how much help does the hospital give you after a c-section

[griffintribe]

I am planning on having an elective c-section and i am aware that i will need LOADS of help once i am home, have dd 2.6 as well.

Was just wondering how much help i will get in hospital after the first 12 hours when the drip comes out and i am up and about.

Will i be left to just get on with looking after the baby or will the nursing staff expect to help with feeds and nappies etc

I had emergency cs each time. I made DH stay with from about 9 in the morning until the kicked him out at night. Mum stayed home with DS second time. And I had either DH, Mum or MIL with me for the first six weeks after both times. They fed and clothed me and I sat on the sofa eating cake .

I was left to my own devices, it was shit.

smamfa - I did the same with my DH - insisted he was there all day, even if it was just reading the paper while I napped. Hate being on my own in hospital on my own, and he was a very good advocate when I needed someone to fight my corner. It got trickier the more kids we had, but was always necessary.

I was out of hospital within 48 hours after having my emergency CS which I found quite shocking? But the staff always came straight away if I buzzed them to help me with changing nappies/bf'ing/bathing etc so I cant fault them.

If family or friends offer to help you when you get home take them up on it as you need to take things easy or you might risk getting an infection like I did by doing too much.

My mom and dh helped lots by doing some cleaning and ironing and my best friend made me pots of spag bol and brough it round - what a gem!

Also a god send for me was my changing table/bath from Mamas & Papas - I could not have changed my baby's nappy any other way as hard to bend over.

Good luck!

Help with breastfeeding in recovery but nothing else - although tbh as long as I stayed on top of my pian relief I was fine. DH helped me with my first shower (mainly because I still had a catheter in) about 8 hours after the birth.

I certainly didn't need any help doing nappies etc.

PP - I also needed someone to take my compression stockings off when I had a shower

In fairness, the fact that many of you thought you were being looked after by nurses may be part of the problem. In my experience, midwives staff a PN ward (along with other members of staff such as nursery nurses, assistant practitioners etc). If you need help, you must ask. But, they will want to get you up and out of bed for your sake as soon as possible so that you are at a lower risk of DVT. Keep on top of your pain relief, try to remember when you last had it and when it is due so you can ask if it gets busy and staff are distracted. I think we would expect you to largely care for the baby but if they have a clip on cot ask for one of those to help with lifting the baby.
Good luck and don't think that the staff are all sat around eating chocs and complaining about you, they will be running around like mad, due to the high section rate and low levels of staff! Don't forget also that women who are having trouble bfing may require huge amounts of time. Which is absolutely fine and all part of a mw's job but really difficult if there are a million other things to do!

Personally my experience was horrible. I was chucked out after 48 hours - unhooked from the drip a day early and sent packing with a raging infection!! No help getting out of bed - no leaflets on how to care for the wound (which was horribly infected) - left on drip for over 2 hours and told breastfeeding wasn't something they advised with c-sections

BUT this wasn't my friend's experience just 2 weeks later - also with an emergency c-section in same hospital...so just unlucky I guess. Am due again in June and have booked a debriefing to go over just what was so rubbish and how to avoid it again!! Think it must have just been really busy and no-one had any time.

YEAH THEY DONT GIVE MUCH HELP ATALL FROM THE MORNING AFTER YOUR SECTION oops caps x

I had quite bad postnatal care after emcs. After elective it was a lot easier as I had planned out how to do it all without help. DP came in a lot, and I tried to get everything I needed to hand while friends and family were around. I didn't have any pain after first night, just a bit weak and stiff.
I took my mobile in in case of emergencies at night - I thought DP could phone them from outside or even come around as we aren't too far from hospital. I also took in with me the name and number of the head of midwifery at the hospital just in case I was faced with the same treatment I'd had the previous time! I know it sounds really OTT but I was really worried about it. Actually was fine and I was totally mobile, if very slow.

I am sure it varies from area to area. My first baby was emergency section six and a half years ago in Basildon Essex. I had private room and good postnatal care.

Second baby 3 and a half years ago was at St Mary's in central london and it was appalling postnatal care after elective section. I was not given painkillers as prescribed. When ds had a huge messy nappy in the night and I was still imobile with catheter etc in, I buzzed for help and had him dumped into my lap on the bed and told to get on with it. When I was emotional and exhausted in the night when he was feeding constantly, i was told sarcastically there was bugger all they could do if I was going to breastfeed rather than bottle feed him. I ended up checking myself out early against medical advice as i could not stand it.

I am pregnant again and and am having the baby at UCH in central London (couldn't face St MAry's) by csection again. This time I am mentally prepared. I know no one will help me. I know it will be dirty and horrible. And my plan is to check out as soon as possible.

Last time I had some complications as baby was too engaged and they needed to use forceps as well as cut me wider than normal. I had an allergic reaction to the pressure bandage they used (no-one's fault) that got infected. So recovery was longer and harder. This tim none of that should happen to I plan to be home asap where I will be looked after.

Ditto what IlanaK said and also at St Mary's. It really seemed to depend who was on duty but the night staff were usually worse. I spent the 2nd night awake cos lady next door's baby cried all night - she was also post csec and no help given. I spent the 3rd night awake cos my baby cried all night. I took him to the mws who said "wind dear", so I alternately winded and fed him all night walking up and down the corridor. When I asked for help again they just ignored me. In the morning I buzzed and got a new mw who gave me a bottle and that started a whole new problem but by that state I was just so relieved to have any help I would have taken anything.

The major factor that would make me go for a vbac is a) the pain and b) having to suffer that post natal care again

Oh yes and they gave no advice as to what you could do just "don't lift anything heavy". I got more help from my MIL who had csecs with all her dss.

Naff all help ime. I even had to ask them to bring me a bowl of water to wash my face and brush my teeth the morning after 2 days in labour and an emergency section at 1am. They looked at me as if I'd asked them to give me a pedicure! Drip, catheter etc were all in at this stage, but I had even less help once I could get up.

Bugger all help really. I was moved to the PN ward with a heavy suitcase on my legs (DH had needed to go home after being awake for days once they had said I was ok to go to the ward) and noone helped me move it. I had to topple it onto the floor in order to free myself to pick up the baby!
I also had to ask for pain relief all the time and the day after the section it was not forthcoming - at one point I went 5 hours without, despite being up and going to ask the midwife for it (she then disappeared and I couldn't find her for the rest of the day). God bless the night shift who were far better is all I can say. The unfortunate fact is that the midwife who was assigned to me on the PN ward was a lazy neglectful idiot. Many many others were great, but sadly weren't assigned to me and were so rushed they didn't have time to cover for the cretin assigned to me. She even "forgot" to take out my canula and in the end I grabbed someone else to do it - she only agreed because I showed her how my wrist was turning red and she realised there was a risk of infection.

Ooh, forgot. One lady did help carry my bag of wee to the bathroom so that I could have a shower and then left me there to climb into the bath (shower was over the bath) - this 8 hours after the op (cathether still in) and only 2 hours after I got feeling back in my legs. That was the most caring thing anyone did for me.

Sorry to sound a bit cross but it does annoy me. I think there is a perception gap in that if you give birth vaginally and it is straightforward, nothing medically interesting has happened. The woman is fine and more or less in good health. A c-section on the other hand is an operation and I just think that there are better ways to recover from surgery than being left to your own devices right after an operation, important though it is to get up and mobile.

Do you know what I always got loads of help - have had 3 cs. Mind you, I was always helping the mw's out and they were trying to keep me still but I wouldn't have it. Even a drain for a post-partum haemorage wouldn't keep me still. I found the quicker I was on my feet, the quicker I recovered. For dd2, I had her at noon and was walking around at 5pm - it was brilliant to be able so mobile so quickly after having her.

IlanaK and Tigger. My terrible postnatal caare was at St Mary's too.

I'd been in labour for days with no sleep, finally emcs, then just after i fell asleep that night was woken up by literally being whacked in the leg and told 'Your baby's crying - put it to the breast!'. Got no help, and the rest of the night continued like that.

My hospital was useless. Night midwife all but mocked me by saying "mummy likes to sleep with baby on her chest" - just because my ds would not sleep in a cot and I could not lift him out of the cot so left him on my chest to facilitate bf-ing for the first night.

Not as if they would come and help me as soon as he cried - shortstaffed and all. So what was I to do?

And they did not allow visitors before 1 pm and so I could not even get dh to help me in the morning.

I was moved 3x in my short stay there.

I discharged myself after 36 hours into the wonderful care of my dh and MIL at home.

Hi Redadmiral - we will have lots to talk about on Friday!! my nurse df is coming and she used to work at St Marys (not in maternity though). Hope you're still able to come.

Looking forward to it.

Gosh, blueshoes, that's terrible - the mw's even got me a special cot that the sides came off so I could easily put him back.

that's great redadmiral.

This is doom and gloom BUT: after my second c-section (done at 11am) the painkilling drugs had worn off by mid-afternoon and I was starting to feel pretty uncomfortable. At 8pm the ward sister gave me some paracetamol and said I should be able to have something stronger, only trouble was the Drs who performed my c-section had forgotten to write a prescription for me, but she would catch them on their ward rounds and get a signature so I could have something stronger. At 9pm I pressed my buzzer asking for stronger meds and a horrible horrible woman came in to my cubicle and said "we know you need painkillers and are trying to get them for you, please be patient". At 11pm I finally got my meds 12 hours after my operation with a huge great apology from the doctor concerned, all worded I think to stop me from suing them for shoddy after-care. This was all at one of the biggest teaching hospitals in London. Should have kicked up more of a fuss. Infact this is my message to you: ask for help. If you don't, you probably won't get it.

MrsR, I have had 2 cs and realised that I am pretty useless for the first 48 hours. Takes me 12 hours before I can even sit up, certainly can't lift anything before 48 hours. It is the time I need the most help.

But after day 5 and stitches are out, I am 90% back to normal.