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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

c-sections

250 replies

Lilsquish · 27/04/2019 22:18

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.........

OP posts:
CatchingBabies · 28/04/2019 13:14

@darkstar4855

Nope what you describe relates to codeine in pregnancy. It should not be used at all when breastfeeding. Feel free to read the evidence.

breastfeedingnetwork.org.uk/wp-content/dibm/codeine%20and%20brestfeeding.pdf

CatchingBabies · 28/04/2019 13:18

If you read the whole article you will see babies have died due to their mothers taking codeine and in 2013 the guidelines changed to not give to breastfeeding mothers at all. I suspect some people saying they had it were before this date. Now we go straight to Tramadol if regular analgesia isn’t enough.

LegoCake · 28/04/2019 14:26

Oops I definitely had codeine 2014 Confused

Paradyning · 28/04/2019 14:26

Yep I had codeine. And had an informed chat with my anaesthetist about it last week.

Prequelle · 28/04/2019 14:39

I don't know much about drugs and breastfeeding because I get women wayyyy before they get to that point but its not an absolute contraindication as a previous poster said and it was considered the safest of the opiate family to use - until a single baby died and then guidelines were changed. Its not safe and should be avoided - used only as 3rd line if all other analgesia exhausted - but can be used with caution and informed of the potential effects.

Paradyning · 28/04/2019 14:49

Thanks @Prequelle. A sensible post!

CatchingBabies · 28/04/2019 15:06

@prequelle Is the baby being closely observed and mother warned of potential risks when people are advising the OP around “sneak it in” and take it without telling anyone?

One baby died yes where codeine was established at the cause, there were more cases of babies (12 if I remember correctly) dying from SIDS where codeine could have been a factor but wasn’t absolutely proven to be.

Prequelle · 28/04/2019 15:10

catching all I am saying is codeine is to be avoided but isn't completely contraindicated and breastfeeding mums DO take it under advisement (and not just in an inpatient setting). I am of course not saying OP should have it snuck in and take it without staff knowing Hmm

SihtricsHorseWitnere · 28/04/2019 15:21

What's utterly shocking and shit is that people feel compelled to 'sneak it in' because they are being left without proper treatment after major abdominal surgery. Fucking medieval.

Breastfeedingworries · 28/04/2019 15:22

Okay thinking about it advising anyone to sneak in medication isn’t wrong. It just saved my bacon and I don’t regret it. There are risks with all sorts of medication. I spoke to a doctor about it and they said I could take it for migraines too that I suffer with now. So I take it as and when and I’m still breast feeding.

Breastfeedingworries · 28/04/2019 15:22

Is wrong, not isnt*

Breastfeedingworries · 28/04/2019 15:24

At my lowest point queuing with a bowl for a blood and crying my eyes out it helped me. It is awful they don’t give us strong enough medication, and sometimes people aren’t even breast feeding, so I don’t know why they aren’t allowed it.

SihtricsHorseWitnere · 28/04/2019 15:25

Okay thinking about it advising anyone to sneak in medication isn’t wrong. It just saved my bacon and I don’t regret it.

Because these women, who are patients, are, from this thread alone, not being offered sufficient pain relief. I certainly wasn't and had a vaginal delivery.

Gratefulbeyond103 · 28/04/2019 15:27

This is part of the reason I went back home to have ds. I also had to have a CSec and was not happy with the pregnancy care you get here. You stay a minimum of 4 days after a csec- pain is very well controlled and you are taken very seriously. Nurses offer so much assistance with the baby, watching them while you recover.

You have a lactation consultant to help you establish breastfeeding. You also get physiotherapy. These are routine!
Prenatal care is also excellent- ultrasound at every single appointment etc.

Sorry I got sidetracked but am upset on your behalf. What a joke op- ask for something more. Tell them you need it after major surgery.

Wurkit · 28/04/2019 15:38

I had sevredol with my first and then had my second in a different hospital where I was given paracetamol and sent home the next day. It was very painful! I did find getting up and mobile was the best thing for me personally. It seemed to take the edge off the pain.

I can remember, having sat on the couch for most of the afternoon one day not long after DC2 was born, trying to get up off it was an ordeal!!

bonzo77 · 28/04/2019 16:29

Sometimes I thinks it’s a punishment “you took the easy way by having a CS. So now it’s your turn to feel the pain”

SihtricsHorseWitnere · 28/04/2019 17:44

Hell, a lot of times you're not even offered food or water. 'Get up and go get it' then get told off for leaving your baby. Sorry, but the attitude towards many women who've just given birth is appalling. I had no idea I had to get up and go and get food when I had my first, much less knew where to go, not that I could because I had a forceps delivery with epidural and couldn't feel my legs when I was transferred to the post natal unit. I was in a private room, staggered and crawled to reach the toilet as my legs were still unsteady and I needed to pee (no one answered my buzzer), then got told off for leaving the baby unattended in her cot. Fuck off.

IratePanda · 28/04/2019 19:02

I was given Morphine for 12 hours after mine, but then only paracetamol and Ibuprofen until I asked for something else as it wasn't touching the pain. This was in November, I believe it's to encourage you to not be reliant on painkillers, and get up and about. Easier said than done. I tore my skin open from scratching on the morphine, and had to wait 8 hours for cream despite asking multiple times. They also went 28 hours without giving me my insulin.and then asked me to lie to the diabetes team in regards to checking my blood sugars. All in all, women are treated awfully after giving birth, and most are practically turfed out the door. Ask! Don't let them fob you off. Most of them wouldn't suffer, why should YOU?!

Shootingstar1115 · 28/04/2019 19:06

I was sent with paracetamol 1 day after both of mine. Paracetamol didn’t really make a difference to be honest. I coped with my first but with my second I had horrid bruising around my legs and pubis (which didn’t have with my first) and I’m sure it was More painful than the actual scar. The dressing was stuck onto the bruising and it pulled like a t**t. It was agony. My gp prescribed more stronger drugs are taking DD to her 24 hour check.

Curly01 · 28/04/2019 19:32

I was given paracetamol, ibuprofen and tramadol after both of mine and also given tramadol to bring home! That is shocking that they have only given you parocetamol

SihtricsHorseWitnere · 28/04/2019 19:36

They also went 28 hours without giving me my insulin.and then asked me to lie to the diabetes team in regards to checking my blood sugars.

FFS! They could have bloody killed you! I hope one day you can put in a formal complaint about that!

SihtricsHorseWitnere · 28/04/2019 19:48

I think a real issue is that nowadays some of the midwives have not been nurses. It's also not a surgical unit even though some of the patients are just that, post surgical (including those who have to go to theatre for surgical repair post partum). Never saw much if any monitoring of the CS mums or myself after a complicated instrumental delivery like regular obs, much less the kind of aftercare post-surgical patients receive in all other units. I mean, expecting a patient who has had surgery to get up, queue for food and carry it back to her bed a few hours after major abdominal surgery or colorectal/vaginal surgical repair is barbaric.

Hell, they allowed a woman who had been delivered by EMCS early due to eclampsia and who had been transferred to a major hospital to get up alone and leave the unit, make her way to the NICU to see her son, didn't clock that she was missing for 7 hours, and she was found dead of a brain haemmorhage in a disused stairwell where she'd obviously wandered on her own due to be gravely ill just last year in Edinburgh.

How does this happen if they'd have been properly monitoring that patient and her blood pressure?

bakingdemon · 28/04/2019 19:52

I hear you. 0745 the morning after I had EMCS, barely any sleep. I couldn't reach the call button on my bed (thanks to EMCS couldn't twist round to get it) so struggled out of bed at 3am to plead for help to feed my screaming baby. Was snapped at but she did come and move the button. So come the next morning I am in agony and press the button. I ask the midwife for some more painkillers as I haven't had any since the previous evening. "Oh our shift is about to change so you'll have to ask the next shift". It was over an hour before I got anything. Typing now makes me want to cry about it all over again.

sighrollseyes · 28/04/2019 20:01

I had my c-Section on Friday morning - was out of bed by midday. Had oral morphine overnight and home Saturday afternoon just paracetamol and ibuprofen since. Everyone is different.

Prequelle · 28/04/2019 20:02

This thread is making me sad, and a little bit scared.

I'm pregnant, will be giving birth in the hospital I work at (it's only a few metres from my own ward!). Heard very good things about delivery suite but not so much labour ward :(

The midwives are probably fab and I'm just heading the bad things.

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