C-Section Recovery Must Haves and Top Tips!

[RT5463]

As per the title really!

I’m looking for those little nuggets of wisdom and the items that you couldn’t have lived without following a C-Section.

I’ve done a lot of reading but there are always pearls of wisdom from those who have gone through it themselves.

For example, the friend who told me about the perineal spray bottle after my vaginal birth will always hold a special place in my heart 😂 So I’m after the C-Section equivalents!

Thank you ☺️

I definitely needed it, and I wasn’t breastfeeding, as I didn’t have a supply. It was kind of an annoyance for me, as the midwives kept forcing me to try, and I knew DD wasn’t getting anything from me.

I didn’t have withdrawal from the Oramorph luckily, as I only had it for two days whilst in hospital, and I spaced out my requests for it. I asked for it when I was really struggling, but it really did help me.

Obviously OP should take into consideration all the points you have made, especially if she is breastfeeding, but when I said “always accept the Oramorph” that was just me trying to be funny 😁 (I can be a bit flippant at times, it’s just my humour unfortunately!)

Yes to the peppermint water and the oramorph if you need it. Nether had any effect on breastfeeding for me.

Follow your body. Section recovery varies hugely.
Mine was pretty much pain free (though I did take everything offered and then took stuff on a schedule just in case anything started hurting), but it's have a lot more pain.

Equally, some take a few weeks to be up and about, I was lucky to be back to normal (pretty much) within about a week.

Same with bleeding. Mine was at pantyliner level by about day 7, others bled heavily for weeks.

So see how it goes, be flexible in your plans and follow your body -don't push yourself to do more than you're comfortable with, but equally don't hold yourself back

Ps: the no driving for 6 weeks is myth.

Thanks @Negangirlxx

I am very much in the “accept all the drugs” camp 😂 I quite happily buzzed for my oromorph after my episiotomy (😵‍💫) and luckily it didn’t affect my baby or milk supply, but I do appreciate the warnings and others’ experiences - definitely something to think about!

Regular painkillers

consider PT later

Hey @RT5463,

Wishing you well for your upcoming surgery and welcoming new baby 😀

I've two tips:

1. Once any anesthetic has worn off, try and stand up and walk about as soon as you can, moving, shuffling about. And

1. Initiate breastfeeding in theatre

My experience:

Baby 1 was born via emcs - we were in hospital for 5 days after delivery.

Baby number 2 was a planned ceasarean, I was home within 24 hours.

Difference between the two experiences, with baby number 2, the planned section, 1. I had prepared myself for how to establish breastfeeding, and 2. I made a concerted effort to stand up and walk around as soon as I could after surgery.

1. Standing up and moving around

A few hours after surgery, after you've rested, and the effects of any anesthetic has subsided, attempting small, tiny baby steps, just shuffling can really aid a positive recovery. I found moving around/ walking about helped to get my different bodily functions up and running smoothly again.

2. Initiate breastfeeding/colostrum feeding in theatre

Don't wait until you're on a ward, your birth partner/ surgical team need to support immediate skin to skin and breastfeeding in theatre, as soon as baby is lifted out of you.

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Background to advice/ information below

The essay below is dedicated to initiating and establishing breastfeeding after a planned c-section - so please ignore if you have a different feeding preference.

Additionally I originally wrote this advice for a friend who had not breastfed before, so all of the terms were new to her/her birth partner. I hope you don't mind that I haven't edited it. I appreciate that you have older children so apologies if some of the below covers stuff you already know.

Everything I've written is based on my breastfeeding studies, experience as a breastfeeding peer supporter in London and my own personal experience.

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I had an emergency c- section with baby 1 and breastfeeding was a NIGHTMARE. We got there in the end but it was an uphill struggle.

Baby 2 on the other hand was a planned c-section and everything went really well (except for a couple of midwives that seemed to be inadvertently trying to sabotage things).

What I post below might seem like a ridiculous amount of information - sorry!

The key thing which I felt really helped with baby 2 was my feeling like I had knowledge at my finger tips to make informed and rationale choices/ decisions.

Breastfeeding during AND post a planned c-section

1. For a number of reasons some baby's need more support with establishing a good technique following a caesarean section. There are lots of great videos and resources online which can help with this. It would be advisable for you to watch these videos now and familiarise yourself with what a succesul breastfeeding technique looks like. Please see: Global Health Media, Emma Pickett or Kellymom for more info.

Also try and find a hardcopy or download a pdf of the NHS leaflet: Off to the best start. This pamphlet is amazing and explains everything you need to know about breastfeeding in those first few hours, days and weeks. It also contains very helpful images.

In real life you may want to find out if you have any breastfeeding peer support groups locally: Breastfeeding Network (BfN), Association of Breastfeeding Mothers (ABM) and La Leche League (LLL) are the key charities/ organisations supporting family's with breastfeeding. Your local children's centre should be able to sign-post you to your nearest real life support. Again, it would be advisable to contact them today, maybe pop in and introduce yourself, children's centres are great places for meeting new mums and babies and accessing great support in those early days, weeks and months!

1. Antenatally - I.e. in the 72 hours before surgery, you may wish to consider hand expressing some of your colostrum.

Ideally it would be great if you could collect anything expressed into multiple 0.5ml oral syringes (colustrum is produced in ridiculously tiny amounts and is essentially equivalent to liquid gold). Your GP, local pharmacist or neonatal ward at your maternity hospital will be able to provide these syringes for you.

Hand expressing colostrum serves a few purposes.

a, the ability and knowledge of how to successfully hand express is a great skill to have, there may be occasions in the days and weeks post birth where you need to express, for e.g. for comfort or to top-up a breastfeed (an electric pump is not appropriate for expressing colostrum).

b, milk production works on the basis that - the more milk which is removed from the breast, the more milk is produced by the body. If the breasts always remain full, this sends a signal to the body to slow down milk production.

c, it is very helpful if you can establish breastfeeding whilst you are still in theatre, however, sometimes this is not possible. You could remain in theatre for a good hour or more following the birth of your baby. If you or your birth partner can start feeding the baby your colostrum within that 'golden hour' it will improve your chances of successful breastfeeding later on. The boost from the energy kick that baby receives from the colostrum you've produced will help keep your baby awake and alert.

1. On the morning (or afternoon) of surgery discuss with your surgeon, anethetist and midwife that you intend to have skin-to-skin with your baby as soon s/he is delivered and that you wish to establish breastfeeding in theatre whilst they deliver the placenta and sew you back up. Explain that you would like their support to help this happen.

One, explain that you have brought in some colostrum which needs to be kept in a fridge close to the theatre. They will direct your birth partner to where it should be stored. Two, explain that you do not wish to wear a hospital gown in theatre as once baby is delivered s/he needs to be brought straight onto your chest for immediate skin-to- skin. This cannot happen if you are wearing a hospital gown. Your baby needs to be able to lie completely naked across your breasts and chest area. Three, with the above in mind, you will need to request that the canula needs to be placed as high up your forearm as possible. For some reason they always site cannula's next to your wrist, which is v annoying and makes it extremely difficult to hold your baby. They will also need to position any monitoring equipment (ECG, blood pressure etc etc) on your back. Again, for most surgeries monitoring equipment is placed on your chest, however, you need your chest completely clear to make space for your baby to lie across it. Your baby cannot lie on your chest if there are wires and chest pads running across it.

1. Hospital theatres are usually freezing. You should bring a baby towel, tin foil (large enough to wrap around the baby) and a baby's hat into theatre. The hospital may supply you with a towel or blanket that you can wrap around yourself and baby whilst you're still in theatre.

To support you with all of the above your birth partner/s need to be fully up to speed with all of this and be prepared to support and advocate on yours and your new baby's behalf. Some members of your surgical team I hope will support you, others might be sceptical, hopefully as long as you're clear about what you would like to happen and you've come prepared the team should do everything in their power to support you.

I had an unhelpful anaesthetist insist that it was hospital policy that I wore a gown in theatre. Luckily her more senior colleagues advised her that she was talking absolute utter tosh and supported my naked surgery 😂.

If you're interested in finding out about slow/ natural caesareans Google: Belinda Green, motherland, natural caesarean.

With regards milk coming in:

1 . Your body started producing colostrum when the baby was at around 20/25 weeks. Your body has all the milk sitting right there. Ready to go now.

2 . Your aim is to fill the baby up with colostrum, you want to get as much into her/him as you possibly can. Colostrum is amazing.

3 . Don't let the hospital try and put a hospital grade pump anywhere near your breasts! The colostrum will get lost in the tubes.

You can hand massage out all the colostrum your baby needs. - see Kellymom or global health media for more info

3 . It doesn't matter if it takes 2, 3, 4, days for your 'milk' to come in. As long as baby is getting lots of colostrum in the interim that is all that the baby needs.

I filled tiny syringes with colostrum, i did about 6 syringes before surgery started and over baby number 2's first 24 hours i would 'top-up' each breastfeed with my colostrum in the syringe. After each feed I would then hand massage and express more into a syringe to give baby after the next feed.

4. Your colostrum and breast milk can stay outside of your body at room temp for approx 6 hours.

If the hospital decide to do heel prick tests to measure blood sugar levels and they're concerned about your baby's levels they may advise supplementing.

If supplementing is needed, you can suggest that you would like to supplement with your own colostrum. You'll need to ask them for syringes and ask for help with hand- expressing if you would like them to show you how.

If you keep baby on your chest, it's likely that they'll eat very frequently anyway. But, as I say you may wish to top-up with your own colostrum, either from a syringe or your finger any way, just for your own peace of mind and to help baby clear out all of the meconium inside them.

Girl, I’m such a wuss when it comes to pain. I’m always an “accept the drugs” kinda girl! 😂😂

Such fantastic advice! I’ve had two c sections and BF two babies but still enjoying reading this, you’ve written it in such a nice tone.

Just wanted to add that I managed to BF in recovery room for EMC1 but EMC2 baby was in NICU and I didn’t meet her for 7 hours and didn’t breastfeed for over 12 hours. In the meantime she had my colostrum syringes which were vvv useful. If you want to make breastfeeding work and you have good support and help you can do it! :)

Massive pants, no front seam. Mine came up over my belly button.

I found putting a maternity pad over the scar, inside the pants, was comfortable and stopped things rubbing.

Peppermint tea and dates/dried apricots. The wind was the most painful bit.

If you have a next to me crib, remember not to pull yourself up on it. I nearly tipped DS out of his the first time I did it!

I had the most horrific dreams on oramorph. It helped with the pain but I came off it as soon as possible.

Lots of your favourite sweets and drinks.

Get peppermint tea to help with the horrendously painful trapped gas you'll have.

Get support pants to help prevent the c-section overhang. I wish someone had told me about them!

A friend bought me a deckchair style seat that goes in the bath for your baby to sit/recline in... it meant I could wash my baby 'hands free'. I'd never have managed a wriggly wet baby and a c-section.

Take the pain medication! Even if you think you're ok. Take the pain medication!!

Sausage rolls,tomato soup,chicken soup,Rubina.
Guinness. Big soft knickers. Lounge wear. Think socks.

Don't beat yourself up if your milk doesn't come in. Mine didn't and I was never able to breastfeed. I was really upset about it and felt a complete failure... I hadn't been able to give birth and I couldn't even feed my baby when it arrived...

Unfortunately c-sections can affect your ability to produce milk. Don't be hard on yourself if that happens.

Agree with all this excellent advice. I've had one planned section and was lucky enough to recover quickly with minimal pain and currently preparing for a second (and praying for the same experience!!). Really just adding to the points of others

• My biggest learning was absolutely stocking up on painkillers - I had some ready to go but it hadn't occurred to me that every 4 hours means you go through those tiny boxes very quickly and the restrictions on buying them mean you can only get one more at each shop - my DH was out at the pharmacy buying more basically every day. This time I'm just buying a box every time I do a shop in the run up. On painkillers, I didn't have oramorph but did have the type of codeine that they offer post section (sorry don't know the exact name). Although who knows for sure if it was this, I found the pain very manageable (I also kept up with the meds) and the advantage of the codeine is you can ask for a prescription to take it home with you.

• I luckily didn't get wind but I discovered you can get peppermint capsules if, like me, you hate the tea!

• There are lots of specialist underwear available but I found primark big pants a few sizes up did the trick for much less money

• All I wanted in the days post birth were njce hot showers. Definitely worth looking for a njce shower gel (with natural ingredients / limited chemicals) as a little treat for your very limited alone time (!). Note I vaguely remember some guidance on avoiding certain soaps / when you could get the incision wet so of course follow this!

• Yes the constipation medicine is disgusting. Yes it is worth taking.

• I would recommend trying to collect colostrum ahead of birth if you can - I found it really difficult but managed to very slowly fill a few syringes. For me knowing it was there took some of the pressure off immediately post birth - I didn't feel too well during the surgery and knowing I had a back up made me more comfortable to ask my DH to hold the baby after some brief skin to skin. I did establish breast feeding (with some challenges!!), but again having the extras just gave me a bit more time to relax into it.

• A support system is key. If you have a partner talk to them about how they can help and/ or think about who else can help. For me getting out of bed for gentle movement did help, but so did having someone there to make sure I didnt push too far - the washing can wait and if it cant it certainly doesn't need to be done by you.