My elective c section was also very positive.
I’ll paint the picture of what sort of person I am. I have A LOT of anxiety, terrified of hospitals and doctors. I also have a massive fear of needles. So as you can imagine on the build up to it, in fact during the whole pregnancy, I was absolutely terrified whenever I thought about it.
I got NO sleep the night before, quite literally zero because I was so incredibly nervous. Had to wake up at 6am to be at the hospital for 7:30am. When I got there the ward I was on was so silent. The midwife introduced herself and gave me my gown to wear and surgery socks. I can also remember needing to pee every 10 minutes, due to being so pregnant but half due to being so nervous.
The anaesthetist came around and spoke to me and checked a few things, I can’t remember entirely what they were but one was if I had any allergies and I told them I was allergic to steroids and ibuprofen. I was then given a red band. I remember asking my partner to take some last photos of my bump and then the midwife literally came behind the curtain saying ‘You all ready to go?’ I was so shocked. It was like 9am, I was expecting to be there all morning/early afternoon.
I went down the hospital to another area and was sat in a small room with the midwife, anaesthetist and another lady. I explained throughout the whole morning over and over how absolutely petrified of needles I am. At this point I was crying, quite literally non stop. Not sobbing uncontrollably or embarrassingly so but just constant flow of tears down my face. They numbed my hand first and then placed the cannula in. Maybe my mind has made me mentally block it out but I don’t remember it actually hurting so much.
Queue needing the toilet for the 200th time in 2 hours so I went out the room and I walked past my partner (who had to sit outside whilst I got my cannula done) and I showed him my hand and said ‘look I did it’. I went to the toilet and I remember looking at myself in the mirror and saying ‘come on you can do this’ took a deep breath and then went back out to the theatre room.
Went in to theatre and my partner was allowed in this time. Leaned over for the spinal block to be done and honestly I can’t even remember it hurting that much, I think I just felt a weird sensation and a lot of pressure. It kicked in SO quickly though. I must add this was my second c section, my first was an emergency one and is still a bit of a blur to me, but I’d already had the epidural some hours before it.
Throughout the whole thing I was checked on several times, I didn’t feel a thing. With my first I do remember a lot of tugging, pushing and actually a slight bit of pain but this time NOTHING!! Absolutely nothing whatsoever. My son was born at 10am! So I got to the hospital at 7:30 and within 2.5 hours my son was with us.
Was stitched up and wheeled on to a recovery ward for a couple of hours where baby latched on perfectly and everything was amazing. I will admit the aftercare wasn’t brilliant. I have no idea why midwives expect you to run a marathon a few hours after major abdominal surgery. I was laughed at at one point when I asked for some help. It was horrible. I was left in the bed for 24 hours with my catheter still in, no help changing my pad, no help walking me
around the room, a wee bag that looked like it was fit to burst constantly.
The main thing to take away from my story was that the actual c section itself was amazing. It went so smoothly and everybody involved was so, so unbelievably kind and understanding.
Best of luck to you! ❤️✨