No skin to skin after a c section?

[Chocolateoatmilk]

Dd is 3 months and I still feel sad ... is this normal?

My DS is 3 years and I still feel a bit sad about it.

Ah, it is shit. I had a vaginal birth with my first and I didn't get skin to skin straight away either - I was rushed off to theatre as I was hemorrhaging and didn't see the baby for a few hours after birth while I was stitched up / given blood transfusions and taken to hdu for monitoring. It didn't matter in the end though - he is a lovely, affectionate little 4yo now and a right little mummy's boy! It's definitely fine to feel sad when your birth doesn't go to plan (and at 3 months pp it's still fresh in your mind), but if you feel sad a lot or like you aren't bonding with your baby then do speak to your gp or hv about pnd. Take care.

My daughter is 3 and i had a c section but as soon as I was out of theatre we had skin to skin. In fact the Porter pushed me up to the ward with baby naked and me topless but covered

I had skin to skin immediately after my baby was born via c section. I don’t get why this isn’t offered to everyone who has a section. It’s a huge shame. I’m so sorry this was the case for you OP x

As soon as I was in the recovery room after my CS, we had skin to skin, and my dd crawled up me to latch on. Amazing.

Having said that, that is not something I think about every day. I think much more about how she is now (17!) and all the things we do together, the kind of person she is - that is more important than a free moments after birth.

If your dd is only three months old you can still do lots of skin to skin, have baths together, etc. It's not too late.

I had the same experience. My DD is now 11 and I feel a little sad when I reflect on her birth but it seems mostly like a dim and distant memory now. I did get skin-to-skin with my second baby (vbac) and it was nice but I wouldn't say it made a difference to our bond.

I had a vaginal birth with both mine who are 2 and 4 and I genuinely cannot rememeber if we had any skin to skin after birth.

I know ten

But it is too late to breastfeed and I do feel the lack of S2S is partially responsible

I've had 3 planned sections and although baby wasn't placed on me until I was stitched up and back in recovery, I don't feel sad about it as my husband got to have an amazing bonding time of his own while I was being taken care of.

That’s great rainbow but why did you post that?

Are you trying to tell me I’m being dramatic?

However you feel is valid, I didn't have skin to skin for a few hours after birth (DH did straight away which was great, but felt sad for myself), and it did take time to come to terms with it. When you feel ready, do you think a birth reflections appointment might help? It really helped me move forward.

I didn't get skin to skin with either of mine. Every time I feel sad about it I have to remind myself that it was more important to save their lives in that moment.

Oh I had skin to skin whilst they stitched me up. I'm really sorry you didn't have that, but just to reassure people who are nervous about having to have c-sections that it is possible in some circumstances

It sounds like you were let down. I had immediate skin to skin in theatre but I did specifically ask for this and DH knew to insist on my behalf if not done.

This was quite a long time ago so its disappointing that this wasnt offered to you as a matter of routine. It's really thoughtless on the part of the doctors and midwife.

And it's ok to be sad that this didnt happen for you.
If you have another baby it's worth having on your birth plan and it's easy to facilitate with a back to front gown.

x

I had an emergency c section and we had S2S pretty much immediately in theatre and then afterwards in recovery, although I felt too sick to do too much of it! I'm so sorry you weren't offered the same - I didn't realise it wasn't standard. My daughter had a tongue tie and forceps injuries (sustained before the c section) so wouldn't latch but I managed to pump for 7 months so that was better than nothing (for me). I felt quite traumatised by what happened leading up to the emergency c section any by my daughter's injuries so I wrote a formal complaint to the hospital which I found cathartic. I wondered if this might be something you would find helpful?

I had skin to skin. Actually was better than with natural birth when I haemorrhaged

It was the one thing I desperately wanted. I asked for nothing else!

I had a c section with my 4th child due to breech position. They would not allow skin to skin in theatre. It really annoyed me and she literally cried for 40 minutes - which they said was good to get water out of her lungs. This is many years ago and still annoys me. I think it led to her being overly clingy. I think if they don’t allow it they should always suggest that the dad (if present) should do the skin to skin. I was too out of it at the time to request this.

I had a c-section with DD3 and insisted on skin to skin straight away. And after a short time she started turning purple and needed a bit more cleaning up of her airways. So I felt a bit foolish.

She did have skin to skin with DH but he gave her a bottle of milk which didn’t help when establishing breastfeeding!

It might not be too late to breastfeed at 3 months if that's something you want to do.

Lucy Ruddle is supposed to be really helpful with this - she wrote this "guick start guide" to get an overview about what is involved so you can decide whether it's for you or not. There are several other resources linked if it is something you are interested in pursuing.

namelessme.wordpress.com/2019/02/07/getting-started-with-relactation/

I'm sorry you missed out on skin to skin with your newborn. I think it is possible with a c-section but not always a priority for various reasons. I didn't have a c-section, but had skin to skin with DS2 before he was whisked off to special care in a totally different hospital and I feel like it made such a big difference. No, I don't think about it every day, but it made those first few hours and days much easier to bear.

Honestly bertie we’ve tried everything and I’ve no confidence in it now. But thanks. Just upsets me and I keep wondering where it all went wrong.

How do you feel in yourself Op? Having a baby is so traumatic at the best of times, we all have the “ideal” birth in our heads, this is heightened by midwives encouraging us to have a “birth plan”, I wish they’d give the truth of .... who knows how it will end up... don’t get your expectations up... expect anything!!

I know of you S2S you feel is a reason why BF didn’t work, but sometimes it’s not for everyone. Your DC will be thriving; no matter how they are fed.

Would it be worth speaking to someone about how you feel??

Sorry. Didn't mean to upset you. Just sometimes people haven't heard of it and I think it's always best to have info.

Would you be able to have a debrief perhaps? It might help process things.