Elcs s Emergency section

[Userrr141]

Asked on pregnancy forum gt some positive responses but also suggested i ask here:
I may need to have a c section but im worried about the recovery. If i try vaginally first i may end up needing an emergency section anyway. My boss said recovery from an emergency section is worse because of the trauma your body has already been through in labour. Can anyone give me an idea of recovery from elcs? How many days in hospital? When able to get out n about etc ... i have a toddler already and dont want to be in hospital too long.

I had emcs for my dc3.
Dd was born near midnight. I staid in the hospital that night and the following night, left at noon after so 3 days and 2 nights. Could of been less if they didn't make me labour first.
My recovery was without complication and quick but I had a lot of support.
My dh took holiday for about 1 week and my mother came from overseas for 3 weeks and took care of me and my family. I remember first week was very painful. By week 2 a bit sore but fine. I did children school runs with the car by 3.5 weeks.
I thought my csection was great.
My advice to anyone contemplating c section. If you think that you are very likely to end up with csection may be consider having planned csection, your recovery will be better that way.
Be mobile as soon as possible, that promotes healing. Your milk may come later than with vaginal birth but it is still going to be fine for breastfeeding.
Make sure you plan a lot of support. Have help from friends, relatives. My mum friends helped me with school pick ups / drop offs before I could drive as my mum could not drive in the uk.

I had an emcs with DD at 23:10 on a wed night
Was up out of bed and had a shower and took the dressing off 18 hours later.
Was in hospital 6 days but a couple of those days was waiting on test results to come back so me and dd could go home and it dragged over a weekend
Went out and about on small walks within a few days of coming home but struggled pushing the peak on anything other than flat ground but that was fine after another week or so
No problems with the wound healing but I still have numbness now some 5 years later

All in all it wasn't that bad

I recently had a ELCS and all being well they plan to discharge you after 24 hours in my trust. I had a couple of issues but I still came home on day 5.

This was my second ELCS and although recovery took a bit longer than the first time I was back to feeling human after 5/6 days, I felt much more myself after two weeks and was back to normal within 4 weeks. I made sure to really take it easy and during Dh's paternity leave he looked after our two eldest and did all the housework and I just rested and looked after DD2. It definitely helped my recovery.

I don't have any experience with an elective but I had DS by EMCS in April after I'd already been in labour for 5 days! It was awful! I got to 9cm and couldn't go any further so had pretty much all of labour aside from pushing and I was exhausted. Having to recover from that as well as the section was like being hit by a bus.

I don't mean to scare you but it's extremely rough on the body to go through even just some of labour and then have major abdominal surgery as well! Additionally, with an emergency section, they are usually more hurried and pull your insides about a bit more as getting baby out is more urgent than if you have a planned section.

I was in hospital for 4 days after my EMCS as I couldn't manage without morphine and once I was home, a lot of things were physically very tough. My wound/scar healed well quite quickly but I couldn't drive for 5 weeks and even just walking was very painful for a few days.

I would say if you have a choice of an elective, go for it! Much more relaxed and I imagine you'd recover a lot quicker.

I had an emergency c section april last year after a normal birth 2 yrs before. I felt i had recovered quicker from c section than natural (had to get snipped and stitched quite a bit after natural) i had my section and baby born at 6pm friday night and i was home by 12pm on the sunday afternoon and that was really cos my little one had to stay in 24 hrs due to gestational diabetes. I am due again in August and they have told me that will only be 16 months from last section they recommend a c section again and i am now booked in for 6 wks time. I think will be better this time cos i wouldn't have laboured before hand.

I had an elective c section back in November. We had a pre op appointment a few days before where I was given tablets to take beforehand, fitted for the super sexy compression stockings and just given a run through of what happens and asked if I had any requests etc.

We arrived at the hospital at 8am on the day of the section, I had to fast from midnight the night before, we were shown to our bed, given a gown to change into and then it was a case of sitting and waiting for my turn to roll around. Once it was time we walked down to theatre, husband went off to change into his scrubs while I had my spinal and catheter done. Not too bad, things went numb pretty quickly. While they are doing the actual op you don't feel any pain but you do feel some pulling. It's a bit like someone is having a good rummage around in there and then there's a baby! You can ask to see them lifted out, we had delayed clamping and skin to skin as soon as it was possible. The longest bit was the sewing up afterwards. I think I was in theatre for about an hour and a bit all told. I had a PICO dressing which was amazing. Ask about that. Then it's through to recovery where you can have more skin to skin, give the first feed and be monitored. Then it's back to the ward! And you can eat!

I was kept in bed till the next morning, a dr came round and checked that my guts were rumbling etc, catheter out and then it's time to stand up. Won't lie, not fun BUT once you do it, it gets easier and it's so important to move around, it will help your recovery so much. I went in on the Monday and was home on the Wednesday, the car ride was, interesting, but not terrible.

Once you are home don't do too much, rest when you need it. Take the painkillers. Better to take them when you don't need them just yet than to wait till you really do. After about a fortnight I was feeling pretty good. Listen to your body, take up offers of help and don't push yourself to far too soon.

Keep the incision site clean and dry. When you get out of the shower use a hairdryer on the cool setting to get rid of moisture. I used cut up squares of muslin cloth tucked under my belly next to the scar too whick away sweat and things. You could use a pad if you don't have an apron belly like me. Speaking of pads! When you have your first poo you can press one against the incision. It helps.

Errr I can't think of anything else. This is a massive ramble, so I hope it helps!

My 3rd child was emcs. She had been breech but was 'successfully' turned so I went into labour naturally however she got stuck. It was very painful and I felt out of control. Much worse than two previous straightforward births.
I was in hospital for 2 nights (blood transfusion the first night). She was born on the Tuesday late afternoon. I did the school run (with DH) on the Friday morning. Older children were 3 and 5 at the time.
I drove after about 4 weeks.
Looking back I wish I'd elected to have a planned cs. I didn't want to because of recovery with two young children as well as a newborn but with hindsight it would have been a much quicker recovery had it been planned. For one thing I probably wouldn't have lost half my blood during surgery and also wouldn't have been exhausted after labouring and pushing.

To add to the above, an emcs can be quite emotionally traumatic (at least it was for me). Once they decide to take you in to surgery it all happens very very quickly and as mentioned above, there is much more urgency.

Thank you everyone these have been very helpful. I see my constultant again in a few weeks and definitely feel i have a lot more real insight now. Some great tips too. Are scars above or below nickerline?

I forgot about knickers! Belly warming granny knickers are your friend. Bikini cut will irritate the incision.

The scars are fairly low. They might need to shave the top of your public hair off to do the ELCS. But after that big, high waisted paints, up to your belly button, for a few weeks.

I've had both.
Emcs with DD after v long labour, failed interventions, the whole works. I was knackered and the first few days weren't pleasant, was in a lot of pain and exhausted. But after that, recovered quickly. Felt more or less back to normal after about 10 days.
Strangely my elcs with DS was in some ways harder. The actual operation didn't go as smoothly, although that was mostly DS's fault. He was a planned section because he was in a really unstable lie and was flip flopping about all the time, including during the delivery, which I wouldn't have thought possible.
But he turned and got stuck and it took really quite a long time to get him out. DH was watching and said the doctors just couldnt get him to come, they eventually dragged him by one foot. Then (and I've no idea if it's linked) I had a massive pph. So I was in theatre for about 3 hours in the end while I got sorted out.
Recovery was better than with the emcs, was up an about in a few days. I stayed in hospital for 6 days with both, but could have gone home sooner if it weren't for baby related tests.
Definitely big knickers, also deflatine or peppermint for trapped wind!