If you are having a caesarean....

[danceswithmonkeys]

I've just made up a 'hints and tips' list for my friend who is having a caesarean soon (I've had two) if you want me to e-mail it to you let me know!

It was mentioned earlier but if you are booked in for a section definitely take pj's into hospital. When i had my first child I took short nighties in to wear (what was I thinking!) I obviously thought that as soon as I gave birth my stomach would be flat again and I would look fabulous in short strappy baby doll type nighties . When I had my second child I had a planned section and knew from experience that I shouldn't wear nighties so bought some new pj's. After the birth I was taken up to the ward where my DH helped me change out of the hospital gown into my pj's but what i didn't realise was I would still have a catheter in so pj bottoms were not an option. So there I was in a tiny strappy top (when will I learn!) and no bottoms. Got to admit the nurse had a giggle when she came to get me out of bed for the first time to walk me down the corridor

After the twins had made their 'planned exit via sunroof' (as DH put it ) used a C-Section gridle, sort of medival looking thingy that you wrap around and velcro tight; sits just below your bra and comes down to mid bum. Was slightly uncomfortable but made me feel so much more secure as it protected the scar and sort of 'kept everything in'.
Believe it to be thanked for the fact that I have no overhang and have flat tummy.

some brilliant tips on here...
massage scar gently will help break down scar tissue, but follow what your body wants.
I bf lying down-still do mostly, am v lazy) ddrink lots of water, get up and walk about v slowly, bent double at first, yes, then straighten slowly as much as you can, ie when you go for a pee go for a walk.
baby won;t need washing and fiddling with if you don't want to yet, just lie in bed and cuddle. make sure tv working and lots of batteries for the remote at home for sitting resting and bf with water and snacks handy imo best bit
big pants that come up and over your bump mothercare do lovely (pricey) ones
arnica tablets
get out of hospital asap, refuse visitors if you don;t want them , stay in bed with baby if you like, you have had MAJOR SURGERY so sitting about bonding with your baby is the best thing. still wish we had asked in laws to postpone their visit and also was braver at saying give me my baby back!
good luck!

I really wish I had read the bit about the coughing baby after c section before I had mine.I screamed the place down in a complete blind panic,the noise my baby was making sounded as though she was choking to death and I just screamed HELP HELP .When the nurse came running she was really cross.I felt shaken for days after,didn`t help!

That's really interesting about the formula, my DC2 was c-sec and she was screaming all night and i had nothing to feed her - did you have to take it in yourself? or do hey have some there?
In the end the midwife took her for an hour to let me sleep.. but didn' manage to settle her.

I am loving the no hoovering advice

Two more tips not yet mentioned:

1. ask them not to weigh and measure the baby until you're out of surgery. I missed this stage with DS but made sure that I was part of the whole 'she weighs HOW much?!' party with my 9lb 9oz DD.

2. post-birth skin to skin contact triggers a 'must feed' response in newborns, but that is of course problematic if you're still being sewn up. But don't worry, turns out it doesn't have to be mum's skin - dad's is just as good! DH took DD off whilst I was being repaired and stuck her up his shirt; she nestled quietly for 10 mins then started trying to eat him alive, as if a switch had gone off! She then latched brilliantly onto me when I came out. And it gives the dads a genuinely useful job to do.

Really listen to your body and if you feel like something isn't right, tell someone and keep telling them until they listen!

I had a cs with DS1 at 33 weeks. The first few days afterwards, I was too ill (due to pre-eclampsia) to walk anywhere and didn't hold him for first 54 hours as he was in SCBU. When I was able to get out of bed I had a lot of pain. It got worse and worse and weeing was like passing broken glass. I told the midwives and was told to move around more, to walk up and down the corridors etc. Even putting my feet to the floor was agony.

I kept telling them I thought something was wrong and eventually (five days after surgery) they ran some tests. I had a UTI and two different uterine infections.

You know your body better than anyone so don't be afraid of looking stupid for speaking up if something isn't right.

Had an Em CS and had been so so sure that I was giving birth naturally that I had no idea what to do or expect.

No issues with pain or constipation at all. Didn't even need paracetamol.

All turned out ok tho. And as for BFing, I was only able to have DDs cheek resting at the top of my boob while they were sewing me up and it still triggered the rooting reflex. So no worries there.

However wish I had known about big knickers that didn't dig into scar - DH had to visit big knicker dept in M&S several times to get it right

Wish I had known about the terrible wind - had trouble for months with that.

If you want to have immediate skin-to-skin, put gown on back to front so that it can be opened and baby can be put straight to your breast. Explain to staff that you wish baby to be placed their immediately and they can examine baby afterwards, unless of course there is something obviously wrong.

Don't let anyone tell you c-sections lessen your chances of breast-feeding. This is absolute tosh.

I've had 3 c-sections - 2 emergency and 1 elective and agree that lactulose is your friend. Don't leave hospital without it. Constipation is not fun!

Big knickers a big must. Also drink lots of water to keep hydrated.

Take all the painkillers they give you.

And the other thing is that even though you won't want to you should get up and move about. It really does speed up the healing.

Going back to the original list, re the itchy face..

Allergies to meds causes an itchy face, so make sure to tell your care team if you experience this.

I had an itchy, burning & very red face for 24 hrs after my section. My friend is a nurse at the hospital & said it is a common reaction to the morphine in the spinal & my care team told me to avoid it in future.

In the pics taken by friends/family in the early days I have sores on my face for itchy so much!

So don't just write it off as one of those things!

Babies don't need anything more than colostrom for the first few days and it's normal for them to want to feed all the time even if it feels like they're not getting much. Their tummies are really tiny at that stage and all the suckling is encouraging your milk to come in and is soothing to them.

Having said that... having a c-section can delay your milk coming in because of the trauma to your body. So, if you feel like your milk hasn't come in after three days then get in touch with a lactation consultant because if formula supplementation is needed they can help you do it in a way that won't compromise breastfeeding and to encourage your milk to come in.

My milk did not come in until 8 days post section and if I had had a warning I would have found those early days much less stressful.

I also had the trapped gas thing - horrendously painful and there is treatment you can get to ease this so definitely worth mentioning it to the nurses!

Even if the scar looks scary to start with, it heals and fades incredibly quickly if you look after it.

There are LOADS of medics in scrubs in the room with you - don't be worried that it's because there is something wrong. Particularly good to know if you end up with an emergency section; can be a bit of a shock going from a calm (?!) room with a midwife to a bright room full of people.

Don't look up into the big silver light thing above the bed if you're squeamish - it works a bit like a mirror!

Painkillers were mentioned earlier. I'd just like to add that you might be palmed off with co-codamol if you ask for codeine. This didn't touch it for me. Seperate codeine tablets mean you can have a much higher dose. It'll make you feel completely out of it, but better that than writhing in pain....

Rather than big pants I got a pack of those disposable incontience pants with built in pad. They were amazing and totally right for the job - they come up really high over the scar and are very soft - it's all gathered with elastic, like smocking and the bit between your legs is all pad so you don't need to worry about leaking out of the side or a stick-on pad becoming dislodged. Also once they are done with you just rip the sides and pull them off - you don't have to bend down or raise your legs to get them off.

What I didn't realise is that when you are expressing milk, your uterus contracts - I thought I had split an internal stitch or something - so yeah, any 'twangs' while expressing are normal.

Eat branflakes for breakfast.

The hospital I was in gave us a pain cocktail of two different painkillers and peppermint water for the wind which was brilliant. I didn't need morphine.

Oh and those yoga trousers with the very very wide waistband that can be folded up or down - keep it folded up so it goes right over the scar.

Don't spend £20 on a manicure with polish - they will make you take off the beautiful polish as one of the ways they monitor you is by your nails .

If you're having an elective then consider whether you want to have the screen down. We had it up for first one, which meant that I couldn't hold her and felt pretty cut off from everything. For the second we wanted it to be more relaxed so had the screen down and music playing. Surgeon explained there was a chance I'd get splashed (which I didn't) but if you're not squeamish then it's worth a go.

In the delivery room afterwards I had to insist that the baby was tucked in and given skin to skin. The nurse was a pretty lazy bugger and wanted to wait until we got back to the ward (which I thought would have been too long and would have missed the 'golden hour' after birth). She snuggled for quite a while (the baby, not the nurse) and then had a mammoth feed and fell asleep. That got feeding off to a good start. I agree with previous comments about getting good help with feeding. There are some amazing bf counsellors who can really make a difference. Sadly, there's also lots of bad help. Anyone who makes you feel like a failure or like shit should be ignored.

Think carefully about visitors on the day. I said yes to visitors and wished both times I'd said no. I was spaced out on morphine, I looked a state and I just wanted to be with my family.

Don't accept help that isn't helpful to you. If you want friends and family to do a bit of washing up then fine. If you want them to sit and hold the baby so that you can get up and have a bit of a gentle sort out and a shower then that's fine too. Tell people what you want them to do.

Get someone to bring you decent food while you're still in hospital. I was desperate for decent fresh fruit, rather than a bruised old banana that seemed to be the standard on offer. Not sure how you're meant to recover from surgery and nourish a baby on the slops they serve.

If you can afford it then hire a cleaner for a couple of months afterwards. If you can't afford it then ask for it as a present (split across a few people - 2 weeks should be £20 max) or ask someone else to give your house a once over every week for a while. Personally, I can't sit there and let it go but if I know that once a week the floors will be done and the bathrooms given a good clean then I'm happy.

Take all the time you need to just be with your baby and do very little else. If you have older kids then they will be ok with you being on the sofa a lot as you'll be around for them and not rushing around doing everything. You'll be able to read to your older children and just chat. Let other people do the fetching and carrying and running around the garden.

That said, if you feel ready then you don't have to wait 6 weeks before you can drive. I checked with my insurance company and they said that whenever my GP gave me the go-ahead I would be covered. I spoke to the GP and she said that whenever I felt ready she would give me the go-ahead. I was driving after a couple of weeks and felt fine to do so.

If your scar splits then your insides will not fall out. I genuinely thought this would happen .

Phew, that was therapeutic.

Mean 1 week should be £20.

Not sure if this has been mentioned earlier, but you can't wear any jewellery, incl earrings, wedding rings; and if you wear contact lenses they have to come out.

The best advice I got in terms of healing was to get on my feet asap, was up and walking (very gingerly) in the evening just a few hours after my DTs were born.

This is a fantastic thread - wish I'd been in the know before my first C-section (almost 10 yrs ago!)

Can I just nicely disagree with an early point from Dancingwithmonkeys?

Please don't give the baby formula, as it probably will disrupt BFing.

I had 3 c/sections, and the best thing I found was to buy a nice big pregnancy pillow (?) which helped to put the baby in the right position for a feed, and not nearly as uncomfortable on your tummy, as you could just relax, instead of having to hold the baby up.

I second the pillow. It made things much easier. Best thing I had there.

I also second what last poster says about formula, but that's a very personal decision. I wish I had had my SIL's consultant who told her to just relax and the baby would feed in a couple of days (which he did, and then some!), than half a dozen midwives offering formula (which is what I had and totally disrupted us). For the poster who asked, formual was very freely available in my hospital

Also, to comment on your original list, I found baths very unpleasant (stingy on the scar and hard to move around confidently) for weeks after the operation (and I usually love them). Might not be everybody's cup of tea.