Are elective c sections painful during the operation?

[ScreamIfYouWantToGoFaster]

I've just been watching OBEM and the woman who had the elcs looked as though she was in pain when the doctor had his hand inside her and was pulling out the baby. I know the recovery from an elcs will be painful but I'd always thought that the surgery itself wouldn't hurt, given the epidural/spinal. Can anyone who's had an elcs please tell me if they felt pain during the operation?

i had an emcs and i couldnt feel anything, no tugging, nothing. i had my rubbish epidural taken out and a spinal put in. however the spinal made me feel incredibly sick and because the block is so high up i felt like throwing up but literally couldnt because i had no control over the muscles. they gave me an injection for the nausea but it made no difference. i couldnt cough, or gag, or talk properly to express my discomfort, so i closed my eyes and tried not to pass out, and missed the whole holding the baby up thing. it quite freaked me out because i totally wasnt prepared for it. the whole thing was a blur and i scared dh half to death cos i was so distressed and out of it.

i didnt see my ds for half an hour after surgery and was too scared to hold him for another 45mins or so after that cos my arms felt so fuzzy i was scared id drop him. the only reason i didnt miss him being weighed is because dh asked them to wait, so instead of weighing him in the theatre he was weighed in the recovery room, about an hour after he was born.

i didnt find the recovery too bad and was up and about after 3 days. but i was quite upset and a hormonal cow for at least a week or 2 because i felt like id missed his birth. i missed hearing what sex the baby was and we have photos from theatre of dh and the midwife holding him and i felt like i may as well not have been there.

not trying to scare you OP, just wanted you to realise that pain isnt the only possible issue when you have major surgery, hopefully then you will be more prepared than i was. i was so out of it from gas and air and exhausted that i dont remember anything they told me before i signed the consent form.

Ineedadollar - good to "meet" you - I have never met anyone else who knows what it was like. For me having them acknowledge it afterwards and say sorry was enough. Did they find out why yours didn't work?

flamegirl is right about birth partner. I had now-ex and he was fairly ineffectual...

flamegirl thanks for the suggestion. I'll actually have both my independent mw and my DH in the theatre with me. DH isn't particularly fond of standing up to authority figures, but that's part of the reason why we have an indep mw and I hope she would intervene if I needed someone to argue my case.

teabaggy that sounds incredibly stressful! It must have been such a frustrating experience. I think emcs sound quite different to elcs though, and often they're alot more complicated from what I've read online and heard from friends/family in RL. So I'm hoping issues like that are much less likely when you haven't been through labour / had gas and air / had a failed epidural / aren't already exhausted before surgery even begins! I feel very bad for you having to go through that though!

I felt a bit weird during mine but had DH talking me though some "visualisation" things that I had prepared for the birth (mainly along the lines of running and finishing a race). I hated the feel of someone rummaging but it didn't hurt and was over nice and quickly.

I was very shakey afterwards but that soon went off.

ALso I was madly itchy as I had a reaction to the morphine.

Having said all of this, it was totally fine and although it was a bit achy the next day, I was up and about, in the shower etc and it felt as if I had done a super hard sit ups class. Was driving in a week, had no problems lifting etc.

Would 100% go for an elective next time (was emcs the first)

I had ELCS .... It was lovely. Zero pain and all very calm. I could feel some pressure as my DS was being pulled out but that's it. It was very exciting in the moments before he appeared...'

I had 2 sections. The 2 nd was done with a spinal block and felt no pain at all.

The first was an emergency done with an epidural and it did not work - won't scare you with details but a GA was required halfway through.

Go for a spinal !

It was fine Dd was a crash section but as had spinal block in was awake felt nothing

Ds3 was bit more planned had spinal felt but odd but not painful at all . I did ask what would happen and was told any pain they would use a GA

Oh you poor thing. Don't panic! It shouldn't hurt at all.

Mine was an EMCS (so less time to prepare etc than yours will be) and it still didn't hurt. They'd already given me an epidural as I was trying to labour naturally and when they realised they'd need to do a CS they calmly took me to surgery, calmly topped up my spinal, calmly sorted the room etc. I can clearly remember my DP saying "see, everything must be fine, all these docs are so calm"

The anesthetist spent a long time checking what I could feel by spraying cold water on various parts of my stomach. I could still feel it for what felt like ages so he kept going, spraying, adjusting, etc. I was panicking it was taking too long as I knew DS needed to get out, but he just kept reassuring me and making sure it was right. DP told me later that there was A LOT of eye contact between the anesthetist and surgeon - he got the impression that if the spinal wasn't working quickly enough or it became even more urgent then they'd have given me GA straight away (in fact, he thinks the anesthetist had it in his hand ready to give me if he needed to)

Once they'd sorted that, I honestly felt no pain at all. The anethetist stayed at my head and kept talking to me, checking I was okay, etc. I could feel tugging, but it wasn't uncomfortable, just weird iyswim.

Like an earlier poster said, I probably looked like I was in pain though. That was simply because I was knackered after a long labour, scared about the baby and feeling a bit overwhelmed.

Honestly, no pain and because I knew it was to get my baby out, all of the other stuff didn't matter. Again, for an ELCS rather than an EMCS, this should be even more controlled.

I hope that reassures you

Oh and after dd I was in shock but that was lot of reasons she was also in scuba but pain did hit after drugs wore of and the injection was bliss but was up and moving within 48hrs

Ds3 no injection needed after couple paracetmol giddy day nothing needed after that < hardcore > infact we both went home within 48 hrs as Dt said ni point us being there

No pain in the slightest - not even a tugging sensation - and due to a problem with my placenta I was in there for nearly 2 hours. In fact the most painful bit of the ELCS and its aftereffects was 5 days later when they still hadn't removed my stitch - that was ouchy.

i had an ELCS and felt no pain at all. I had a spinal and they tested it by running an ice cube down the length of my body. I felt a bit of rummaging but it's not something that i realy noticed as my DP was holding my hand tightly telling me how proud he was and how well i had done (although i hadn't really done anything !) after 5 minutes your bubba is pulled out and you don't notice anything else from then on - lol, they could have changed into fancy dress and started singing and i wouldn't have noticed. And also i would like to add, the theatre staff were fantastic. They worked as a real team, so calm and professional. As soon as i walked in i felt utterly reassured that i was in good hands.

The pot surgery pain was also managed really well. I think i was on morphine for about 12 hours and then just paracetamol for about 4 days - may not have needed them for that long but didn't want to find out!

I hope it goes well for you.

I had an emcs, which is rushing but not panicking if that makes sense? I already had an epidural in so they topped it up and kept checking it had worked by spraying me with a cold spray that made me scream when it hit bits that weren't numb.

I felt tugging. It's weird. I dread to think what I looked like.

The epidural started to wear off about half way through. I pretended I was ok because I didn't want a ga. when I finally came clean with the anaethestist, as baby was out, they gave me about 3 extra pain killers and I was off my head for the last 20 mins or so.

What was really painful was the doctor massaging my uterus about an hour after the op when I was in recovery. if they come to do this to you I'd ask for gas and air before they start as I found it excruciating without but manageable with.

Good luck :)

Please be reassured OP that it is incredibly rare for the woman to be able to feel pain during a section, can't find stats but really, it's so unlikely.

I had a ELCS and it was so lovely and calm. (Postnatal ward was shit, but that's a whole other thread!) Anaesthetists were lovely, talking to me constantly and reassuring me. I felt nauseous at one point and they immediately put something in my drip to stop it. I could feel tugging, like others have said, but it was ok. Just felt like someone was rummaging around inside me doing the washing up! I felt really dizzy afterwards, but I lost a lot of blood during the op, just under the 2 litres when i would have been given a transfusion.

As feeling gradually returned, I didn't feel any pain in the sense of a stabbing, been cut-open pain like I was expecting, just intense discomfort. They keep you well topped up with painkillers afterwards though

The best thing is how quick it is! The worst bit was having the spinal injection, but even that wasn't too bad. You'll be so focused on the fact that you're about to meet your baby! Once you're all prepped, it's literally five minutes then you hear your babe's first cry.

I had an emergency section with a spinal. No pain, could feel tugging and pulling but that was all. Puked the whole way through it though which I wasn't expecting. Didn't help when the surgeon said 'her bowel's on the table, pressure may drop!'.

I had an ELCS for my 5th baby (breech). It was lovely. I didn't feel anything, not even tugging, so was quite to hear a baby cry. I'd been worried about afterwards but they keep you on painkillers so I felt better than I did after my 4 normal deliveries with cut/ tear and stitches. At least you can sit down after a section.

I had an EMCS with a spinal and could feel absolutely nothing, no rummaging/tugging at all and the anaesthetist was fantastic. Checked very thoroughly that I couldn't move and couldn't feel the ice cubes between my feet and ribs. He also was very clear that if I could feel anything approaching pain that I just had to tell him and he'd have knocked me out straight away.

I'm hoping my elective in three weeks will be as 'comfortable' as the EMCS. The recovery was not really painful either.

I was surprised about out low my last spinal was but i guess the corresponding scar is low on the front.

I have had 2 CS, no pain at all during the procedures.

I didn't even feel tugging etc. Marvellous experience!

Had one today. Calmer experience with no more drugs and less time on procedures than when had dc1 by ventouse with epistotomy and assisted third stage.

I was squeamish and nervous but no pain and no more gore (in fact less) than normal delivery.

Dunno about healing but tbh I was wiped out in first month with dd so not sure how this will compare.

I watched OBEM and was surprised to see her wince during her c-sec.
My ELCS was lovely and painless; all I felt was the rummaging. The recovery was pretty easy too - no pain to speak of, just a bit of discomfort getting in and out of bed.
The midwife on OBEM said that some mums feel they've missed out by having a section. I didn't feel that at all - the birth of my baby was the best day of my life; so emotional and special.

I don't watch OBEM, but the wincing may be due to the weird sensations, not actual pain?

My ELCS was great - painless, if strange, and I felt very safe and looked after. Lovely atmosphere in the theatre. I was prepared for strange sensations, and they are strange! but all I felt was a lot of tugging, no pain. I do understand that someone else might find them more strange and alienating or something than I did.

With DD1 it felt like someone trying to pull up a suctioned plunger rather than rummaging and certainly no pain. I found out afterwards that she was actually a forceps CS so i guess they did have to tug a bit harder. DD2 was less plunger like, but still some tugging - i guess that was what OBEM lady was wincing at?

I had spinal's with both and had loads of checks to ensure i couldn't feel any sensation at all before they started.

Good luck with it and i hope yours is as calm and positive as mine were

Neither my EMCS or planned CS were painful. Lots of tugging and I was aware my stomach was being jiggled about as they wriggled the baby out but it didn't hurt.

Just before they started my EMCS I remember the surgeon 'testing' my stomach for pain response and asking me if I could feel anything. I was lying there looking at the ceiling and told him he wasn't doing anything . It was only a few days later I looked at my stomach and noticed that they had stuck a few needles in my stomach in various places to test for pain before they cut me open. They didn't do that before my planned CS, presumably because they had time to set up the spinal block properly.

I liked my CS's, the theatre staff were chatty and I was asking them what machines I was hooked up to. I also liked lying on the bed afterwards and trying to wiggle my toes, I think they came back to life about 5 hrs later.