our punishment doesn't it - even my mother talks about evil midwives in the hospital and how she was treated by them. I had a midwife who came on shift, came to my room and said bruskly - that she wasn't putting up with me in bed any longer and listed all the things she demanded I did immediately - she got a short sharp shift back - I told her I was a person who deserved to be spoken to with respect - actually I think I screamed back at her - she had to leave my room and come back in with a different attitude - it was written up in my notes as baby blues but it was not.

@PinguForPresident We are run ragged, we don;t get breaks, we're exhausted and we absolute hate not being able to deliver adequate care.
You sound lovely but I was not denied pain relief because my midwife was run ragged - I was in a high dependency unit room the midwife only had only me to look after and she refused to attend to my pain - my consultant was furious about the situation hence she assigned me an anaesthetist so I wouldn't have to beg the midwives for adequate pain relief. I truly felt that midwife had some sort of issue, there wasn't an ounce of caring or kindness in her - I had only ever bothered her for pain relief - so it wasn't personal but there was a bitterness to her.

I’m in Scotland and had an emcs last year, was given regular pain relief for the 3 days I was on the ward (blood clotting problems) was given the usual paracetamol and ibuprofen but also tramadol and was told by the midwife not to be s martyr lol I was in a lot less pain than my previous vag births. Reading peoples experiences in other trusts is jaw dropping

It's terrible. My dh got more care, looking after and medication after his vasectomy than I did after my c-sections. I'm terrified of having another unplanned pregnancy, I could cope with having another child but I can't face having another c-section.

@prequel

my wound was 'checked' 3 times over my stay. but this was them just looking at the masses of bandages stuck to it to make sure no leakage through.

i was advised to remove the bandage in the shower before i left (thank god i took that advice, i swear it was superglued on!! :-S )

but after removing the bandage no one looked at it.

sorry thats a reply to @prequelle

can anyone actually explain why the pain relief for a section is so mimimal but for other similar surgeries plentiful and actually helpful?

Because only women have to recover from c-sections... And women's pain and suffering is routinely dismissed and minimised? It's hard not to see that as the reason as I don't know how else to account for it.

Sorry you're having a bad time still op. It's so hard I've been there. Glad you're home now and better able to manage the pain relief (despite the ridiculousness of that).

Hope the community midwife is helpful. Can you see your GP about some proper pain relief as well? You shouldn't be left to just suffer through it.

The first week or so is rough as fuck - I remember feeling like I'd been cut in half and my insides were about to fall out... but it WILL get easier.

What I find baffling about this, is how the HCPs on here seem to think we should know what to ask for. Funnily enough, us non-medical people don't know the names of the drugs, when or what we should be asking for, so unless we are directly asked or prompted, how can we possibly be proactive?! What is 'common knowledge' to an HCP is not common knowledge to most patients. If you don't know what to ask for, how on earth can you access these pain meds?! Post c-section women are vulnerable, usually in pain and need support and guidance. HCPs should be our advocates, not policing our pain and judging what we deserve. It makes me so cross!

As an aside, DH is an HCP in another field and he always assumes I know stuff I don't. Maybe it's a trait of the profession? When I had my emcs under a general anaesthetic (following 24 hour labour, then induction, epidural and 18 failed attempts at a spinal) I was extremely poorly informed. I was told I couldn't go home until I wasn't having pain relief, so in my groggy, shell-shocked state I went a whole day without even paracetamol (DH had gone home for sleep and to sort the dog) then was told at the end that they didn't mean that sort of pain relief. I'd put myself through extra pain, like some kind of test, and I hadn't even needed to. If I'd been my normal self I'd probably have had the wherewithal to question it, or ask more about pain relief, but the overall attitude on the ward was that you do as you're told and don't make a fuss. Most of the MWs were great, albeit very stretched, but the HCAs were miserable and thought nothing of giving you a telling off!

I'm making sure I have the contact details for PALS saved in my phone before I go in and the details of the Chief Exec.
If I get any crap from any MW I'll be straight on to them and I'll tweet the whole world if necessary. They might want me to not make a fuss but I will. A benefit of being an older mum is that I am not afraid to challenge and I won't be told what to do by anyone. DH is equally good at vocalising his thoughts. I am told we are rather formidable. Good is all I can say!

I'm opting for the hospital where my step sister works as a nurse though - she is in a different building but can advocate for me too if required. There is another hospital slightly nearer home but I think I stand more chance of better treatment if I have someone on the inside!

@littleandoften

I'm a nurse and wouldnt expect a patient know which drug to ask for, infact sometimes that can be worse as it might not be the most effective for the pain they are feeling but since someone has told them this is what to ask for they can be sure. However, everytime I do a medication round (8, 12, 6 and 8) I would be expecting to give someone in pain paracetamol (which would pretty much always be written up regularly for someone in pain). I would also have a conversation about how their pain was and if they said they were in quite significant pain I would get something stronger (prescribed on a 'when required' basis) and then come back and hour later and see how their pain is. I would also be asking them again during their vital signs checks (around 10ish and 2ish). I would also guide them to their buzzer for anything they need inbetween these times. So while I domt expect them to ask for a specific drug at these times I would hope they would feel comfortable enough to let me know they were in pain.

I think a lot of it stems from the fact that it's generally a womans first time in the hospital environment and they dont know the daily ward routine etc. My poor SIL sat in agony because she didnt feel she could buzz..she 'didnt want to be a burden'. This is actually quite a common problem which is why I'm pretty regimented in discussing pain during each conversation with my patients. Someone had mentioned upthread that night time was often an issue but I absolutely would not wake a sleeping patient to discuss their pain. PLEASE just buzz and let me know!

@Jent13c everything you have said is incredibly reassuring, and I know there are many, many excellent HCPs out there. It's such a shame that it seems to be down to the luck of the draw as to whether mums have a positive experience or not.

The same happened to me OP, C-section at 10am ish, discharged at 9pm that evening after only having paracetemol all day. I was in too much shock, pain and exhausted after the 2.5 day labour and emergency section to kick up a fuss, but I look back and am horrified.

This thread is horrific. I had wonderful care in an NHS hospital post EMCS last year. Paracetemol and diclofenac given as standard, and we were routinely asked about our pain and told we could have stronger pain relief if we needed it. I was missed on one round as I moved bed, and when I buzzed they brought the pain relief straight away and were apologetic.

My EMCS was late morning, the standard was to move to chair after 12 hours but I was left til morning rather than get up late at night. We weren't allowed lift our babies from their cots for the first night, we were told to ring the bell any time we wanted them for feeds or cuddles, the staff did all nappy changes and also put the babies back down. The baby next to me spit up a lot and must've needed his bedding changed 4 times overnight, which the staff did cheerfully. My latch was checked at every feed.

Wonderful care, and frankly what should be available for every post partum woman.

I've posted once already but not reading the full thread cos I know it'll just make me even more angry!!! Is there anything we can do about this? Any campaign? I'm not asking for 5* hotel treatment on the PN ward but clearly with so many posts here, the care of many women post c-section has been absolutely shocking. Personally I would rather remortgage my house and go fully private than ever go thru my last post-natal CS experience again. But that easy for me to say cos I'm not having any more kids...

That's bad op. I had morphine on tap,cocodamol,diflafenic. Demand to be heard