I was the first in my childbirth classes to give birth, and two other in my group were going to have a C-section, too, so I wrote this for them. Hope it helps others!
BEFORE THE HOSPITAL
- Pack massive (I mean massive) granny pants that are 3 or 4 sizes too big. I bought size 22 pants! M&S, Primark etc do cheap packs - they don't need to be nice and they don't need to last, so the ones costing a couple of pounds for a 5-pack are fine. Smaller pants will rub on your scar, plus maternity pads can be huge, you need something that goes right up to your bellybutton.
- Bring 1-2 extra pillows. They're useful for everything, breastfeeding, putting between your knees if you're on your side in bed, pressing against your scar when getting up from bed etc.
- Bring your own towel from home, it makes you feel better. And hospital towels can be rubbish.
- Either get a brazilian wax a few days beforehand, or at least shave all the top bit yourself. They will dry shave you otherwise, and no one wants that :-) Removing the hair makes it really easy to examine / clean / wash your scar later, and also I don't want to imagine what removing the sticky bandage would be with hair down there. Getting waxed instead of shaving just means there's no itching or regrowth to worry about for ages.
- I don't believe in homeopathy but I do love a good placebo effect... So many people swear by arnica pills, I believed it might work just enough that I gave them a go. It made me feel like there was something I could do to promote scar healing. It felt nice to be taking them for a few days beforehand and also in the days after - like a little ritual. My scar looks good and healed nicely but I have no idea whether it was because of the arnica! Probably not, but it certainly made me FEEL better, and that's what matters.
- A few days beforehand my hospital brought me in for a blood test and an MRSA test. If you test positive for MRSA it doesn't mean you're infected with anything, it just means you carry it on you. It's not bad at all, the operation will still go ahead - it just means they will probably give you a private room. There is no increased risk for you and your baby or for your partner - a lot of people walk around with MRSA on them all the time! It's just a precaution. You will be able to have visitors / breastfeed / do everything as normal.
- They also give you pills that you need to take the evening before and on the morning of the op - they're to prevent clotting.
- Last thing is they will furnish you with a lovely pair of flight socks for the op (to prevent clotting again). Do try them on / check the size when they give the socks to you to check they're right for you.
- Pack a nightie rather than pajamas, as it'll give nurses easier access to your bits when you're in bed. Also you will have a catheter put in, so that's much easier with a nightie.
THE OPERATION
- Do check what time slot you're scheduled for, the time you can last eat / drink will depend on it. It will be either last meal at midnight if you have a morning operation slot, or at 6am if you have an afternoon slot. The lady who talked to me messed up and told me I could eat until 9am, which was hours too late! But I had eaten so little the op went ahead anyway.
- Lots of people (doctors and nurses) who will be there during the operation will come in and introduce themselves beforehand, they're all lovely. There will be A LOT of people in the operating room, that's normal.
- Review the birth plan with both the anaesthetist and the surgeon when they come and introduce themselves, so they know what you want - music, baby put on your shoulder, etc. Depending on the hospital some things are not possible (skin to skin, partner cutting the cord) so do clarify it all beforehand.
- Ask the anaesthetist to explain how / what you will feel when she gives you the spinal block or epidural. It's good to know what the sensations will be before you experience them.
- You can probably have music in the operating room if you want to. Bring your own speakers.
- Do remind them to lower the curtain to see the baby coming out if that's what you want, my crew almost forgot!
- You probably won't have skin to skin in theatre as it's quite cold in there, but your partner can definitely hold the baby in place on your shoulder / chest while the doctor stitches you up. They will ask you to have a nappy, hat and babygrow ready to put on your baby in the operating room.
- Stitching takes a LONG TIME, but since you probably will be looking at your marvellous baby and talking to them, time will fly.
- You can breastfeed / have skin to skin as soon as you're in the recovery room. You probably will be about an hour in there until they move you to the ward.
AFTER THE OPERATION / STAYING IN HOSPITAL
- You will feel like a you've been run over by a truck, starting a few hours after the operation, and probably at least until the end of the second day. You will recover surprisingly quickly though, as long as you REST.
- Get a private room if affordable / available. You'll be struggling enough the first few days without having to deal with other mothers talking / snoring / stressing out and other babies crying not at the same time as yours.
- The nurse will probably take out your catheter the next morning, and they will suggest getting up and having a shower - do it do it do it. You don't think you can at first but it's the best thing you can do. The quicker you start walking, and the more often you walk, the better you'll feel. You won't do more than shuffle around the bed at first, that's fine.
- You can take off the flight socks as soon as you're walking around regularly. Bring some nice slippers from home.
- Bring a sports bottle to drink from as you won't want to sit up to drink!
- Ask the nurse for tips about how to get in and out of bed, as you won't be able to use your abs. Basically, try never to twist your waist. To get out: from lying on your back, roll onto your side by moving your legs and torso at the same time (no twisting). Bend your knees. Then push yourself up with your arms while your legs go down on the floor at the same pace (no twisting).
- They told me to take off my own bandage two days later, and suggested I do it under the shower. I did it in front of the mirror instead so I could see what I was doing. It left a LOT of black adhesive residue above and under the scar, which no amount of washing could remove. I should have asked if they had anything to remove the residue at the hospital, but I didn't think about it (and they didn't suggest it even when they were inspecting my scar). The midwife who visited me at home suggested olive oil to remove it, that didn't work either. In the end I ordered some wipes called Zoff over the internet, that worked like magic.
- The stitches I had were actually a single strand of wire, with a plastic bead at either end of the scar. There was a bit of wire left loose at one end, that I was worried would get caught in stuff (it didn't. Big pants!). The scar looks better when the stitches are removed, and it feels better too (a lot less tight). They remove the stitches after 5 days, when you're at home.
- You probably won't be able to poo for a few days. Do ask for a prescription of lactulose to help you along if you need it. It'll probably stress you out even just thinking about pooing, so anything that can make it easier is good.
- For the same reason pack some prune juice / Floradix to drink during your stay.
- Also drink orange juice for the vitamin C, it helps with scar healing.
- If you feel pain between your shoulder blades, it's actually trapped wind! So drink some peppermint tea. It will make you fart, one of the many, many ways in which the whole c-section week is massively unsexy, but you will feel a lot better. There was a room in my ward where partners / visitors could make you tea and toast at any time, so turn it into a peppermint tea factory.
- The food at the hospital is usually not good. Get your partner to bring nice stuff that cheers you up at mealtimes.
- You probably won't be able to handle visitors for more than one hour, or more than two people at a time. So don't plan visits back to back in the early days, and tell most people to visit you at home after you come back, not at the hospital.
- Ask for pain relief if you need it, even if it's not the time of the usual morning / evening drugs round. Just buzz for it. Do NOT sit there and just think you can wait for another hour or two. All it will do is make you exhausted because of the pain. Pain free = fast recovery.
GETTING READY TO GO BACK
- They asked me the day after the operation how I felt about going home (!). And the answer was hell no. Don't feel pressured to come back home because they ask you, just do it when you can / want. I stayed 2 nights, 3 would have been good too. It does feel very nice to get back home though.
- Do not go back with only paracetamol and ibuprofen, if you feel you need more than that. In the hospital they might have given you a LOT more than that right up until you leave. I knew I would need something stronger to help me sleep through the first nights at home, as turning in bed / twisting was so painful. In the end they also gave me 30mg dihydrocodeine pills which turned out to be way too strong, but I took them anyway as I needed them (even though they made me trip!). Maybe ask for diclofenac instead if you need something strong. Either way - ASK if you feel like you are still / could still be in more pain than ibuprofen can handle.
- Getting discharged takes ages, just add 5 hours at least to whatever time estimate they give you.
- Get your partner to call up a cab (or whoever is giving you a ride) after they discharge you, but a LONG time before you start packing, as otherwise you'll be waiting for the car at a point when all you want to do is sit down and get home.
- They won't let you go home without a baby car seat (unless you live next door and are walking back).
BACK AT HOME
- TAKE YOUR PAINKILLERS EVERY 4 HOURS for the first few days. Do not wait to feel pain before you take them, it'll be too late. It took me 10 days to be painkillers-free, the first few days I wouldn't have been able to function without taking them regularly.
- Nap whenever you need to / whenever you can.
- Even making tea is tiring the first few days, let your partner / family do everything.
- The hospital will give you some syringes to inject yourself in your thigh every evening, to prevent blood clots. It's one of these pre-filled, just-aim-and-press-the-plunger things, so there's no way you can mess it up, but I'm just saying that so you are ready for it psychologically :-) Press hard on the injection site for a few seconds with your thumb after you have removed the needle, that helps prevent bruising.
- The community midwife will come and remove your stitches after 5 days, it just burns a bit but really nothing bad.
- Take a shower every day, but don't use soap on your scar. Then after that lie on the bed and air your scar for a good 20 minutes until it's nice and dry. Do that everyday and it should heal nicely.
- People also say you can take baths with a few drops of tea tree oil in it to help it heal, I did it but have no idea whether it worked. At least it smells nice and makes you feel like you're doing something to help it along.
- Rest as much as you can. It took a few days for me to be able to walk around the block without needing a nap right afterwards. You will recover quickly if you rest all the time.