Elective section tomorrow....help!

[abbierhodes]

It's my first one after two vaginal births. I'm very nervous.

Does anyone have any reassuring stories or tips on how to prepare?

Panic ye not!!

I had an elective after an horrific experience with the birth of Dd1. It was very calm and everyone was having a chat / music was playing (take in a cd if you want as specific album played - I ended up with Ronan Keating!!)

Top tip would be... be prepared to wait around, a lot! I was due to be in theatre around 10 but you have to wait if any emergency sections come in. Take a book / magazine / crossword but ve prepared to never look at them. I found I was too 'on edge' (in a good way - excited I suppose!) to concentrate on anything. Ended up on the phone ringing random people because it kept me occupied.

Please let me know if there is anything you'd like to know specifically. My experience was really, really positive

All the best for tomorrow and welcome in advance, to the world little abbierhodes!

Yes - In my experience elcs was very calm and cheerful.
You will be fine.

Mine was absolutely wonderful. So civilised, I was in first which was good, no waiting around. The midwives helped loads with DS2 when I was on my own, but actually I was able to get up with him towards the end of the first night anyway.

All the staff were brilliant, especially the anaethestists. I was a bit sick afterwards but nothing too bad at all.

Thanks both! I have to have a section because baby is lying transverse and won't budge. It's just not knowing what to expect that is scary.

How long did it take you both to recover afterwards? I've been told I could be home afetr 2 days if all is well.

Flowerybeanbag, I've found the anaethestists to be brilliant as well during all the prep. The staff at our hospital are brilliant in my opinion...really patient and compassionate.

I just want it over with.

I was home after two days, and recovery was really quick for me, which I was pleased about as DS1 was 2.5 at the time, which could have been tricky. I got up and had a shower on day two in the afternoon.

I stayed in 2 nights and the recovery period was around 2 weeks (till I felt I could move around as easily as I had before - you will be told 6 weeks though).

Forgot to mention, don't worry if you get the shivers after having the anesthetic, I had the whole teeth chattering and itchy thing that can happen - just found it quite funny though!! Worth taking a good moisturiser in incase you do get the itches though - my face was dry as a bone because I kept itching it!!

To be perfectly clear - 2 weeks was when I felt completely back to normal. I was moving around and doing things well before this

I had an elective with ds after an emcs with dd. Was very calm, they had the radio on in theatre (ended up with greatest day by Take That when ds came out!) but we could have brought a cd if we wanted.
Like Dotty, I was bumped a few times for emcs so ds was born at 3.30, but I had been on ward since about 7 waiting. You might feel a bit sick as you can't eat anything while waiting but have sips of water.
You can still choose things like whether your dh/dp cuts the cord and if you want them to tell you the sex or look for yourself. Not many hosps let you have skin to skin straight away but dh held ds while i was stitched and I was bfing in recovery room within an hour.
Got out of bed and had a shower day after, careful for a few days but back to normal in a couple of weeks.
Good luck

My elective was lovely. (Footling Breech) I felt like a fraud going in, as I wasn't in labour. Take a book and mags etc. as there is a lot of waiting.
They will tell you it is serious abdominal surgery, but I recovered quickly. Do just push yourself a tiny bit, to stand straight, have a shower etc. But don't over do it. Make sure you get plenty of pain relief.
Do the right exercises afterwards.
We actually went out for a meal the night before (but it was our first).
Went on to have 2 vaginal afterwards. Most awkward thing about the Caesar was the not driving.

Oh yes, I second the trapped wind thing - definitely take something in for that (peppermint tea is also good to sip on as this helps too).
Good luck for tomorrow ladies :-)

Good luck both of you

No experience of offer, but hope all goes calm and smoothly.

Thanks so much ladies.
Good luck to you too Peppa! I hadn't thought of the Arnica, and knew nothing about the trapped wind issue, so I'm glad I posted.

I've had a very busy day and cooked a meal for every night next week...amazing what keeps you calm!!!

I would add that my elcs was a lovely, happy day after a horrible first birth experience. I was so pleased to be calm, relaxed and well looked after, and thrilled to be able to enjoy meeting dd2. It was great

Two sections and no trapped wind here,I second the big pants,I just bought a six pack from m+S in a big size.you will be in for two or three nights so take things you would like with you,nice snacks etc,nursing bras,a few nighties as they can get bled on ,all the bog standard stuff. I had tried for a vbac with dd2 but ended up with another section,so not elective,but was very calm and fine.The rummaging feeling as the baba is pulled out is peculiar ,and I felt faint and spacey at times during the surgery but the anaesthetists were lovely,very kind and reassuring.I was never in really bad pain afterwards but it did take me a long time to not be aware of my scar when moving about,probably as long as 6m. It was three years ago tomorrow,and I have very happy memories of the birth,nothing distressing at all.

I had an emcs in 2006 and an elcs last July. I have to say the elective one was fab. I had it at 9am on a Friday and was home on the Monday. I was up and about the day after it, although i was out of bed the next day after the emergency one too, but i felt so much better after the elective.

Re trapped, or in my case not so trapped, wind , i can't remember this after my 1st cs but OMG after the 2nd one it was so embarrasing every single time i went to the toilet in hospital. One day i walked out (my room was straight opposite the toilet) and my dh was p*ssing himself laughing and said 'did you have wind, love?' He'd heard it

Big pants are def an essential buy.

Good luck btw

I had a c-section 10 weeks ago. It was MUCH better than I expected. Home after 3 days, at the shops after 6 days, recovered and driving/lifting toddlers/working again after 4 weeks. Don't panic when you get home and find you're still almost as heavy as before you went in - took me 2 weeks to lose all the retained fluid etc. Good luck -I envy you meeting your gorgeous baby tomorrow!

I've had 2 elcs and they were both fine. First was very calm and recovery was super quick. I bf'd in recovery both times (though first time I didn't know what the heck I was doing and was so kack handed I couldn't hold ds ).

Second section was harder to recover from in pain terms, possibly because I was chasing a toddler around too, and because dd was born during the crappy winter we've just had I was snow bound for ages and had very little help.

The actual process is very positive though. I think they may have used different kinds of anaesthesia (different hospitals) as the first time I couldn't feel a thing.. it was like my legs didn't exist. Second time I felt a lot of pulling, when they pulled dd out I could feel my lungs shifting back to their original position. Really odd, not painful, just odd. A bit like having a really big poo and feeling yourself "emptying" as it were. Sorry that's so gross but it's the only way I can describe it

Silly mw second time round wouldn't let me have skin to skin in theatre. She kind of waved dd in front of me from across the theatre because I'd complained that first time the mws had handed me a clean dressed baby and I had no idea what ds had looked like newly born. I did get skin to skin in recovery though. It's worth asking for some skin to skin though... you never know, you might get a mw more likely to agree.

First cs I had baby on Thursday morning, left Sunday lunchtime, second cs I had baby on Thursday afternoon and left on Saturday morning.

Good luck x

Im having a c-section in a couple of weeks and have been told nil by mouth from midnight and just the smallest sip of water to take my rantadine tablet in the morning. The hospital have warned that due to building work being carried out on the delivery suite they have limited room and emergency cases will go before my elective.....which is understandable, and even warn that I may even have to wait until the day after to have my baby! How can I go most of the day without anything to eat and drink? Im not happy and now dreading it!

Magicstar, I'm booked in for a week on Monday and am also worried about hunger in view of my HUGE appetite at the moment! ... the next day is surely pretty unlikely - I'd have thought they would let you eat or put you on a drip if it's going to be ages to avoid low blood sugar etc.

thanks tartiflette, just dont need added stress/hassle right now do we really ha! x

trust me, when your there the last thing you think of is hunger or anything, the excitement is over whelming, my section was incredible, the best experience of my life so far, i had a right laugh with the nurses going in and havin my spinal was nothing! the rest was just great, just lay there and listened for those first screams, ask for morphine!!! its immense lol, i was in and out within 20 minutes, was great!! cant wait to do it again! x

My recovery was nowhere near as bad as I had feared,

Best thing I did was buy a pack of those tena-lady type disposable pants with built in pad. They come up really high and are gentle on the scar and you don't have to fiddle around with sticking in pads or washing dirty knickers. All the midwives thought they were genius - I got the sainsbury's own brand ones and one pack was enough until the lochia stopped.

The hardest thing is sitting up because you can't use your stomach muscles at first. Hopefully you'll have a hosp. bed with electric controls (I didn't) so it will sit you up for you - then you just have to swing your legs around to the side and put your hands behind you on the bed to push up from.

I refused morphine rom the start as the pain wasn't unbearable and just had the painkilling cocktail (it was co-dydramoland something else and peppermint water) and voltarol three times a day. I managed to get up and into a wheelchair about 12 hours after the c/s (wanted to go and see ds in scbu) and the following day after I'd had my catheter out (this didn't hurt) I was able to slowly get up, shuffle to the loo and shuffle over to scbc a few times - third day still a bit shuffly but more upright, fourth day walking almost normally etc etc.

Made sure I had bran flakes every day because constipation would have been awful in those circs. Agree re wind pain - not nice.

Also if you are b/f or expressing your uterus contracts more during that time so you may feel some 'twangs' down there then. I had one and thought I had burst an internal stitch or something.

Can't think of anything else. Good luck.