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 can remember feeling sad that I didn't get breakfast the day after my c-section with ds, but another mum brought me som etoast, which was kind. This was because they had a policy of serving breakfast with a dining room table type set-up. I didn't feel very confident about getting up, and spent the first few days with ds on my chest. Then the midwives told me that if I didn't get up I wouldn't be going home, so I got up quick! Second time around I got moving as quickly as possible, lifting dd in and out of her cradle from the morning after the section (which was at midnight). So long as you take things slowly and the painkillers are right it really isn't so bad. I had no problem feeding either of my two, so didn't really need any help I guess, but post-natal wards are in general pretty awful places to be.

DaphneHarvey, I got the same thing as you as well. After my em cs under GA, I woke up in darkness in my ward and felt such pain. I pressed the buzzer once, no response, twice, then some night midwife came over to scold me for pressing the buzzer twice as it would wake other women up - well, the bloody turn up then. How was I to know.

If I wasn't so out of it from the GA, the shock of the cs and first birth and all, I would have given her a piece of my mind. Still regret not doing so.

For my next cs (elective), boy was I bolshy. To no avail, in the end, I still had to get the h... out of there.

You get no help unless you are breast feeding.

I was on my first baby and couldn't breast feed so bottle it was. I got no help what so ever until I went up to them at midnight and said I wanted to go home by taxi - then they helped me.

The other 2 mothers that were in my room, they were on there second child and because they were breast feeding they got loads of help.

I had to leave 48hrs later because I got more help at home. Only reason I didn't leave after 24hrs was my mum telling me I needed to be in there for a bit longer. How wrong was she.

You will get bugger all help but use that buzzer-I didnt but everyone else seemed to. One useful thing DH did after DD2 born by elective section was to leave a bag by the bed with STs, wipes in, nappy bags etc that I could just reach for. I bled a lot after the surgery and could sort myself out with a bit more dignity.

makes me mad to read this!

I have never discussed the care after my section (or lack of care) and it would appear that I was not alone in basically being neglected

what a terrible state of affairs

Hey, I got loads of help. I was on my second child and second cs - I was actaully alright myself and finding it a whole lot easier than the first time round but the staff were really brilliany bringing me drinks etc without being asked - bunging me extra biscuits, checking on me regularly.

I think they may have been relieved to deal with me cause they women either side of me were wailing and crying a lot (day and night)

I got NO help offered in hospital after my c-section. Not a word of advice, not a helping hand - NADA. I did make good use of the buzzer, though!

I would say it depends on the hospital.

I was basically wheeled down to the ward from the birthing suite [where they helped me shower once] about 36 hours after I had my section [which was a crash section] & was left in what I can only discribe as my own 'mess' without too many details.

My dh turned up & immediately took me to have a shower & helped me change into clean stuff. And found someone to change my sheets.

From then on I did everything myself unless dh was there. Two nights later I was told I needed to rest as bp was still very high, and that I should ask for help for at least one night feed so I could get sleep.

I called for help, only to be told that they had no one to help me.

I had NO help to establish feeding at all. I am hoping that this time it will be very different.

I wonderful care after mine. but ds was in NICU so got to sleep at night as i could not really go and see him much for the first 24 hours.

staff were excellent, rooms and ensuite fab clean. room service was very fast and good. meals excellent.

would recommend the Portland hospital to anyone. private health insurance was well worth mortgaging my life to.

I had 2 emergency C/S in 2 different NHS hospitals and was well cared for each time.
True there will always be individual M/Ws and HCAs who you wish were not on duty but there will always be dedicated hard-working professionals who want to help.
Don't be afraid to ask for help and remember to be politely assertive when articulating your needs.
Good luck!

On the subject of pain killers, I'd read all the advice on here about how you have to get moving asap and I really tried. The first day I asked for pain killers and was told I'd had. I insisted I hadn't they insisted I had and wouldn't give me anymore. It was only 8 hours later they confirmed from my notes that I'd had no painkillers since the op (nearly 20 hours ago). No apology.

Next day I asked again, different mw and I got morphine. Luck of the draw or not.

As a very, very, very soon to be midwife I find it disgusting the care that post section women receive . As a student, I am allowed to 'dither around' in bays helping women! If you went to the surgical wards and gave a baby to someone who'd just had major abdo surgery and said "oh here, you have to look after this whilst you recover" there would be absolute uproar!!!

I think we should have midwives & a nursery nurse situated in each 'section bay' who are on hand to help mums with daily tasks. I don't think removing the baby is a good idea as tyhey need to be close to their mum's.

I also think looking at the reasons behind our high section rate is a must.

I think this thread should be sent to Gordon Brown....

I got bugger all. Tutting nurses who came when I used the buzzer BECAUSE MY LEGS WERE STILL NUMB. One who told me ds's nappy needed changing - I was aware of that but literally couldn't move...

I discharged myself on day 2 because I knew I'd get looked after much, much better by dp at home.

I would agree most help disappeared after the catheter did. I couldn't get anyone to help me get dd out of her bedside cot and had to haul her out by her blanket to feed her. I don't know what I would have done if we hadn't been breastfeeding.

I am having an elective in May, and reading this just refills me with dread of the experience. I seem to remember there being side rooms, can we "rent" those out and then have people there to help out? I suppose this will be a call for the hospital on Monday, but if this is possible I am going to find the money for this. I know we won't receive more care, but I can have visitors help me, and go and fetch them for more drugs if needed etc.

When my dd was in hospital recently getting fluids after the nasty d&v bug that went around I was her full time caretaker. She is only 2 and I wouldn't have left her anyway, but I tell you they treated me like I was her nurse. I had to harass them to change over her fluids and remind them constantly about care she needed. Not helping my confidence for my own c/s! I think we should be allowed a person to stay with us to help care for the baby, rather than just leaving us to it!

Its sad and shocking to read about the lack of post natal care following c/sections, but having had two CS at different hospitals have to agree that the care was dire.

1st CS with twins was lucky as I had a side room and DH could stay all night - would never have managed otherwise - and had to beg three different midwives to look at one of the DTs who I though wasn't right - after being told she would feed when ready they finally checked her blood sugar which was so low she was almost comatose and needed SCBU for a bit .

2nd time was at hospital that I work at myself but in a bay so DH had to go in the early evening - I appreciated that they were very short staffed, but my midwife got called to the labour ward so when I buzzed got told there was no one to look after me! I asked several times for painkillers as I was in agony leaning over to get DD3 out of her plastic cot, then got bollocked for letting her sleep on a pillow next to me to make BF easier. The next morning was told not to get out of bed, even though I was desperate to get up moving and showered, as they were too short staffed to help me. In the end DH helped me get up, changed my pad and I took out my own catheter and drain (am a nurse myself, so luckily know how) after 6 hours of being told they'd get to me in a minute - got bollocked for doing that too!

I insisted on going home after 24 hours as I felt it would free a much needed bed and more importantly I would actually have my DH there to help me and give me painkillers.

Some of the midwives were lovely but just ridiculously overstretched and I sympathise that it was not their fault having to try and be in a million places at once, but on the other hand I felt I was entitled to the minimum level of care and at least regular analgesia, which I sadly didn't get, and not to get told off when I got on with it myself.

I had an emergency cs after a failed induction. Once I was back up on the maternity ward I go very little help. TBh I was just made to feel like I was in the way and they couldn't wait to get my bed back - they were very short staffed and had to close the ward next door. On the night I arrived back into the ward having had DD they just left me with DD in my arms and that was it. I could hardly move or anything. Couldn't wait to go home!

When ds was born, I wanted to phone my mum (in days of payphones) Staggered to rest room, but phone was full. and wouldn't take any more money.

Asked a midwife where next phone was (on floor below) Staggred to lift in floods of tears (desperate to speak to my mum). Got in lift, out at floor below, and collapsed. Taken back to ward and told off...all I wanted to do was phone someone...

When I had a mc went to toilet in hospital. Blood on the floor of loo. Blood also on floor of shower, when I went for a post c-section shower.........

My experience of post op care was two fold: on the post op recovery ward they were superb. Midwife turned up as soon as I arrived, made me tea and toast and helped me breastfeed DD. Then an hour later asked how I was feeling, fed me more drugs before I realised I needed them and then helped me get up and walk to the loo.

Which made the ward experience somewhat shocking. Was given a private room for one night then ripped out of it because 'we don't have the staff to keep on eye on a private room and you might collapse and die with pre-eclampsia so we are sticking you on a ward with pre-eclamptic mums waiting to deliver' (oh deep joy for all of us, one mum and baby and lots of mums to be). So the mums to be were supposed to be keeping an eye on me.

I saw a midwife four times in 24 hours despite me supposedly having four hourly bp checks. Drugs were left next to my bed in a little cup if I was sparko when they were due, I had a catheter removed prematurely and had to wait two hours before a midwife could put one back in - at which point I passed over a litre of fluid - which was bloody painful.

So, no, you can't really count on a good post op experience. I was so traumatised at the time that it took me till six weeks after birth to get angry and complain about it and was told short staffing was endemic and that it was the same everywhere. .

Am considering a home VBAC this time, at least I know my family will be there to care for me.

My last experience is 7 years ago, but I got very good care then. Maybe things have gone downhill, maybe it's about where you are. I think our local maternity hospital always was a good one and still is.

Funnily enough, I got much more help after the caesarian than after my first, vaginal delivery, though I was actually in a much worse state after the vaginal (bad tear, heavy blood loss etc). "Natural damage" didn't seem to count for as much, but if you'd had a "real" operation, they took that seriously.

But I was never left to do myself any serious damage. They did make it clear that they expected us to get up on the first day after delivery, for a speedy recovery, and I changed ds in his cot to do as little lifting as possible, but they were very kind.

I did have dh in with me during daytime hours though so didn't need any help then. He helped me to get cleaned up after labour too- but I always expected him to do that, so that wasn't a problem.

And I suppose I got a certain amount of help out of the able-bodied mums at the ward, but that wasn't because I knew the staff wouldn't come, more because it made more sense to ask the person standing nearby than to ring for somebody to come running from the other end of the ward.

I really find some of the stories on here awful. In fact most of them are really shocking

We are the third (or is it the fourth) richest country in the world. why is this sort of treatment OK? Surely it needs to be addressed

Ok, my first was an ES somewhere in Devon and the help was mixed, infact the crap staff were seriously crap, had me showered within 12 hrs, told me I should be caring for him completely (huh, I couldn't get out of bed) told me bf wouldn't work because he was a boy and lazy and of course I had a section so that apparently didn't help things.. by the time we moved to the special care unit the staff in there were fab!

Had DS2 a month ago in a different place, the one that's been in the national news recently infact, and they were seriously fantastic with help when it came to caring for my baby and support with BF. The whole experience was much positive (had an elective section)
There was not one negative member of staff I came across and they were really busy too.

My advice to you, is do use your buzzer. I kept being apologetic initially and they all told me not to apologise!! but once I was up and out of bed then I didn't need help and I wanted to be up and about because it helps the recovery.. but they did numerous nappies, ALWAYS helped when I wanted help with latching on and got me more water to drink.

Another piece of advice.. if you know you are having a section might be worth asking and paying (well worth it in my case) for an amenity room.. yes you will need to use the buzzer more but at night I coped better not having to worry about upsetting other mums trying to sleep.. (yes I know we are all in the same boat, but first time around I found the ward with 3 others quite depressing and had me anxious.)

forgot to add first hospital kept forgetting to give me pain relief... so find out what you are allowed and take it if needed, do not soldier on without it!!

Wish you a really positive experience like my most recent one, I really do.

I have had 2 sections the first one a crash section at the Royal berkhire in Reading and the PN care I received was fantastic. I was encouraged to get mobile as quickly as possible, encouraged to eat and also the took DS1 away during the night so I could get some sleep (I had been in laybour for 5 days). Even though my aftercare was great, I had an infection and required Anti'bs

Second section emergency at 37 weeks due to an illness I had was at Captain Cooks Univercity Hospital in Teesside. Well there wasnt a bed for me in PN so I lay ion recovery flat for 4 hours being sick with DH holding DS2, when I got to the ward I was sat up but not cleaned for 8 hours, DH had to leave at the end of visiting hours. I asked for the cath nad drip to be reomoved so I could get up and was told not for another 24 hours. In the end I removed the cath myself and asked to see the doctor and discharged myself. It was horrendous. I had a follow up with them 6 weeks later.