Did you have morphine for pain relief after your c section?

[Cinai2]

I think some hospitals seem to use it, others don’t. Did you have it / needed it / any side effects?

They gave me liquid morphine after my first C-section but not after my second, not sure why. I wonder if not having it the second time had anything to do with the insane itching I had from the spinal (I didn't get the itching with the first one) 🤔

I'm not a fan of morphine though because it makes me feel really sick. But I probably would have preferred feeling sick to the hours and hours of intense itching..

Thank you for that info. I had 3 planned c-sections under GA and was in a lot of pain when I woke up each time. Reading how many people were fine with nothing or just paracetamol made me feel like I was a wimp!

Oramorph - quite a few doses.

Then cocodamol and diclofenic.

Bloody hell I wish!! Just paracetamol - absolute torture bandits!

I did, but it was abroad, had a different opiate, not sure what it was as it was a bit of a rush. turns out I metabolise opiates extremely quickly (which was a shame because it was bloody fantastic). They were really good with pain management tbh. Took it very seriously.

Could just be jaundiced. Both mine were mildly jaundiced. Enough to make them very sleepy, but not enough to need treatment anyway. No post partum opioids involved.

In Australia in private hospitals the epidural is left in place till day 3 so you receive morphine through that it’s a little pump so you can self medicate (to a limit if you push it too many times it stops). Was great. After that went home on Panadol.

I did definitely after my third and fourth sections, I can't remember if I did or not for my first 2. I definitely needed it after those last two and it meant I had to stay in an extra night to have it. No side effects other than I had a bit of a lucid dream but I was grateful for the pain relief.

No I didn’t, I had the spinal then I had paracetamol and ibuprofen for the next 2-3 weeks. I tried stopping them too soon and realised it was a mistake.

The hospital did send me away with stronger pain killers but said only use them if I really needed them. I didn’t need them in the end.

Yes and I disliked it intently and asked them to remove the drip. It was a bit of a bun fight and they insisted I needed it. So I refused to push the button to get thr dose. They then removed it snd gave me the suppositories instead, which made the pain melt away. Morphine made me feel dopey and out of it. Like a zombie. The last thing you need with a new baby.

Absolutely magic stuff. 10/10 would recommend. I've had it 3 times, and found it amazing every time.

A couple of the consultant anaesthetists at my trust use IV diclofenac instead. Not sure if the rest want to adopt the practice, but it is a little more civilised.

Babies get jaundiced because they're not taking enough milk in so not peeing and pooping enough to clear all the byproducts of red cell breakdown out. It's a bad cycle, initial sleepiness and not feeding well will result in jaundice. Those babies not feeling well continue sleepiness.

Like I said, could be coincidence but on my bay, the breastfed babies whose mum's didn't take opiate pain medication did better. They also don't let you have opiate pain relief in labour too close to delivery due to effect on baby (obviously more pronounced because via blood rather than milk). It's not a 'if you accept morphine your baby will become sleeping beauty and be really ill' deal, and if you're in a lot of pain then do what you need to, but you can't pretend it won't affect the baby if you're breastfeeding as it does go into your milk so you are giving your baby opiates too.

Same here! Oramorph made me feel so spaced out and dizzy

With DD I had IV morphine with a push button. Didn't realise how good it was until they were taking it off me! Really missed a trick on that one. Delivery was EMCS after failed induction and I had severe pre-eclampsia which was missed by the community midwife so there was a lot of arse covering going on afterwards. I also had a PICO battery operated vacuum dressing over my scar.

Had EMCS with DS but no morphine and no fancy dressing. I wasn't nearly so ill though and they were very hot on delivering before the PE really took hold.

I had oramorph for about two days after mine, but it was an emergency section and they had no time to be careful. Baby was out within about 90 seconds of the spinal block taking effect. I was in agony and couldn't move. Baby was in scbu and I'd never have got into a wheelchair to go and meet her if it wasn't for the morphine.

I was given voltarol tablets, which worked very well.

No, not after the spinal wore off. Was fine with paracetamol - 'ouch' if i moved to quickly biut not at all in pain (-and generally i have a low pain threshold)

I haven't read the full thread but when I had my appendix out I was only given paracetamol and ibuprofen. They gave me some oramorph on the first night as I was complaining about the pain and not able to sleep, it definitely wasn't given as standard though. This was 15 years ago!

Yes, I was in high dependency & had a port that they kept on putting the morphine in, I was drugged up to the eyeballs, they kept my epidural going for 24 hours to try & get my BP down as it was above even dangerous levels despite being given medication to get it down. I had hellp syndrome & my organs were in danger of failing. Exh said I kept on opening my eyes, saying hello & then drifting off back into my drug induced sleep for the first 36 hours.

@TheBigStrawberry were you opened or was it keyhole though?

No, and I didn't feel I needed anything stronger either time.
Came out of surgery with diclofenac suppository in situ then alternating paracetamol and diclofenac for the first few days then just paracetamol.

What make a difference is getting to the loo regularly, keeping very well hydrated and constipation plus surgical wound equals agony and being ontime with the pain killers. Dont leave a gap so it starts to hurt more.

I was given quite a lot of morphine during the c section because my spinal started to wear off as I was being stitched back up, so the options were either put me under a GA or keep topping me up with morphine. I had a really bad reaction to it and my skin was itching all over for hours.

On the post natal ward I was fine with paracetamol and ibuprofen, but you can ask for something stronger if you need it. Slight defer off topic but be mindful of the trapped wind pain in the shoulders and chest after c section, go to hospital stocked up with peppermint tea.

same.

I also had a pain relief suppository which I didn’t even know about first time… 2nd time around they were like “do you want a suppository after surgery again?” And I was like 🧐
morphine also can cause constipation which is something to think about.

I had some stronger stuff for the first 48hrs co drymol or something

I was given a couple of doses of oromorph, which was lovely! Otherwise, just ibuprofen and paracetamol.

I had it prescribed after my first but had to ask for it if I felt I needed it . My other 2 was just paracetamol and ibuprofen, I didn't need anything else. Was also given codiene to take home with me if needed