ELCS experiences please!

[NinkyNonker]

Well, there is a chance that I may need to have a CS for various reasons. I'm not totally averse to it, but am a but unsure on a few things.

What was your recovery time like? DD will be around 21 months at that point, and I want to be able to cuddle her , pick her up eventually etc. I'm already worried about making sure she doesn't feel left out etc. My parents, MIL etc would be happy to help as much or as little as needed, and DH would be there as much as possible, work permitting.

Did it affect breastfeeding?

How did you feel afterwards?

How long were you in hospital?

Did it affect bonding?

Sorry for all the questions, I'm just trying to work through it in my head. I had a difficult labour with DD that ended in forceps, episiotomy, epidural etc etc and I'm over that, though I did have lingering physical issues afterwards. As such, I can see why perhaps a CS may be a good option for me, though on the other hand there is a part of me that wants the 'natural birth' experience, that I thought I'd have with DD.

Anyway, if anyone has any experiences (good and bad) they'd like to share I'd really appreciate it!

Hello

My ds (just 2) was born by elcs. It was a lovely calm and peaceful experience.

I was in hospital for 3 days and needed to take it easy for 2 weeks (off codeine in 6 days). I think i could have picked up a toddler after a week with care. I drove after 4 weeks and feel I could've sooner but I do have an auto.

I had tonnes of milk (although he had a Tongue tie) and was delighted with my lovely baby and straight forward birth so definitely no negative effect on bonding ( think a bad vb my have for me).

Go for it - much more pleasant place for stitches!!

It was much calmer than my EMCS first time. It was very relaxed and painless. No trouble bonding although found my milk took a bit longer to come. It took me two days to be able to wander to the loo, kitchen etc. And about a week before I could take a slow wander down the street. It is nothing to worry about

Positive experience here aswell

Had an emcs with DS1 and an elcs with DS2 - both were good experiences but the elcs was easier in that I hadn't been in labour for 24 hours beforehand!
Was in hospital for 2 nights with DS2 and was desperate to get home to DS1 - it was difficult with DS1 who couldn't understand why I couldn't lift him (he was 2.4 at the time) but that period was only brief and I think a lot of his behaviour was due to the arrival of his brother

Bonding - absolutely fine with both DC - having an elcs didn;t affect that at all.

Milk - could not breastfeed DS1 as my milk never came in so, assuming the same thing would happen with DS2, I chose not to with DS2 and of course my boobs swelled up like you would not believe a couple of days after he was born.

They are 5 and 3 now and I don't regret the choice I made to have an elcs with DS2 at all - it was a lovely experience, recovery was actually much quicker than with the emcs and, if we were to have any more, I would have no qualms of having a 3rd cs.

Mine was wonderful, and after a vb that sounds like yours.

I bf in operating theatre and walked around that night (with catheter.) Felt fine getting up the next day though could only shuffle about. I was in hospital two nights.

I took it pretty easy for a couple weeks but by 4 weeks could go on long walks and felt fantastic by 7 weeks and started jogging again.

Didn't pick up my 3 year old for at least six weeks though.

I had a very good experience (twice). Both were very calm and pain-free. I really had very little pain at any point - was up and around within a day. Probably recovered better with the first one because I had to stay in hosp for 5 days (premature baby) so I was forced to take it easy. Harder of course when you already have a child to care for so I would say try not to do too much heaving about of your child for the first week but I think that probably applies to anyone whose just been through the trauma of birth of any sort. Longer term recovery also fine - walking a mile or so within 10 days.

No effect at all on bonding. I loved being so present during the birth of my DCs and remember being wheeled into the recovery room with DD in my arms feeling like an absolute queen with my precious jewel! The only unpleasant bit was that I did get the shakes quite badly in the recovery room for an hour or so but I had plenty of people to help me hold onto the baby while she latched on so it was fine.

I struggled a lot with BF first time around but that was nothing to do with the CS - it was just really hard. Second time around was easy.

One tip - don't take trainers to the hospital. You won't be able to bend down to lace them up when you are ready to go home!

Ive just had my second section after an emcs 2 years ago. Can honestly say the elcs was such a calm pleasant experience ( not that my emcs was horrible just a little less calm due to it being an emergency). I had dd2 on the Thursday morning and was home on Saturday lunchtime. I'm breast feeding (we had skin to skin whilst I was being stitched up and she latched on in theatre with no problems. Milk came in 48 hours later. I have a 24 month old who my husband is bathing etc but i now feel ok to lift her if i need to (dd2 will be 3 weeks on Thursday) my husband is back at work next week and I feel confident that my cs won't hamper my ability to look after them.
Re dd1, it was easier to plan care etc once I knew the date of my elcs. Idid want a vbac but think the elcs I had more than made up for the disappointment felt at not being able to have a natural birth.

Thanks all, I'm only 29 weeks at the mo so a little while to go before a decision has to be made, but I'm trying to be open minded and pragmatic about it.

I barely remember dd appearing, and certainly didn't feel it so I'm not too worried about feeling detached from the baby cause of not labouring...and the thought of not having the panic and feeling of being out of control is appealing. While my labour and care could have been much worse, it also wasn't great. Even dh, normally ever the advocate for trying to do things naturally actually raised the topic in a positive light earlier...he personally feels more confident about an elcs as being safer as the risks are controlled and planned for. But he is leaving any decision to me, and professionals.

Tbh it is the recovery, and being able to be fully there for dd as well that I would worry about most. I'm still getting my head around her not being my only baby, my only focus. But I'll get there!

What was your recovery time like? I took a long time to physically recover, due to an infection in the scar

Did it affect breastfeeding? Ds was in SCBU when he was born so was tube fed, but we did manage to establish b'feeding with a lot of hard work, unfortunately a combination of mastitis, ds having a poor suck and the infection knpcked b'feeding on the head

How did you feel afterwards? dreadful, i was very ill with phlebitis (an inflammation of the veins), i had a reaction to some of the drugs used causing huge amounts of itching, i found the build up of gas unbearable, and personally found the whole thing so brutal that i felt like a woman cut in half. I also felt that I must be unbelievably crap to be finding it so hard, I think part of this was because I had only really read positive elcs stories before having ds, and thought maybe I was just handling it all really badly.

How long were you in hospital? 8 days, 3 in post natal and 5 in scbu with ds, who was born with respiratory distress syndrome

Did it affect bonding? no

I feel like I shouldn't put my experience down, because I don't want to freak anyone out, but at the same time, I wish i had heard from people that found recovery hard or that didn't feel great afterwards, because, like vaginal birth, there are good and bad cs, and it is down to lots of different factors. I had read the blurb about some babies having mild breathing difficulties, but unfortunately ds's were quite severe.

After getting home,i had my mum stay for a week and dh take a week off (we had a 3 and 4 year old as well), but in the end dh had to use all his holiday and take some unpaid leave, because i was a bit of a wreck.

I think that my elcs experience is probably pretty rare though!

Thank you for sharing that with me, I do want to hear both sides! I'm glad we've started thinking about this now, so hopefully I/we have time to make an educated decision.

Argh, why so hard!

hazeyjane, funnily enough I had phlebitis too. I had actually forgotten all about it till I read your post. Very painful although I don't know that it was to do with the CS rather than just birth generally. Apparently it used to be known as milk leg as it is so closely related to giving birth. No idea why. For me, once I knew it was phlebitis it wasn't so bad - it was the "has she/hasn't she got DVT?" that got really stressful. Once I knew it wasn't that it wasn't so bad - pain was not ideal but I guess it forced me to rest. I even ended up getting a night nanny for a couple of nights so I could sleep and not have to get up for the baby because I actually couldn't walk because of the phlebitis - she brought the baby to me so I could feed her and then she took her away. I was lucky to have that option.

Anyway, I think it's really useful to have another story on this thread. It's like normal birth - for some women it's tough but fine and for others it's torture and a lifetime of trauma. We all experience these things differently and every woman's individual story is valid. I'm sorry you had such a horrible time.

Ninkynonker (love the name, by the way!), there is no medical evidence that having a c-section has any effect on either breastfeeding or bonding. Both of these are urban myths, like the "not driving for 6 weeks".

I bonded with my baby immediately and was able to breastfeed in recovery.

I had a wonderful experience with my elcs, no pain at all, and the only uncomfortable bit was when they inserted the canula in the back of my hand. Having a filling at the dentists would be much worse. After 24 hours they told me I could go home, but I asked to stay in for 5 days - mainly because I had a 21 month old toddler at home and frankly, being in hospital was a breeze compared to being at home!

I planned in advance to take things very easy, my dh took 2 weeks paternity leave and I had lots of help from my Mum and friends. Maybe because of that I had an easy recovery.

My dds and ds s were born by a variety of means. IMO:

ELCS & Spontaneous vaginal birth with constant epidural (both good experiences 10/10) Worst experience - traumatic vaginal birth (pain relief denied)

In order of recovery speed : epidural birth quickest followed by ELCS and a long way behind the vaginal birth. Interestingly, the ELCS recovery was actually quite quick which surprised me. (Walking around after a couple of days and virtually completely ok after a week - bar heavy lifting). The traumatic birth did affect bonding for a while but the ELCS was calm and non traumatic so had no affect - very happy experience overall.

No affect on breast feeding - I was lucky and had no problems. Couple of tips though - do make sure you get and take the pain relief offered after the op and once the epidural wears off. It does make a massive difference. Ban any mates who make you laugh - laughing is excruciating for about 48 hours if not more. Also, make absolutely sure you get the anti embolism jab - you are supposed to get that but it sometimes gets forgotten.

I feel for HazeyJane though because it is rough luck to have a bad experience of ELCS when so many of us say how wonderful ELCS is. What a combination of bad luck ( or not very good care!) you had. Infection, followed by mastitis, phlebitis and the baby in SCBU! Not surprised you found it so hard. Hope you are recovered now.

Good luck NinkyNonker let us know how you get on

Thanks all! I am alternating between thinking it may not be such a bad thing for me, and flipping back to my 'I will breathe this one out on a cloud of fairy dust' orgasmic birth au naturel dream. However, I need something in my life I can control right now (house sale/purchase nightmares ongoing at the mo) so I don't think pinning my hopes on something like that, that I have no control over is a very good idea.

I had ELCS for breech. V smooth and quick, lovely and civilised op! They had to rip the placenta out of me, that was a bit violent and rummagey, but couldn't see obv as the screen was up. It had burrowed into the uterine wall 'placenta accreta'. Amazing to hear your baby cry 5 mins after the first cut the spinal was a bit ouchy, but nothing too major compared to your first birth!

I breastfed in recovery no problems, but was still numbed from the spinal so felt no pain. As soon as that wore off I was in absolute agony and couldn't find a comfy position to breastfeed. Research good positions beforehand is my advice - the bf counsellor was shite and kept banging on about latch, which was fine, I just kept crying out with pain because of the section wound! I found the aftercare absolutely awful tbh - was my first baby and I assumed that if I asked for help and support that I would get it - not so. I was in for 2 nights - should have been 3 but I was so traumatised that DH basically dragged me outof there as I was obviously going to be better supported at home. I found DH not being able to be there overnight hellish - couldn't reach over to pick up babe as had catheter, blood drain, canula and monitoring stuff all going on. The overnight staff were crap and didn't want to help at all - apart from one fab male healthcare assistant who was the most caring member of staff I experienced.

Sorry for rant, tis more about the aftercare than the surgery tbh but it did traumatise me I guess if it's your second it'll be less scary, you know what to dp with a newborn! Put your foot down about having babe passed to you if it cries - they rolled their eyes at me always wanting to hold him when he cried co-sleep if you can.

Oh and I got morphine as was in so much pain, but standard isjust ibuprofen and paracetomol. Morphine totally knocked me for six, but at least sorted the pain. Felt high as a kite though and ended up hyperventilating when trying (for the last painful time) to breastfeed.

I've had two ELCSs after an EMCS with DS1.

I had PTSD and PND after I had DS1 due to the labour and EMCS so was very worried about subsequent labours/births so opted for ELCS. I also never bonded with DS1 until he was months old and cannot remember at least the 4 weeks of his life.

My first EMCS was a dream, lovely and relaxed breastfed in recovery and my milk came in pretty quickly (sorry cannot remember timescale). Bonded instantly with DS2 and could pretty much look after him from day 2. I requested he be put in a bedside cot, which made him more accessible to BF without relying on the MW to get him out the crib his first 24 hours. I was in 3 days.

Recovery was great as well. DS1 was just over 2 years old and I could pick him up onto my knee/change nappies when DH went to work 2 weeks after DS2 was born.

When I had the ELCS for DS3 it was calm as well, but he had to be incubated for a bit because his breathing wasn't regulating and he was in SCBU for the first 24 hours due to expected infection.

I was in for 6 days with DS3, mainly because I wanted the stitch removed before going home as DS2 has ASD and at the time was very jumpy and would have injured me.

Recovery was about the same. Did not BF DS3 due to personal reasons.

I've had emergency section (after failed induction for pre-eclampsia/PROM), normal delivery (induction after intrauterine death), and three elective sections. Interestingly I had phlebitis antenatally with my first.

Did it affect breastfeeding?
No, my babies are all jaundiced (twice severely) & I had no problems breastfeeding, all were feeding within half an hour of birth & milk came in fully on third day.

I pretty much devote the first couple of weeks to establishing feeding - recovering from a section is a good excuse for sitting around doing little but feeding if you have pushy relatives.

How did you feel afterwards?
Bit sore but with the first two sections (one emergency one elective) I was fine with just paracetamol & voltarol. With my third & fourth I had horrendous after pains & needed opioids on the 2nd day. I was able to get up and shower on the same day that I had the section each time.

dh had two weeks paternity leave each time & I was able to manage fine on my own by that point.

How long were you in hospital?
First two times a week (for phototherapy) last two 2 days which was fine.

Did it affect bonding?
No!

My eldest son's birth (1st elective section) was the most mazing experience of my life, I can't imagine a better birth & I was elated for months afterwards. The next two were slightly shadowed by my loss but the sections themselves were fine :) I have very high risk pregnancies & had great continuity of care - I saw the same obstetric team for all three electives & was very comfortable with them.

After by 4th my consultant said my uterus was in good condition & another pregnancy wouldn't be a problem - we've decided no more because pregnancy is a nightmare but the sections were good.