A Q's for all you lovely ladies who have had an ELCS please :)

[justbeingmummy]

Hi,
this might be a silly question but not having had an ELCS before I dont know?

I do race for life every year usually, im not particuarly active generally and only ever walk and jog normally. Im having an ELCS on 30th March and my race for life event is on 19th June. This is about 2 and a half months after my ELCS so am just wondering if you all felt able to do something like this by then?

I really want to do it this year more than normally as I lost my Dad a few months ago to this horrible disease but I dont want to sign up and then not be able to do it :(

Any advice would be great thanks x

I would say that you will be fine to do it, though depending on how sleep-deprived those two months are, you might not be able to run in the style of an olympian... I had my twins by ELCS in July 2006 and was definitely moving around as normal by the end of August.

Good luck!

I have had one emergency and one elective - for me the recovery was a bit quicker after the elective, but not a lot, even though the emergency was more traumatic and complicated and the elective went very smoothly.

I would say you could do it but might want to plan on walking most of the Race though, as although you should have normal mobility back quite comfortably by then you won't have been "in training" for more than a few weeks, as it really would not be sensible to do more than take walks until 6 weeks after your section, and after that you will be best building up towards running distances much more gradually than you would if you had not had major abdominal surgery! My sister tried to throw herself straight back into helping her DH on his farm plus looking after and riding her horse all at once after her 6 week check and ruptured her scar even that late on! She went from doing very little for 6 weeks to doing everything she had done pre pregnancy all at once though, including lifting quite heavy things (she also had an emergency not an elective)! There is, as Eviltwins says, also sleep deprivation to take into account as with any mum of tiny baby, regardless of what kind of birth you had!

I think you could walk it for certain but a bit early for an actual run tbh

Thanks ladies, I am planning on just walking as I know all my lovely friends will sponsor me no matter how I get round there :)

I hadnt taken the sleep deprivation into account though

Walk not run - not enough time for recovery and training for a run, but definitely do it