C section recovery

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I had to have an EMCS with my first daughter due to my labour not progressing, I am now expecting my second daughter. I have a planned ELCS booked in 9 weeks weeks time. After I had my daughter my lower back felt really achy and bruised, I felt like an old lady who couldn’t stand up straight especially around day 2/3 after having her.
Just wondered if many other people have experienced this to prepare myself.
What was your recovery like and how long did it take?
I’m feeling apprehensive as I have a very busy 2 year old this time around so won’t be able to take it as easy as the first time around.

I’ve just had an ELCS and my understanding is that they are generally easier to recover from than an EMCS. For me the operation was very calm and a happy experience which I was not expecting. Do bring your own music as it helps personalise the experience. My recovery was as follows: day of operation - I asked for a top up of the spinal meds after the op and this gave me a pain free day to bond with baby and feel my way. I look back on that day really happily and I’m scared of all operations and medical procedures. Day 2 was the hardest as I moved to a mixture of tablet medication (codeine, paracetamol and ibuprofen). My doctor suggested a diclofenac suppository and that was amazing for the discomfort. The hardest thing was getting in and out of bed. I made myself walk a little and the increased mobility helped with discomfort and helped me keep a positive frame of mind. All this time it was completely doable and I knew every day would get easier. Day 3: I left hospital on the Friday after giving birth on Wednesday morning and have taken it easy over the past few days. Keeping on top of pain relief and gentle movement has meant I have stayed in a contented and positive mindset even when cluster feeding through the night. I’m glad I had an ELCS and my bonding experience with baby has been really strong. I hope this helps you go into your birth experience looking forward to it and that you have a swift recovery with lots of time to get to know your baby.

You won't be able to lift your two year old at first. Too heavy. Any favours for childcare or nursery time etc - call them in. If you have a dp, will they be with you for the first week or two as that will help. I've had two and the recovery time was better with the first as I did not overdo it - I can still remember pushing a supermarket trolley and just feeling something "give" in my stitches - my healing time then took months (though I was pretty active in those months but still had an open bit of my wound).
So I think I'm saying, recovery will be better if you can manage to do less. So you can be up and walking about quickly, but if you try to be up and carrying children and pushing shopping trolleys, your recovery will take longer!

Was there issues with the spinal/epidural? My back was one giant bruise after my first emcs. It had taken the anesthetist 1 hour 40 (in two stints) to give me a working epidural. I also laboured in my back with both dc and my back felt like it had been repeatedly kicked by a donkey for at least 48 hours afterwards.

In comparison I didn't take any pain killers at all post theatre because the wound didn't hurt at all and I felt back to normal pretty fast possibly helped with dc2 by the fact that my iron levels leveled out fast.

I had an ELCS and was home the next day, able to bend down, pick up DD freely etc. The only word of advice I would have is if they send you home on dihydracodeine to watch out for constipation because omg it was worse than anything else I experienced!

I’ve had an EMCS and an ELCS. After the first, I had really bad back pain starting within days (don’t remember when but it was bad on day 5) and continuing for about six months. It’s started again now and I’m 3 weeks post-ELCS. Not as bad, but very achey.

I initially blamed the spinal after my first CS but in hindsight, I think it was my back overcompensating for the fact that core abdominal muscles had been cut/pushed aside for the op. My consultant also pointed out that pregnancy itself has a huge effect on posture and supporting muscles. Your pain may have a different cause, though.

I have to say my recovery second time round has been slower at first but three weeks in, I feel pretty much ok and able to do the school run, etc. But the first two weeks were tough.

Will you have any help? My DP has had three weeks off and he was invaluable the first two weeks with our older child (who is 4 so more independent than yours is likely to be!). I would do whatever I could to get as much help as possible for those first two weeks - I suspect recovery will be faster overall if you take it fairly easy at first and balance rest and moving around rather than trying to get back to normal straight away.

Thank you so much for your replies. It’s really good to hear your experiences. I had an epidural the first time around but will have a spinal this time as it’s planned so maybe that will make some difference to how achy I feel afterwards.
My DP will take 2-3 weeks off which I’ll definitely need! It’s going to be difficult not being able to pick my two year old up!

I had a lot of pain after my EMCS. I took a long time to recover, and I never felt 100%

I got pregnant when my DC2 was 6 months old and so had a ELCS 15 months later. It was a dream compared to the first one. My recovery was entirely different. When they opened me up they said I had a lot of scarring from some bad infections with the last one, they took a long time stitching me up but they said it would ease my pain and it totally has.

The ELCS was like a different operation. Good luck and hopefully you’ll have a similar experience.

I had a VB with 3rd degree tear with my first (now 2.5 years old) and an ELCS 9 days ago with my second. The section has been by far the better experience all round. I was given good painkillers and was able to get up and move a few hours after the birth without much discomfort. I found bending over and getting comfy in bed a bit uncomfy the first few days but really it wasn't too bad. I feel normal now, the only thing I'm not doing is lifting my toddler and I hope to start driving next week.

I had an elective with my second I couldn't stand up straight for the first 2 days and had a sore back for a couple of weeks everyone's recovery is different my friend had an elective and was out for lunch and a cocktail 4 days later .I'm due to have my second elective in 8 weeks I'm hoping my recovery is easy too I ended up with an infection but I really overdone it the first 2 weeks and my wound opened.