Elective section - what were your experiences?

[Peaplant20]

As the title says. Were you happy with your decision, did you have any regrets?

thanks

I had a C section after a failed induction a couple of months ago. The operation itself was actually incredible - I felt nothing and my son was with us in minutes! Staff were amazing and it really was a beautiful birth. Because of the screen, I saw nothing and neither did my husband so we just focused on our son whilst I was being stitched back together pain-free! We were in and out within 40 minutes.
Recovery was painful, but not atrocious, and I was pretty much fully recovered in ten days. We now wish we'd had an elective from the start as it takes all of the pressure off when the baby will come, and if I do have a second I'll definitely have an elective :)

I had mine 11 days ago after an emergency c section with my first 3 years sho. Comparatively it's the opposite end of the spectrum, I honestly felt like we had gone private this time around. The staff were so attentive and we were just chilling for a few hours before my slot came up so I read my book on a bed and napped. Walked into theatre and felt a scratch when spinal went in, but then it was all very straightforward and calm, happy playlist on in the background lots of chatter and laughing between us and staff. Baby was bigger than expecting so that was a fair bit of tugging, but had lots of skin to skin while I was being stitched up (I only had a minute with my dd because I started to go downhill so they gave her to my DH so it was a really positive difference this time having 30 mins+). My surgeon however was very much a double checker and I did start to feel anxious that my spinal would wear off, i had a lot of scar tissue so it took a bit longer than expected. But they prepped pain relief and general anaesthetic in case I needed it but then after a few mins I was done.
Recovery has been a BREEZE in comparison. Op was at midday, by about 10pm I was up walking to the chair and back to bed and was out of observation on recovery by about 1am. Catheter out at 6am and I was then up and down to loo etc, home by 5pm. Probably about 2-3 days of feeling pretty sore, but since about 7 days I've been managing short walks with the pram and yesterday was out for about 1 hour with my toddler on a buggy board too. Absolutely no internal pain at all since about day 8 I would say.

The most painful bit was getting the pressure dressing peeled off tbh! And the glue on my scar now is a bit irritating where it's itchy but stinging as it comes away. Internally though, totally fine. Milk also came in day 2/3 and that was one thing I was worried about as I wouldn't have had labour to trigger it.

I would definitely recommend, although it felt quite surreal I'm grateful for my final pregnancy that it ended with a calm birth and relatively easy recovery all things considered.