Recovery from a C Section...

[BlueButTrue]

Is it really so bad?

It is major abdominal surgery, yet I’ve seen woman comment on here that theirs was fab and women comment that it felt like they’d be crippled.

What factors take into account how the healing process goes?

Assuming these two ladies don’t get infected scars etc, why might one lady find it a walk in the park, easier than vaginal delivery, and the other fine it crippling and tear inducing for prolonged periods?

My Mum had one just four years ago and it resulted in a watermelon sized hernia

She insists vaginal deliveries are best because they bloody hurt, but, assuming you don’t tear - You’re back to you again after the birth and physical recovery is much sharper.

I’m petrified of the pain - My consultant is happy to go along with whichever route I wish to take due to a few different things.

Ideally, I would just have a natural birth but with an epidural. When they go well, they’re brilliant. Realistically though, this increases the risk of an EMCS even more

I’m also a bit that I can’t bloody shower for a set time after a section, which makes me feel rather ill.

I had an emergency c section at 10 o’clock and showered the next day after the spinal block had worn off.

If you have a epidural you can’t shower until it has worn off anyway.

Change Epidural drug wears off a lot quicker though, doesn’t it?

And with an epidural, the only difficulty would be the drug. If someone is on hand, you can manage the shower if you really really want to.

With EMCS/ELCS I didn’t think you could get the wound area wet?

I had a c section. I had a shower the next morning and was able to do things. I needed a blood transfusion apart from that no problems with recovery

After my emergency section I was in bed for five or six hours, then told to get up and walk to he toilet which I did, showered the next day.
After 48 hours the big plastic pad over the wound came off in the bath.
Hurt like hell, but pain killers helped, as did planning my movements.
I am having a planed section in a few weeks now. Will be interesting to see how they compare.
I had a lot of bruising from the emergency. And a three day labour before hand. So I wasn't in a good way.

I had a section at 11pm. Was in the shower next morning...i could walk and move pretty freely. For a free days I was stooped over and got tired very quickly but I would say I was back to normal after two weeks. But I would say it was much sorer and tougher going than my vaginal delivery where I showered an hour after birth and where I was able to do everything normally straight away. I had a few internal stitches but felt nothing.

The wound was covered. A shower was recommended by the nursing staff.

I’ve had a crash section and a planned one. Recovery from both absolutely fine. Key for me was getting up and walking as soon as I was able.

Everyone is different so it’s hard to say what works for someone doesn’t work for another.

I had a very quick c-section recovery. It was an emergency c-section, done under GA after 10 hours of labour. It wasn’t a small neat cut and when I went to move the next day I thought my insides were about to fall out. I’ve never felt worse. I think my attitude to keep moving (gently) was a huge aid. I barely sat down, I plodded up and down the corridor and took all the painkillers I could get. It got infected but - three days post c-section I did a gentle 2km walk. By six weeks I was gently running 5km and did a slow half marathon after 6 months. I’m not a super fit sporty individual but I just kept gently moving and my body did the rest. I was probably very lucky. I didn’t do any strength type exercises or abdominal exercise for a good 6 months.

I had a vaginal birth with my first DC and while my immediate recovery was better it took me much longer to get out and exercise so I felt worse for it (but that was adjusting to parenthood rather than the type of birth)!

I had all 3 kids vaginally.... DC3 I had at 5:45am was home by 8am and in Debenhams shopping at 2pm and breastfed her in the cafe !

I've had forceps and episiotomy in theatre first time with spinal/epidural and an ELCS with my second. I would take the section every time. I recovered faster (showered and dressed the same day as was first thing) and was in far less pain. Plus my child was uninjured.

Yeah, it's not pain free but a shit load better.

I had emcs. After failed induction - no progress and ds in distress. Recovery not too bad. I had the outermost cut glued together so showering was no problem. I saw my consultant yest for my dating scan and she has agreed elcs with me again.

I think it's like any operation in variations in recovery time. I've had one op which everyone said had a long recovery time but I was fine in a couple of days.

I've had an emcs and an elcs. emcs took me about 3 months to recover from but I'm 4 weeks on from my elective and I feel pretty much back to normal. That's partly because I was exhausted after a long labour for the first but also a doctor told me that they obviously can't see exactly what they're cutting through. So one operation might get a nerve or a particular bit of a muscle which will take longer to recover. Some of it's just chance.

Showered next Day here too. Was in for two nights and did have some severe stabbing pains the first night but the doctors think it was probably trapped wind. I was shuffling for a couple of days but still managed the stairs at home easier than when I was heavily pregnant (bad SPD). My last stitch at the end of my scar took a long time to sort itself out so I’d say my full recovery was long but I could see and check the wound and had no fear around it whereas if I’d had vaginal stitches I would have panicked personally but that’s another thread and part of why I had an ELCS.

I had twins by planned section. Last year when I was enquiring about a tummy tuck the surgeon told me my scar was extra long and I often wonder if this was why my recovery was so slow.

My best friend had three sections and was one of those 'I was up at the shops the next morning' gang.

In contrast I was in agony next day. It took all my resolve to get up and walk. My DH had to change and feed babies. It was immense. My recovery slow too.

It's horses for courses. Some will bounce back and others will struggle.I was lucky to have lots of support though.

I had an emergency csection last year. I felt like I'd been run over the following day, walked bent over for a few days and had to keep on top of taking paracetamol and ibuprofen to ease the pain. I was able to shower once I was back on my feet and had no infection. I felt a lot better after two weeks. Gentle walks helped recovery. Nearly a year later and the scar has already faded a lot.

I had my first 2 babies vaginally and 3rd by emcs. I had the emcs on Tuesday evening, had a blood transfusion and had to stay in for 2 nights. But I did the school run (albeit slowly) on the Friday. To be honest I’m almost certain I recovered quicker from the emcs than at least the first vaginal birth because I had to. After first baby I had time to sit still and recover slowly (stitches to heal) but by the time the 3rd one came along we had two other small people so taking my time over it wasn’t really an option. 2nd birth was the easiest and quickest to recover after.

Ive had 1 emcs and 3 elcs's. I had 1 disastrous recovery when i got infection after infection and that was down to doing too much too soon, walking, lifting, twisting etc, it is major surgery and some women recover quicker than others and also no two sections are the same. I learnt that doing as little as possible esp in the first week was what helped my body recover, but it took my 2nd section with all the infections to realise that!

I've had 2 EMCS - no problems recovering from either, but something about the sewing techniques (I'm guessing from the feeling as it healed) meant that for the first one I was hunched over for a bit (it seemed to have more layers, and be tighter), the second I was painkiller free and walking around in a week.

I will say that after the first one, my body just went back to how it was - the sewing job was excellent. After the second I can feel that I have a numb spot on my lower stomach, and I have a massive overhang - I really felt that the second sewing job was more slap-dash.

Oh, and for the first I had a full on epidural, and so I was a bit slower on my feet after (only by an hour or two), and both my legs swelled up with retained water about 3 days later. For the second I just had the spinal and was able to move very quickly after, and had no swelling.

Another factor might be the position the baby's in. Mine got stuck so there was a lot of tugging and they had to use forceps.

Dc1 was born vaginally. I was home 4 hours later and slept in my bed that night. The next day I felt sore and achey but otherwise ok. Dc2 was born elcs, I stayed 2 nights in hospital, catheterised, with morphine. When I went home I had to have dh physically help me into the car. I felt very weak, like I'd imagine a little old lady to be. I slept downstairs for the first week as I couldn't cope with going up the stairs. It was about 2 weeks before I could cope with dh driving me to the shops as the speed bumps in the car parks made me think my organs were going to fall out.

Both my births were as straight forward as you could hope for. If you have help while you recover from c section you'll be fine. I don't know what I'd have done if I didn't have dh off for the first 3 weeks though.

I think the build up to and the reason why a c section is needed heavily impacts the recovery.

My waters burst naturally and I was contracting for almost two days with little to no dilation before the hospital basically told me I had no option but to have a c section as the risk of infection was getting out of hand.

Not gonna lie, I didn't cope well and I'm good with pain. The first time they made me get up off of the bed I clung on to my partner for dear life and sobbed. I could barely walk for about two days. Once we were let home after four days, I still struggled majorly sitting up and down, getting in and out of bed and off and on of the toilet. Laughing, coughing and sneezing made me feel like my wound was going to burst open.

I have to be honest, I've never experienced pain like it. I had no infections and the wound itself healed well but I just found it all to be really horrible. I think my pain was mostly due to the fact that my wound was stapled shut and not stitched. The tape dressing remained on my wound for a week so any time I moved, the dressing would tug on the metal staples and it fricken killed. Once the staples were removed it was a little easier, but I didn't feel totally pain free for at least a month.

My sister on the other hand is a wuss with pain, had a c section for practically the same reasons as me, had stitches instead of staples as was almost right as rain after a few days!

i love love loved my ELCS. calm, planned, yes it hurts but it wasn't the horror story you hear. how old are you OP?

after 35 your chances of a vaginal birth with no intervention is 1 in 3. i didn't fancy those odds. i also read this book recommended by a fellow mumsnetter - very enlightening.

((www.amazon.co.uk/Choosing-Cesarean-Natural-Birth-Plan/dp/1616145110))

sober I like the planned and ‘knowing what’s to come’ aspect of it

I’m 19, not sure what the odds are for me

It seems people get on better with stitches than staples

My MW has advised they’d be using dissolvable stitches on me. Anyone have any experience of these?

She recoiled in horror when I asked if they used staples

I had 2 sections, one emergency, one planned. The first one was really hard, I swelled up like a balloon, I got an internal infection and was in pain and fragile for months. The second one was a walk in the park, I was home the same day, minimal pain, walking around normally within a fortnight. I do have numbness around my scar and an overhang which I’ll probably end up having surgery for. My point is that recovery is different for every pregnancy, a planned section is often easier to recover from as you aren’t already exhausted from labouring. I also think that I gained much less weight the second time and was physically fitter which helped in recovery. I did pregnancy excercise videos about twice a week.

I would say that even if you have a section you can’t really plan what’s to come. You don’t know how you’ll recover.

If I could do it all again I would try for a natural birth if possible, the scar and accompanying issues (overhang, weird numb skin) are still something I have to think about years later and I think if you can manage to do it naturally then it’s worth short term pain.

I have no medical background and don’t mean this as anythjng other than food for thought but my eldest also had eczema and athsma which I read can be (not always) exacerbated by a ceserean birth as babies aren’t exposed to the good bacteria they need to colonise their guts and their lungs aren’t squeezed in the same way as through natural birth.