Please come talk to me about C-sections

[Fishpond]

I'd like to hear from mums who have experienced it - if you could be so kind as to rehash any or all of what you remember of the experience, I would really appreciate it!

I'm having a planned C-section due to possibility of a bleeding disorder in the baby + low-lying placenta in a couple of months and don't know anyone personally who's had one, whether planned or emergency.

I'd like to know the process they went through, how long the actual surgery takes, when did you get to hold/see your DC and for how long, how long they take to stitch you back up, and what recovery was like, both in and out of hospital. Did you find it difficult to start breastfeeding?

Am in the USA so there will be some discrepancies with my experience I'm sure, but really would like to hear from you all!

Hi, I've had three, am going for fourth!

First, don't wax, they prefer to shave you.
Don't think about all the people in the operating theatre.
Discuss with your partner beforehand what he must do if you're in pain: once the epidural didn't work and the dr didn't believe me until I was crying, and once it fell half out of my back during recovery so I had no breakthrough pain relief. Your partner must accept that if you're in pain he must be your advocate as you may not be up to arguing with the drs.carrying on from this, tell everyone exactly how you feel when asked.
Don't feel guilty for needing help from the nurses and family.
If you think the catheter bag will make you uncomfortable with visitors, request they come in the evening (if you have it in the morning) or the following morning after its removed.
Ditto if you're worried about breast feeding.
Stay in hospital as long as you need to, not when they tell you to go.
Expect discharge but not as much as a vaginal birth.
Take pain killers before you need them, ask for more than they allocate you when you leave just in case, I ran out once.
Buy some good support undies a few sizes bigger. Or those tummy support bands that Velcro close.
Try to get up and move even if you're feeling slight discomfort.
Let others feed you and clean your house.
If you're not up to bathing the baby don't, or let grandma or partner have that experience so they feel involved.
Have sex when you want to (we did it the first day home but some wait 6 weeks).
Have nice pajamas for hospital and have your hair done the day before.
Buy groceries online have them delivered when someone else is home with you.

Hope I haven't scared you, I loved having my cesareans, for the first 2 I was home and back to normal in 2 days with no tummy sag!

If you're planning more babies, ask them beforehand to check your uterus while they're down there!

Sorry, should have said - I'm single, so will just be me, hopefully my aunt or sister will be with me during the birth but not 100% sure yet. And once I go home, planning to have 16-yr-old sister there for the first week, hopefully first 2 weeks as she'll be off school for the summer, but will still need to do a lot myself, and esp. after first 2 weeks will be on my own.

I'm just read your post again,

Iit takes 20 mins but you start the prep about an hour earlie.
They put the baby straight on you after a wipe down and your partner cuts the cord (takes literally 1 minute).
If baby is ok it stays with you from then on! they will just stitch you up while you're holding it and you won't notice. This part is longer than the delivery.
Co sleeping will help you feed if this is a possibility for you once you get home, it's a pain in the hospital when you have to reach over and get them out of the plastic "baby bed". Some hospitals won't let you cosleep in them.
Ask your partner to spend as much time as possible with you, you feel very lonely when you're alone!
Good luck, remembering this has brought back great memories!

I hope you're not feeling bad about being single, this should not concern the hospital staff or anyone else!
You can absolutely do this alone!!! Just buzz the nurse every time you want help without guilt.
It will be great if your sister can stay with you if she will help with cleaning etc (worst case scenario you are unable to).
I would definitely ask someone to go with you, even a good friend so you can reflect together.
The nurses will take photos if you ask them.

sleepless Thanks so much for your great explanation of your experience! I'm glad that you put in practical bits as well as things I wouldn't have thought of (i.e. discharge and the catheter bag).

I'm not feeling bad as such, just think the staff might be a bit nosey! I will def ask the nurses to take pics, especially as DS will probably have to be taken to the NICU for a check before I'm allowed to have him as he could have a disorder that would need attending to.

I really would recommend having someone with you, when I was being sewn up, I was on the verge of vomiting and if my oh had not been there, they would not have noticed until it was too late!
Don't be worried about the large number of people in the room, it is standard procedure with a c-section.
DD didn't get passed straight to me, oh and a nurse took her off and cleaned her up and then oh sat with her whilst I was stiched up, mine was an emergency c-section so not as calm as a planned one will be.
Really take it easy over the first couple of weeks and my lochia was just as heavy after the c-section as it was after my natural birth.

If there is a chance of him being taken off, do you think you could also rope someone in to go with him? I know that I would find it reassuring.

I hope my posts weren't insensitive to your situation.
Nurses can be nosey and judgemental, I've experienced this for different (yet similar) reasons!
In the same vein as being assertive about pain relief, prepare to be assertive if you encounter a revolting nurse! (or of you're a bigger person than me ignore them and just absorb your lovely baby).
You might benefit from having someone with you of you think you'll be nervous waiting for your baby's all clear, but when I think about it there will prob be nurses hanging around you.
I'm so excited for you!!!!

Frida That's a great point, if I asked my sister to stay with me for the birth they probably wouldn't let her into NICU as I think they have a No one under 18 policy without parent present. Another thing I wouldn't have thought of!! Will definitely try to get aunt to be there for the birth / going off with DS and then have sis in waiting room hopefully she can link up with me once I'm in recovery room.

EEEK about the vomiting!! I didn't realize that it was such a common thing to be nauseous, have seen it on quite a few threads about C-sections.

Sleepless No, of course not insensitive as for most of them you didn't even realize - there's always going to be all sorts of circumstances in every birth! My best friend is a labor/delivery nurse but I think she works the night shift so she won't be there probably for the actual delivery but she has said I can definitely request to have her when I'm in my room with baby so hopefully that will all work out well!

I have no proof of this except for conjecture but I'm pretty sure my vomiting was caused by the very strong anti acid thing they give you, as I had it twice during the course of the labour, once when they gave it to me prior to the epidural and once prior to the c-section. They might provide an anti-sickness thing, would be worth asking about.
I did find my milk supply was effected by the c-section but apparently drinking fennel tea can really help with milk supply problems.

I will add some more practical things. You won't feel pain but you will feel pulling and tugging. It's odd but not horrible just weird.

You will bleed after in the same way as if you had a vaginal delivery, naively this surprised me.

You might get trapped wind from all the rummaging about inside you, take some peppermint tea with you.

Take the pain relief for as many days as you need!

Buy some very high rise knickers for afterwards so as not to irritate the scar.

The baby comes out really fast, you will scarcely be aware that they have begun. It takes longer to stitch you up afterwards.

Remember, a cesarean section is a birth too not just an operation. Your little baby is coming into the world and it might sound strange, but enjoy it! A planned c section tends to be fairly calm so that's good.

Good luck

When they wheel you into theatre have a quick look up at the lights and the light surrounds. I've had two c sections and halfway through the first I looked up to see my insides reflected in the highly polished metal which surrounded the lights! I got a bit of a fright. When I had my second I looked up as I was being wheeled into theatre and saw that the light surround in that theatre was matt black.

At our local hospital they let you choose a cd that they play while the operation is taking place. I don't know if this is standard practice everywhere though.

bumping

Fresh flowers ( of which we had loads after birth) made me sneeze so badly..... Bin them as soon as you think you're sneezing more than normal... I felt like I was going tear in half.
I'd recommend buying the biggest, longest pads available and folding them over the top of your knickers to stop them irritating your stitches/scar. I wish my midwife had told me this a week before she did.

More practical things for post cs:

• Shower gel in a bottle with a hook!
• Sports cap bottle for water, so you don't have to sit up to drink
• Massive pads
• Slip on shoes
• Soft trousers with wide waist bands - like pilates pants or yoga pants. I found that maternity stuff "under bump" meant "on the scar".
• Dried fruit to get things going "down there" and not put too much pressure on your scar.

Mine was an emergency section but a very calm one.

Everyone else has covered most of it I think! For me the worst bit was having the catheter put in my hand - I ended up with a gas and air mask clasped to my face to relax me enough so they could get the needle in.

I did feel queasy on the table but they tilted it a bit more and I felt better.

There were 3 anaesthetists, the registrar, a junior Dr assisting her (who was a family friend), midwife and then a pediatrician popped in to join the fun.

My Lo was fast asleep when she was born because of all the drugs in me. It could of panicked me but she was completely fine, just very chilled out!

They had me out of bed 12hrs later - liquid morphine is the stuff of gods :-D but it was great being up and about.

Recovery wasn't nearly as bad as I'd been led to expect - I was moving around well after a couple of days, and driving after 3 weeks.

Good luck!

Get mobile as soon as you can after.
Don't do any more than you are comfortable with.
Take any and all pain relief offered. I had DD in the ME. I could either have paracetamol or morphine. There was no middle ground.

Not sure about the advice not to wax - my experience was certainly not that they prefer to shave you. I had a full Brazilian done just before in case of a section as I didn?t want some nurse attacking me with a bic razor! Also imagine the re-growth - frankly you will be uncomfortable enough without have to deal with itchy re-growth from a poor shave! As it was I had a EMCS and it was fine. Good luck.

All I would add is that there is a great website that has some really good pointers in it www.csection.org

From my own experience I found that the more preparation I made the more confident I felt. I read a lot before my first caesarean and that really helped me feel positive about it. I talked through the whole process with one of the registrars so that I knew what to expect.

The only thing that really caught me by surprise was how important it was to get the pain relief medication on time. I was rather clueless about that and assumed they would stick to the schedule and it was only when I noticed I was behind by sometimes as much as half an hour that I realised I had to keep track of it myself. I have since discovered it is really important to keep on top of your meds as once behind you never truly catch up.

There is also a really useful book all about preparation and recovery from a positive standpoint 'caesarean birth: a positive approach to preparation and recovery' by Leigh East. If is on Amazon.

Good luck

I have a question re c section recovery too. How quickly am I likely to be able to walk my kids to school, pushing a 3 year old & newborn in a buggy (normally an approximately 15 mins brownish walk)? I know everyone is different but just trying to get a handle on how much help I'll need to get for doing the school runs & for how long. Also, how quickly could you drive again?

Obviously not a brownish walk, should read briskish Though there are frequently dog turds to avoid

I had an emergency c-section, but it was fairly calm.
Good point above re discomfort, it wasn't painful, but it wasn't terribly pleasant either - sensation of tugging and rummaging!
DD was taken away very briefly to be weighed/wiped a bit, but was then put immediately on my skin and tried to feed, she was quite alert (despite me having had all the pain relief going, including pethidine). We were able to bf fine, I had a few problems with getting latching correct but it did resolve after a few weeks and one nurse encouraged co-sleeping in hospital (not sure if she was supposed to..).
Sitting up was incredibly hard for the first few days and I did too much around the house (DP was being an arse) so the wound got slightly infected - so try to take it easy if you can. I was driving again within a couple of weeks, but think I may have missed the advice about leaving it 6 weeks.
Take pain relief and watch out for constipation - the first post birth poo can be a bit traumatic.
You gets lots of the same post birth issues as with vaginal deliveries - my feet were so swollen I couldn't get my shoes on to get out of hospital.

Just letting you know my experience. I had an emergency section so had very little time to prepare, but it was all very calm.
The op took no time at all, in fact I didn't even realise that they had started until the screen in front of me started shaking. I had a spinal and felt nothing at all during the op. Also afterwards, the spinal didn't wear off until much later so I had no pain in recovery.
I was very shaky afterwards and also vomited a few times. My partner held dd whilst I was stitched up, and I held her in recovery. I found breastfeeding very difficult and never really got the hang of it. I don't think the c section was the main reason for this though.
I was out of bed the following morning (had the section late evening) and I felt fine. I took paracetomol and voltorol for about a week afterwards and felt very little pain.
I was able to do most things independently straight away - just avoided lifting heavy weights (like dd when in the car seat). Felt totally back to normal after 3 weeks.
Hope thats helpful to you, good luck

buns If have had 2 emcs. First time I was up and about, walking etc 3 weeksa anfb driving after 4 weeks. Second time, if could not stand long comfortably for nine weeks, but was driving after 7. Re driving, speak to your car insurance people, they may have rules about how long to stay ofgh driving after abdominal surgery.