Pain relief following caesarean

[Benjy]

I am due to have a caesarean in two weeks time. I've been told I will have a spinal and then morphine afterwards for pain relief. I am a bit concerned about how morphine may effect my baby. I had problems feeding DC1 partly I think because she was so drowsy in the first few days from my choice of pain relief. Will morphine make DC2 too drowsy to latch and feed or am I worrying unnecessarily? Are there other forms of pain relief I could ask for that would be a better option?

I had morphine after an EMCS with DD2 but was told after my elective with DD3 it wasn't given as course anymore - could you check that this is what they're going to use?

I managed fine without it after DD3 so there are other viable alternatives if you feel strongly about it

I had a meeting with the anaethetist last week and was told I would be given a spinal for the op and then offered morphine once that had worn off. Do you not what the alternatives are?

Sorry, that should be know not not

I can't remember what it was but will ask DH once he's home from work as he will remember

certainly had paracetamol/co-codamol and diclofenic/volterol (sp?) at varying stages

I had an EMCS in November and had a spinal and then codeine. I thought DD was a bit drowsy so I stopped taking the codeine after about 3 days and took paracetamol. It was painful but then it was going to be anyway. We're still bf now so the 3 days of drowsy-ness didn't put her off. The codeine didn't make her too sleepy to latch though, she's never had a problem where food's concerned

agree with Chulita on the feeding too, DD3 turned 1 a few days ago and she's still bfeeding

They gave me a morphine suppository after both mine (em cs and planned cs).

DS was a bugger to feed, he was the em cs cs. But DD was a doddle.

I was on morphine for 4 days following my em cs, then voltarol for 3 weeks.

After the planned cs I only needed voltarol in hospital and paracetamol after 3 days then stopped at day 10. I took it very easy after the planned cs partly because I didn't want to take loads of painkillers.

Meglet it sounds like we had very similar experiences and thank you for showing me how to spell voltarol properly

I was on morphine for 24 hours after ds1 and felt completely out of it. With ds2 they gave me intravenous paracetamol (for 24 hours) and that was great. In both cases once the drip came out, I had diclofenac, paracetamol and dihydrocodeine in abundance. To be honest though, in all probability the aneasthetist will have certain analgesics that they are more comfortable with than others and I'd be a bit cautious of interfering too much, but it could be worth discussing if you know who your aneathetist will be.

I had an elective C/S 12 weeks ago and it was absolutely fine. I had an injection of morphine in theatre and then one dose of oral on the ward. Made me feel hot and woozy so didn't have any more, but I didn't need it anyway. I had paracetamol and diclofenac for 2 days, then dropped the diclofenac. By day 4 I didn't need anything at all.

I had problems feeding DS but that was nothing to do with the drugs, it was an anatomical problem. He certainly didn't seem noticeably drowsy - quite the opposite!

Had emcs DD1, afterwards had morphine on a push button=get drugs machine which i used merrily. Had some tablets as well IIRC. DD fed in recovery room and well after that until 14mo.

elcs DD2 4 weeks ago they said they only give morphone with emcs so i just had paracetamol, co-didromol (sp) and maybe something else. One was a suppository (sp again!!). Baically I took everything they offered me. DD2 was fed in recovery room and has been fine ever since as well.

Both times had diclofenac and codeine/paracetamol to take at home after and took as prescribed, BF was fine.

That's just my experience, I know I have been pretty lucky. But just to say that it can be fine and often is, and if you are in pain you shouldn't feel bad about taking the drugs.

I've had 2 emergency C-sections and I do not remember being given morphine but I do remember having a suppository with the first and i think I was given something through my venflon the 2nd time round in theatre so maybe that contained some morphine.

After that wore off i just used the dicolfenac and co-codamol. I found the diclofenac the best and often did not take the co-codamol when offered.

Had difficulties with breastfeeding my first but they was due to latching difficulties rather than drowsiness.

My second had no problems and we were BF as soon as we were in recovery.

I had morphine after my cs - had general anaesthetic rather than spinal. I was in a lot of pain when I regained consciousness and was grateful for the morphine. I used oramorph 3 times that week when the pain was really bad (usually at night - was also getting bad after pains from expressing) and I found it worked well enough to enable me to get a few hours sleep. I don't know much about the effect on babies as mine was in the neonatal unit but the m/w told me they don't prescribe anything that will have an adverse effect on babies.

Hi I had emerg section 4 weeks ago was given paracetamol and diclofenac to take for 7 days. No pain at all. Babe was alert at birth and latched fine but quite drowsy / sleeping for next 12 hours or so. I think most babies are atfter birth anyway though. My dd1 was laboured naturally no drugs but was also similarly drowsy. Being born must be quite tiring!

had spinal block for cs then only paracetamol after. was bloody sore, but meant DD wasn't affected by drugs when bf. Midwife offered codeine on a particularly bad day but they said I couldn't take it regularly due to potential bf issues, so I just stuck with paracetamol. Fine in the end..