If you've had a c section..could you answer these for me?

[anonny55]

I'm due my elective section in 10 days (first baby)
If you've had one please could you answer..

• ahead of surgery, do I need to remove my lash extensions and gel polish nails?
• how was the walk out of hospital when you left..it seems quite a long way to walk from the post natal ward to the car park in my hospital and I'm worried I'll struggle
• what was required for you to be able to do before you could be discharged?
• how was the first night (we aren't allowed birth partner to stay at my hospital) did you struggle to see to baby? Was the midwife's on hand to help?
• if you was on the afternoon list, what time did you go down for your surgery? (I've been asked to arrive to the hospital at 12pm)
• how long after the section did you have to get up and take your first walk? How was it? Any tips to make it easier?
• what painkillers did you have post op? Was you sent home with any strong painkillers or just told to have paracetamol?
• was it hard sitting on the toilet etc after to wee?
• how long after section did you have your first shower and how did you find it?
• how long after the section was you discharged?
• what did you find the hardest of the whole experience?

Any tips to aid my recovery would be greatly appreciated too☺️

@Lunamoon23 that's informative , thanks for taking the time to write that. Thank you🥰❤️

For elective sections, for most women a spinal (or occasionally an epidural) is a really good anaesthetic and the safer anaesthetic option, and usually what's safer for the woman is also best for the baby. Having a spinal also usually means pain relief immediately post-op is better too. There's a few reasons why GA is sometimes needed in the elective scenario though:
-some women have medical reasons that a spinal is contraindicated and GA is the safest option - it's not that common, and it's something that would normally be obvious well ahead of the date.
-sometimes it just isn't possible to get a spinal in (not that common, and more likely to be an issue in people with abnormal bony anatomy/severe obesity)
-sometimes the spinal appears to have gone in ok but doesn't work as well as it should. Usually it's obvious before starting that it's a poorly functioning spinal, but very occasionally it only becomes obvious during the operation. There are different options for managing that depending on when it becomes obvious that it's a naff spinal.
-rarely the surgery becomes more complex than planned then the operation may either take longer than the spinal lasts/need denser anaesthesia than even a good spinal can provide. Most of the time the surgeons know if they're expecting things to be more complex, but just every so often they encounter a curveball intraoperatively.
-occasionally if there's an unusual amount of bleeding, that bleeding combined with the side effects of some of the drugs used to help control it, might mean converting to a GA is better.
-very rarely the spinal can interfere with breathing/conscious level and then converting to a GA is needed to look after the woman's breathing well. This is really rare, but something we're always prepared for.

Most often spinals go in easily, work a treat and the operation goes well and no one needs to worry about converting to a GA, but we wouldn't be doing a very good job if we didn't have a plan for how to manage any of the more unusual scenarios that occasionally crop up and surprise us. Emergency sections can be quite different to elective and there's a few more reasons in an emergency why GA might be needed (it's still not that common, but is more common than in an elective).

I only had to have a GA because the blood thinners I was taking and my labour started a week early. My other planned C-section was spinal. I preferred the spinal less pain after!!!