When will I feel normal again after C-section

[gills22]

Hello All,

I am hoping you can advise.
When did you start to feel semi normal again after labour/ C-section???

I had an emergency C-Section on Sunday evening after a failed induction and I am struggling right now. I knew if I needed one it would be painful but this is beyond what I expected. It's a daily struggle and the meds are not helping.

I just need some help and advice on how to get through this recovery period.

Has anyone checked your wound? Make sure someone looks at it to check it's healing well.

I've had emcs and planned. Emergency took longer to recover, think my body was so knackered. I got a bad infection as well but don't wasn't to scare you.

It took 2 weeks to be walking/coping with stairs okish after the emcs. Longer for laughing, driving, carrying stuff, bending etc.

The pain is horrific after a c-section.
My first c-section I didn’t have any pain after about 2 weeks. It took about 7 days to feel any improvement though. The second c-section took longer but they went in through the same scar . That took about 6 weeks to be pain free.

What meds are you on? And are you keeping up with them?

It should be that painful if you have correct meds and use them for as long as needed.

I've had four sections, I was lucky that my first midwife encouraged me to keep talking meds and to keep taking the decent ones .

With all 3 of mine I noticed a big improvement around day 7. This is when stitches dissolve a bit I think so it doesn't all pull so much. But I second the pain meds advice. Please report pain and ask for more. The reduced pain around day 7 was when not currently on a pain killer dose. The rest of the time was OK if on painkillers.

I stayed in hospital for 5 nights after mine. Also emcs after long labour. It was still so bad when I left the hospital on day 6. I actually cldnt stand straight to walk out to the car. Was going down the stairs one at a time. It was probably about day 10 I started feeling better still sore but better than I was. It's still super early for u.

I was taking the stronger pain meds at home but reduced them down to paracetamol and ibuprofen every 2 hrs for one or the other. U need to keep on top of the pain relief. If u don't feel they are working ask for something else.

If ur dressing is off just watch out for signs of infection. I ended up with an infection in my wound and I had known but just hoped it got better itself but it didn't. I eventually got antibiotics by that point baby was 6/7 weeks old. It was actually still sore for a long time and I struggled getting the pram in and out the car boot. It was probably even still a little sore my daughter was about a year old then just numb.

I also had a second emcs and no infection this time. I was up and about more easily around day 5-7.

Also make sure if u do start feeling improvement. Do not be stupid enough to think u can help around the house. I remember thinking I'll just get this washing out the machine etc and it made me more sore again.

Yes,
It was checked multiple times a day before I left hospital and then my midwife checked it yesterday at my day 3 appointment. According to what they are seeing everything is okay.

I knew it would take time. Just where it was so unexpected, I had nothing prepared at all.

So paracetamol, ibuprofen and then oramorth. Which I am taking as adviced alongside some other tablets and the DVT injections they gave me. Although they have not given me loads of oramorth and no idea who I need to speak to about sorting more out.

Thank you so much. My partner and family have been godsends which has massively helped.
It's just the pain that I am struggling with. The back spasms are awful and keep waking me up in the night. So trying to mix that with feeding baby ect has been hard.

Would I go to the doctor's about more pain meds or speak to the midwife when I see her again on Friday??

Echoing other posters who said around a week things started to improve. I'm two weeks post ELCS and the pain has pretty much gone other than the sensitivity on my stomach above my wound which I had last time for months. I had different pain relief though which I took religiously for the first week - I'd ask for something else tbh!

God I have mine on Friday and not looking forward to it!!!

Yes it’s fucking painful.

You need to do way less. You might think oh thats fine but the next day you will suffer again from over doing it.

Use the Oromorph 10 minutes before your doing anything painful like sitting up from bed or the sofa. I did this in smaller doses to eke it out and target its use.

Keep topped up on max paracetamol and max ibruprofen.

2 weeks until everyday careful movement pain stopped.
6 weeks until I could do normal things which out causing a pain regression the next day. Ie. mop a floor, pick up something heavy.

You have got this! It will end. I promise!

And I would ring the hospital about the back spasms. They will likely ask you in for assessment as that can be an anaesthesia/ nerve damage complication. There may be things they can suggest or specific drugs/ blockers but they may just want to watch and wait for the moment. Either way you need to get that checked and logged.

Took about 4 months after first section and 6 months after second.

I was n significant pain for weeks and needed strong pain killers for at least 12 weeks.

I hated people who popped up and told me they were fine with a couple of paracetamol and doing yoga after 2 weeks.

it can be a hard recovery for lots of people.

my advice demand good pain meds from your gp.

sod the housework.

your DH/DP needs a o pull his weight

guests look after you not the other way round

I also had an emergency c section and made the mistake of staying in bed the first week which slowed recovery. If you can, try and walk everyday - just what you can safely do. This was hands down the best thing for my recovery

I was cleaning the bathroom after 3 weeks if that's any indication 😆 but everyone heals at their own pace.

5 months on and I wouldn't say I'm 100% healed. There's no pain but internally, at the site of the wound, it feels as though more healing is needed. I don't know how to describe the sensation. It doesn't prevent activity - it's just not back to normal yet. Groin muscles are also still recovering - some exeraizes are difficult as is moving heavy objects across the floor with my foot. I think that's because I got to 9cm though before the op.

I found my birth experience traumatic so I hope you're doing OK. Be kind to yourself- you've had major surgery. Most people get to rest after a thing like that but you're having to care for a newborn! It's tough but I'm cheering for you through the screen!

Honestly thank you so much for this advice it's super helpful.
I am trying not to do too much alongside going on short daily walks but it's a mission to even get downstairs (live in a 3rd floor flat?)let alone go much further.

I had an expectation on what I thought would happen in this situation and it certainly is more painful that I had considered it to be. Although I think the shock of the last two months is making it harder to process.
I only found out I was pregnant on the 24th December 24 when I was 32 weeks pregnant. Genuinely had no idea before then. So I had 8 weeks to get everything done and ready. Then on top of that we had to buy everything from scratch.
So adding a long complicated birth process on top has not helped me process.
So I just think the stress of everything has made this worse.

Hopefully now things will calm down and thisxwill help the recovery process

Oh wow, you've had a busy few months! Congratulations on the birth of your baby ❤️
You will feel so much better this time next week. When you are standing, try to stand up straight rather than hunching over. Keep a strict schedule with your pain meds as it's harder to get rid of the pain if it worsens.
I found that the Frida Mom C-section pants really helped me as they made me feel more supported and less like my insides were going to fall out at any given moment. I also bought a V shaped pillow from Dunelm to help me sleep sitting propped up a bit and also to make it easier to sit up when feeding the baby.

cornerstonephysio.com/resources/c-section-recovery-and-exercise/

If you follow this link, scroll down to a bit that says 'download guide' there are some exercises to do during the first 6 weeks that will really help. (The first week or two is deep breathing I think, nothing crazy!).

Best of luck for your recovery, OP.

You are doing too much, walking around the flat is enough, walking down three flights of stairs is too much. Rest.

My husband had an operation that was similar to a C-section due to the layers they cut through, but was in two inch long areas. His recovery sheet was hilarious, strong meds for three weeks, not allowed to walk, or lift or do anything for six weeks.

It is brutal how women have sections and then are expected to care for a baby and get back to normal, after such a big operation and 9 months or growing a baby.

I would get a doc appointment/E consult and ask for more medication - personally I like Voltarol but whatever you have you need to take it regularly.

For now rest, it will get better.

Emergency section is harder and longer to recover from than planned section. I had 2 planned sections as my risk of needing an emergency section was about 40%, with such a high chance I wasn’t risking it!

Planned sections I felt better by day 4, pretty normal a day or so after that and fully recovered by the end of week 2. I was very lucky though and even with planned sections many people take longer than this to recover. Your body has been through a lot more than mine did as you were already exhausted from the induction. Don’t be surprised if it doubles that timeline or even more, and you are still at very early days.

Rest up. Get your DP to do everything (that helped my recovery) and stay on top of your meds. Hope you feel better soon x

Good lord what a whirlwind! That's a lot to process and deal with.

Someone mentioned standing up straight and it jogged my memory. I was like a prawn for ages and that didn't help recovery either. Something that really helped was standing up straight with your arms up over your head like a v and holding the pose for 20 seconds. It's sounds stupidly simple but doing that twice a day helped.

I have not had a CS but have had abdominal hysterectomy, if the pain is anything like that its horrific. I was on a morphine pump in hospital but then discharged on high strength cocodamol and diclofenac. Took months to feel "normal" but yes, keep on top on pain relief and do not overdo things. I foolishly changed the bed and felt like I was dying🙄

Thank you so much for your comment.

I was actively told to keep moving around and walking when I left the hospital. I asked them and that is what they wanted me to do.
So I will deffo be getting more rest in and will not be going on walks unless absolutely necessary.

I hadn't thought of that. I shall do an E-Consult now then and hope they can help me out.

Oh okay, thank you so much. I will give that a try and see what happens.
Yep it's been a crazy couple of months. So I was already exhausted before labour.

I was induced on the 2nd February. Baby girl didn't respond well to the pessary and so they had to take it out early. I was not able to leave the hospital because of her heartbeat dropping. So I sat around until a bed became available on labour and delivery. They happened around 11pm on the Saturday night.
My waters were broken at 1am on the 16th. Was checked over at 3:30 am and 1cm dilated. Then I was put on the hormone drip.

By 6:30 pm on Saturday night and 15 hours of contractions I was still only 1 cm dilated. So they decided C-Section was the quickest and safest way to get her out of me.
She was born at 20:55 that might (16th February)

C section recovery is no joke and imo massively underplayed - I basically had a planned one and still found the recovery absolutely brutal. I still could barely walk on day 5- I remember hobbling to the car and still being unable to use stairs. I think by 2 weeks it was more manageable (could walk slowly around the block without being in total agony), by 3-4 weeks I felt ok to start meeting up with people. And I didn’t have any infection or anything, neat scar, as I said it wasn’t a rushed emergency or anything, it’s just a super painful surgery! I suspect the people who manage it best are those who (a) have planned ones and (b) also have had some kind of similar surgery before so are more mentally prepared. I’d only ever had outpatient stuff before so I think my body really was shocked by it.

Ibrupfoen / paracetamol aren’t enough - you definitely need the stronger meds too (sorry I can’t remember the name of mine, but I used it daily for c 3 weeks, I started tapering then as it caused horrible constipation :/).

I didn’t do any chores for 2 weeks; I also bought one of those picker upper things off Amazon for the following weeks, so that I never had to bend over when doing simple things like picking up a piece of laundry.

I did go on small walks each day as advised by the doctors (to avoid blood clots). These were very painful but necessary. I know someone who did get a blood clot so it does happen unfortunately.

I didn’t have back spasms though so I’d definitely get those checked out as a possible complication from the anaesthetic. I did have other unpleasant complications from the anaesthetic though so I sympathise!

best of luck, I really wish people wouldn’t undermine c section recovery (planned or otherwise). I had friends who talked about their 2-3 days of horrible contractions as part of vaginal births - and I spent the first two weeks of recovery desperately thinking how preferable that would’ve been (and still do..)

Thank you all for the lovely replies, I did manage to speak to the doctors today and they were super helpful.
They have given me some more oramorth, some proper diclofenac and some laxatives.

If the back spasms continue you then they want me to contact maternity triage and speak to them. So thankfully now I have a plan in place

@gills22 your lengthy wait before even labour and emcs was so similar to mine, waiting for a bed in labour ward for days on end and not able to leave as was being monitored for high blood pressjre at 11 days overdue with a 10lb baby, it really added to my baby blues after having my son so hope you're OK. I moved house at 6 weeks after emcs and was lifting shouldn't have been but could do so without pain. 18 months on now and feel like myself again, don't get any issues with scar area etc, and can't remember last time I felt even a twinge, your body will be your own again :)