C Section pain relief

[Glittertips]

I’m due to have a c section in 4 weeks time and I’ve read that many women are discharged with only paracetamol and ibuprofen. This scares me as I have quite a low pain threshold!

What pain relief should I be pushing for please? I would like to try breast feeding so I’m not sure if this makes a difference. Thanks

I can't even remember mostly, for my first I was a bit reluctant to move. There was only one time I asked for more pain relief and it was given but no idea what it was. I was discharged with diclofenac, which was fine but gave me a weird buzzing sensation in my head.

Second, I had a shot of morphine when I got back to the ward, that was nice haha. Don't remember after that.

Third they gave me some kind of spinal where I didn't feel much pain after, discharged myself after 24 hours and was really sore after walking home. Paracetamol and Ibuprofen worked through and I had the best sleep ever in my own bed.

It's bizarre to me that you can be cut open and be relatively fine to walk home 24 hours later, mental.

This!
I’m breastfeeding and was given dihydrocodeine along with paracetamol and ibuprofen but I wish I’d been warned about the constipation and prepared in advance. I was unbelievably thirsty after my section so drank loads of water and I’d taken dried fruit with me to eat but still that first poo around 3 days later was horrific. Apparently some hospitals discharge you with lactulose but not mine and I’m still mad about it 😂

I'm one of those given only paracetamol and ibuprofen, and threatened with not being discharged from hospital where they couldn't even give that to me on time when I pushed for anything more.

It's almost two years later and I'm tearing up right now just remembering the experience. I don't know why there's not more people raising a fuss about it.

My milk never fully came in due to pain and didn't come in at all until after they finally discharged me and I could at least get the over the counter meds on time. I had dangerous thoughts about baby but felt I couldn't confide in any medical staff as I was petrified of hospitals at that point.

I had nightmares even after the pain stopped, and any reminders cause anxiety. I've talked to people from outside the UK who had wonderful experiences bonding with baby after c section with very strong pain meds and I'm so jealous.

Edited as I see this is from a month ago and hopefully now everything went well and you have a new little baby to snuggle.

Whatever you do, stock up on OTC pain meds. I had an emergency c section and was discharged with nothing and told to buy paracetamol on the way home. I was not at all prepared for the fact I would be given nothing. We had about 4 paracetamol tablets in the house and of course I didn't want to bloody traipse round a supermarket with a newborn days 3 post surgery during a covid lockdown. If they'd at least have warned us my husband could have gone on his way in to collect us.

I've had a c section. I had morphine for the first day then codeine a couple of days after that. Then just paracetamol and ibuprofen. I found most of the pain passed within a couple of days to being more bearable.

I got given dyhydrocodeine for my second section (first was just ibuprofen/paracetamol) and it made a WORLD of difference, definitely push for that

I’m glad to report that I was given morphine for two days, followed by paracetamol and diclofenac. I was discharged with paracetamol and diclofenac and have been keeping on top of the pain well.

@CubCaden that sounds absolutely awful, I’m so sorry to hear what a negative impact the pain had on your experience 😢

In my Trust it seems that the norm was Oramorph and paracetamol in hospital - no pain relief upon discharge (this was even with a day 2 discharge). I naively didn’t ask for anything because I knew a section would hurt and just expected to be in pain… Aside from asking for pain relief and helping your bowels, my golden bit of advice would be to get out of bed in hospital the same side you would do at home, it’s daft and no one told me until it was too late and I was stuck in bed at home because it was painful to move that way.

I had an EMCS, hospital for 3 days after because baby was on anti biotics. Baby born at 2am, I was up and showering by 4pm, felt stiff but pain honestly wasn't bad. I was on ibuprofen, paracetamol and diahydrocodeine (sp) but tbh wish I'd gone without the codeine. It worked beautifully but I didn't realise that was behind my constipation (or at least making it worse) and that caused me much more distress and discomfort!
Absolutely use lactulose, peppermint tea and syrup was a god send for me (hospital provided the syrup) and ask for a suppository if you need it, that was all the worked in the end..
As others have said, keep on your schedule. Easy to fall behind because of looking after baby and trying to sleep but if it hits you it will take longer to get rid of the discomfort.
I was doing 5km dog walks within a week of c section - not showing off! - but I'm not particularly fit or healthy. For me the csection was the easiest part of a miserable pregnancy.