C section tips & advice

[Lynsey19]

Hi everyone. I’m a FTM booked in for a planned section next Friday due to medical reasons. Would love to hear about your experiences and recovery and any helpful tips would be welcomed. Thanks x

Good luck. Hope it goes well. I had an EMC so not planned. The recovery is sore but the painkillers are great. Don't overstretch yourself and make sure you have lots of help during those first 6 weeks. Make sure you use a cushion when sitting on sofa to feed. :)

I just had mine on Friday and it was a wonderful experience! I actually didn’t need any painkillers stronger than paracetamol+codeine (Solpadeine) or ibuprofen. I got paranoid when the epidural started wearing off and requested pain relief, and they gave me a strong opiate similar to morphine. Reacted badly to that (room started spinning and felt sick) so my tip is to listen to your body and request or refuse meds based on your own needs.

The one thing that did bother me was pain during movement (eg walking to the bathroom). I still feel very sore just moving around but since the pain goes away instantly if I sit or lie down, I‘m reluctant to take painkillers just for that reason. So try not to push yourself, I needed a wheelchair to get to the car after being discharged since I knew that distance was too far for me to walk.

And lastly the dreaded post op bowel movement! I‘m not joking but it was actually the most satisfying one I‘ve had in my entire life. I only ate small amounts of high-fiber food in hospital (wholegrain bread, fruit, veg), drank lots of water but avoided taking any stool softeners during the first 2 days when my stitches were far too sore to contemplate pooing. Then on days 3-4 I took magnesium citrate which worked well against my pregnancy constipation. This flushed my system and I had a completely normal, huge bowel movement that was such a relief without a baby pressing against your intestines. Roll up a bathrobe/towel and hold that against your incision when you‘re on the toilet!

Best of luck and have an amazing time meeting your little one!

I had an ELCS 5 weeks ago and overall it was great. I had some issues in recovery (nausea mostly and low blood sugars for DS) but the procedure itself couldn't have gone better. I was a bit surprised by how painful it was for the anaesthetist to find my hip bones to do the spinal. Other than that no complaints. The surgical team were excellent and so professional.

There's so much I could say about it all but I think the best thing is take each day as it comes and deal with things as they happen. And if you plan to BF but for whatever reason find that you can't- this is ok! Combination or FF is ok!

All the best for you and little one.

I loved my section and recovered very nicely. Take dried fruit like apricots to eat afterwards to make going to the toilet easy.

Congratulations in advance.

Have just realised you have probably had the c section by now. Hope all went ok!