Sanitary wear following ELCS

[mumofagirlie]

Hi, I am hoping for some advice as to what sanitary wear to buy for an elective C section please. My last birth was vaginal and I bought the Boots thick maternity pads initially and then after a week or two when the pain and bleeding settled down, I swapped to a thinner pad. Will I still need the super thick/cushioned pads or will thinner ones be ok following a C section? Not sure if thin ones would cope with the initial blood loss/small clots? I have also read that huge high waisted pants are essential. Any advice would be most appreciated!

You’ll need the thick ones

Frida mom disposable underwear (so easy and comfy!) and then buy super absorbent pads!

Yes definitely massive pants that go way above your incision scar.
I bled quite heavily for a good few weeks after my section. Thick maternity pads were essential.

The thick pads were necessary for me for the first couple of days post section, but I found the bleeding slowed much more quickly than with DC1 which was a vaginal delivery. It’s definitely worth having them, at least for in the hospital when nobody will see you and you’re just in comfy clothes anyway, then have some thinner ones in (Tesco do some good ones) at home ready for when you’re comfortable using them.

I may be in the minority but I didn’t bleed as much as expected following c section. I would still wear the thick pads so you’re covered and frida mom disposable underwear are great for keeping comfy over your wound

100% need very high waisted knickers OP, I’d say buy a size above your normal size because you really won’t want anything remotely tight on your stomach in the days following a section. I found M&S do the best (very) high waisted cotton knickers - two years later I may or may not still be wearing them!!

Sanitary wise, I found I needed the same type of thick maternity pads that I’d needed after a vaginal birth.

Agree on really big pants. They need to be snug enough to hold the pad properly obviously, but come up to your waist and not have tight waist elastic as you will take a while to start shrinking. You want to avoid anything that might roll down and dig into your scar. I have only had c sections so I can’t compare to a natural delivery, but friends have said that the bleeding was slightly less heavy for them. I used maternity pads for the first few days but after that normal pads were fine.

I got some extra long extra absorbent reusable pads on Etsy, they've been fab. (Two c sections). Also definitely very high waisted pants as pp's have said.

I just used regular pads, body form, and it was fine. Everyone is different though. Personally couldn't bear the mattress style thick ones.

If you think about it that the bleeding last time was from the wound where the placenta used to attach, then you'd expect to need similar protection again, as despite the c section you'll still have a wound from the placenta coming away.

Yes this! They might take more of the lining out when you have a section but the healing process from the placenta wound is still the same

I wore disposable pants I ordered from amazon.

I had no bleeding at all for a full 2 weeks after my ELCS though so stopped wearing them thinking it must have all come out after my section (wrong). The very next day i had the biggest gush of blood you could ever imagine so I can't actually tell you if the pants would have worked with that volume of blood or not.

Sorry for TMI but I see a lot of ladies saying it was just little and often each day for them or not as much as a vaginal birth etc. That wasn't the case for me. It all came out in one go and I honestly thought I was hemorrhaging.