C section painkiller

[AlexandraMum]

Hi girls, I live in UK and I will go to do the elective c section with my first pregnancy.
I know post operation I have to be in hospital for 3-4 days to ensure the recovery goes well.
However I m not sure what painkillers they give in Uk for c section recovery who does breastfeeding. If you have experience about this I would be very happy to hear from you. What painkillers you had and how did you manage the pain?
Thanks a lot.

@SinkGirl thanks for letting me know. I will definitely ask for oral morphine then. I feel a bit more reassured now in terms of painkillers.

But how did you girls manage the pain? I mean, how was it? Was extremely bad and you had to stay in bed all day, you were bending when walking how did you feel the pain? How bad...

For me it was completely manageable with pain relief - I was in quite a lot of pain as my spinal wore off but they dealt with that and it was fine as long as I took the pain relief regularly.

I had mine late on a Friday night and my twins are were rushed off for resus and treatment. The worst part was having to use my arms to roll myself over for a wash!

Finally got to go to nicu to see them about 3am (wheeled in on my bed). Then had a few hours sleep. Next day DH mostly pushed me about in a wheelchair as I wanted to be with my twins rather than in bed. By Saturday afternoon I was walking carefully and slowly but fine. Went home Sunday afternoon, managed stairs etc no problem (getting out of the car was the hardest thing). Then back in every day to NICU, and don’t remember the pain being bad. I did make myself quite ill though as I didn’t rest and ended up with severe swelling and cellulitis in my leg. So do make sure you take it easy - lots to drink and remember to eat!

@SinkGirl thanks a lot dear. I will indeed take your advice. Hopefully everything will go well and with little pain :)

You will probably be encouraged to get up and about as soon as possible. It really will help you heal. Remember to stand up tall. You will want to hunch over to protect the wound but this will not help and will end up with a sore back!

I had my second at 3.30pm and by the time I was back on the ward 90 minutes later, I had full sensation back. Catheter was removed at 6pm and I had a shower and went for a wander. I didn't need any help and I only got into bed to sleep, otherwise I was up and about, looking after the baby and sitting in a chair when I needed to rest.

I didn't feel any pain. I was a bit achy from labour and had trapped wind pain in my shoulder (sorted with peppermint) and I had to move differently (turning over in bed for example) but when he was 4 days old, I walked his big sister to school quite happily.

Listen to your body and take your painkillers if you need them.

In my hospital, paracetemol and diclofenac are the standard painkillers with stronger available as needed. I didn't need any more. I stepped the diclofenac down to ibuprofen after about a week. The only time I had real pain was when I got skipped on a drugs round the first time. Other than that it was fine so long as I kept on top of my pain relief.

@AlexandraMum

Hi girls, I live in UK and I will go to do the elective c section with my first pregnancy. I know post operation I have to be in hospital for 3-4 days to ensure the recovery goes well. However I m not sure what painkillers they give in Uk for c section recovery who does breastfeeding. If you have experience about this I would be very happy to hear from you. What painkillers you had and how did you manage the pain? Thanks a lot.

Paracetamol and ibuprofen every 4-6 hours, they might offer morphine also but I found it didn't help all that much and made me hallucinate a lot which stopped me from getting any sleep. C sections are painful, there's no avoiding it but it's manageable if you don't push yourself.

It sounds silly but have a small step to get into bed if you have a high bed is helpful

I took paracetamol and codeine after my section alongside some laxatives to counteract the codeine. The first day I could have done with oramorph but ive never had it and didn’t want to take it Incase it made me feel unwell, DP wasn’t allowed to stay overnight so I didn’t want to feel unable to look after the baby

Sorry posted too soon. I coped ok with just the paracetamol and codeine and soon figured my own way of moving which wasn’t so painful.

Had an elective section on Nhs 1 week ago (2nd baby, 1st section).

I had the stuff they put in the spinal during the op, plus they put a diclofenic suppository in at the end of op as standard which gives longer lasting pain relief during those first hours as spinal wears off. After this, I was offered paracetamol and ibuprofen in hospital. I was offered discharge early the next day but asked to stay another night as I personally found getting in and out of bed impossible for the immediate days afterwards and the hospital bed helped as I could raise it up.

Pain was manageable whilst in hospital but when trying to move out of bed or in/out chair I found it painful with pulling sensations in stomach. Trapped wind pains were bad but easily rectified by taking Windeeze tablets (took my own in with me). Day after section was hardest for me pain wise and I did take one dose of oramorph for breakthrough pain. Aside from that I've been alternating paracetamol and ibuprofen only and it's manageable. I do sometimes have some pulling pains now, a week out, usually when getting up from sitting - I think this is to do with one side of incision being tighter than the other and MW says is v common.

I’m in postnatal at the moment following an EMCS in the early hours of Sunday morning. I had a spinal and diclofenac with the surgery, then paracetamol and dihydrocodeine every 4-6 hours. Have been offered morphine but it leaves me too spaced out. I wasn’t decatheterised until Monday, but have been gradually getting more mobile since then. We’re likely to stay for a few more days due to baby’s needs but I think otherwise we’d be discharged today as I’m on the mend.

My epidural didn't wear off until lunchtime the day after but I think they left it in overnight to try to get my BP down as I had really bad pre eclampsia & was in danger of fitting. I had a kind of peg in my side where the nurse opened the cap & gave me morphine. Everything was very hazy due to how poorly I was. Ds was born Monday evening, I didn't have my catheter removed until Wednesday afternoon & moved down to paracetamol, codeine & diclofenac. I was unable to get out of bed until Wednesday afternoon & was then moved to post natal ward where I stayed for 2 days & then discharged myself. The care in HDU was very good but once I moved to post natal ward the care was none existent.