help please sister having caesaran on Monday and really wants to bf

[Snarf02]

hi my sister was hoping to have a natural birth but her baby is breech and so she is having a c section on monday (baby will be 39 wks and they have said a very good size), because the baby is early she is missing the 2 nct bf workshops she was going to have before her due date. She really wants to bf but is more anxious about it now because of the caeseran. I have bf(still bf second) both of my children so can give her some advice but i had nice natural labours in a birth unit and had lots of bf support so the early days will be quite different to what i had.

If you have any advice for her to help with the bf after a c section it would be really great

Thanks loads

The caesarean should make no difference to her ability to bf. Someone should be around to help her get started once the baby's born.
I'm presuming she's having an epidural and not a general anaesthetic.

She'll probably need someone to pick the baby up for her for the first few days but otherwise she should be fine.
I had a CS with DS1 and a natural birth with DS2 and bf them both successfully.

i had a c-section and breat fed for 6 mnths! made sure i got skin to skin as soon as i could and off we went. should make no diff to her ability to breast feed-she needs to ask the mid wives for help too. Hope it all goes well

she should ask for an in fact, insist on skin to skin contact as soon as possible, and let the baby come to the breast.. she should be able to get help from the MWs if there are enough around. loads more info if you search the archives

best of luck to her !

*and in fact!

I have had 3 CSs and spent 4.5 years breastfeeding. Deffo possible!

I had 2 sections had no problems with bf either of them .. reassure her that it doesn't matter at all .. the midwife will help baby latch on after the op .. and both my babies knew what to do

she will just need to be happy calling a nurse to pass her the baby for the first 12 hours

after 24 hours she'll be helped up on her feet

it's not so bad honestly

I had a cs (also for a breech baby) and am still feeding ds 2.4 years later!

He didn't feed properly for around 36 hours and lost a lot of weight, but I have no idea if this was anything to do with having had a cs or not. I wasn't clued up enough at the time to have skin to skin straight away and he didn't seem that interested in feeding when I tried about an hour after he was born.

Luckily none of the staff in the hosptial actually came to ask if he had fed or not, so I was left to it and once he got the hang of it then there was no stopping him!!

If I were to have another cs, I would have the baby in bed with me from the word go. I found it very difficult having to wait for the nurse to come and lift him for me.

Best of luck to your sister

I had a cs and am still bf now 15 months on!

But tell her not to worry about missing the NCT courses. To be honest I don't think anyone can tell you much about bf - except for something like lulumama's succinct words above- until you're there. But do tell her to ask, ask,ask for help when she is, as that's what made it work for me!

She'll be fine. In a way, it's quite nice - in my experience of exactly the same circumstances - because the midwives in hospital will lift the baby to her when s/he's needing a feed then that encourages them to hang around to make sure the baby latches on/you're ok etc.

Having the baby with you in bed is good advice, tho, especially during the night. I remember those first few nights with dd so fondly.

Then after 24 hours she'll be up and can even have a shower etc.

I had a c-section and bf for a year. DD was put to breast about 45 mins after the section and then I had great support from midwives who really did help me latch on, esp the second night where I just couldn't do anything to get it right, but that was probably from 2 days worth of epidural and a couple of jabs of morphine!

The only difference is that milk generally comes in after 4 days so tell her not to worry as baby will still be getting lots of nutrients from the colostrum.

Good luck to her!

it sounds like a pointless expense, but a cushion will help. i was unable to bf ds after my cs (nothing to do with cs, everything to do with rubbish mw's and me being ill-informed) but found the l-shaped cushion i took in was fab for resting ds on and felt that my scar was protected.

I have b/fed after 2 sections. Try the Kellymom website for excellent info on feeding.

thanks for all the messages, my sister also wants to know when will she be able to pick the baby up herself as she has heard from someone today it could be a while and she is quite distressed by this

Thanks for all the messages of support i will forward this link to her

x

It should only be a day or two.

iirc it was a couple of days, but the mws will help as much as possible. have also heard that arnica helps recovery too.

well she'll be immobile for about 12 hours .. and won't be helped to feet until about 24 hours

she will be able to hold him as soon as stitched up

and actually pick him up as soon as she can reach him .. so within 24 hours

I had one emergency cs, one planned cs (both with general anaesthetics). With DS it was twelve hours before he was brought to me (he was in Special Care) but I had absolutely no problems establishing breastfeeding. With DD it transpired much later she had tongue tie which caused problems which were not related to the cs. I found that initially putting a pillow across my lap made feeding very comfortable. I only needed to use it for a few days.

I had CS under GA -and was awake after 45 med and fed ds straight away. He was VERY sleepy after and did not feed again properly till the next evening.(They checked his blood sugar -pricked his foot and he didn't even stir!-and it was fine) It was not easy then to establish bf -he suddenley decided he was starving and not satisfied with my milk! Didn't get a huge amount of help-and as it was 11pm they chucked dh out who was helpful! Screaming baby/ward of people trying to sleep-I gave in and did top up with formula.Within a week we were established with only breast milk and kept up with exclusive bf till 6 months. (If i did it again would not have topped up but it worked at the time so not too upset about it).
I was up and doing all changes/pick-ups etc by 30 hours after birth(unlessDH there) and was out of hospital 48 hours later (by choice). Good luck to her. Hope all goes well.

45 mins not meds

I had a c-section and had no problems at all. In fact, the general consensus in the breakfast room on our ward was that the c-section women had a much faster recovery time! My son was born 16 months ago and he is still breastfeeding...

I had a planned cs for breech baby and I have successfully bf for 5.5 months now. Tell your sister she'll be fine. As for picking up the baby, I'm no expert but I hear a planned cs is much better than an emergency, I was able to pick my baby up the same day. On the maternity ward I had a little cot attachment on the side of my bed and I could pick ds up out of that the evening after my cs. I could pick him up properly (ie standing up and picking him up from his cot) the next morning. I'm sure she'll be fine.

The problem I had with picking DS1 up was that he was in a cot next to my bed which meant stretching over the reach him, putting strain on my newly-slashed and stitched abdominal muscles

I breast fed both dcs, both caesarians, started off lying on my side, baby lying next to me in bed. Did need the usual help with latch etc from bfeeding support staff and/or midwives. But it can be done. And milk doesn't really come in for a day or two, and by then your sister will be walking around, gingerly!, and sitting up.