Hospital gives only paracetamol+ibuprofen for C-section recovery?!???!

[Scaredmama1023]

I just learnt that my hospital only gives paracetamol and ibuprofen after C-section :(. And for anything else you need to ask and ad-hoc they might give morphine if doctor agrees...

They are such weak medication, I take those for headaches and period pains. To think that's what you get after being literally cut open and stitched back?!?!?! I though I'll be sick hearing this.

I'm panicking, not sure how I'll stick the pain of my C-section recovery. I'm a massive wimp when it comes to pain :(

Ladies... how bad is the pain in like on 1-10 scale where 10 is absolute agony? I guess it changes by day too? And then there is this shoulder tip pain and all. Jeez how did you all cope????

my husband got a little cyst removed from his leg and they gave him tramadol so I doubt it ! It’s shocking tbh

For the shoulder pain drink peppermint tea. I drank this for my second c-section and never had any issues with that pain.

I had two and didn’t find them that painful. The worse was probably shoulder pain but mainly as I wasn’t aware that it was a possible side effect and worried there was some thing wrong. Pain wise for my second section I’ve had more painful periods. I did have stronger pain relief than just what you listed though.

Best of luck. Hopefully you get more pain relief and it’s ok

I was in agony! I was sent home with dihydrocodiene and when it started wearing off I was counting the minutes until I could take more. Paracetamol wouldn’t have been enough.

I take stronger for period pain sometimes, but paracetamol was fine for me after the section. I had to set a timer to take it as I’d forget as wasn’t in pain! I stopped taking it after a couple of days and was walking about the day after with no issues at all. Was a walk in the park compared to my appendix removal and that was laparoscopic!!

This is a decent hospital you should be fine if.you advocate for yourself

I had 2 elcs first one i listened to all the "youll be fine" and mangled on through. It wasnt great bit was okay.

2nd one about 2 hrs post c section and before I was in pain I said "i need some pain relief and I need something decent paracetamol + ibuprofen wont cut it. if you need a registrar to organise that do it now please"

I thonk they fob women off as its less paperwork.

When I got home I used leftover naproxen and a few codeine tablets we had.

Also please bring your own paracetamol and ibuprofen otherwise you can literally be waiting for hours for a midwife to bother/remember.

Had an emergency c-section 20 years ago and just had paracetamol afterwards (and honestly didn’t take much of it). I’m allergic to morphine so that wasn’t an option, but it honestly wasn’t that bad. Had my gallbladder removed recently and, other than a dose of fentanyl given in theatre, I just had paracetamol and ibuprofen afterwards too.

I can't have ibuprofen or voltarol due to a previous ulcer so I had morphine the day of then paracetamol. My first was in the NICU so I kept losing track of my medication times so after day 3 I stopped altogether and just suffered. Do not recommend. Second time was a planned c section and paracetamol was perfectly adequate.

Hormones and adrenaline do a lot. If you're not breastfeeding you can have cocodamol and things. The worst experience I had was an infected molar with a dying nerve at 6 weeks post partum is have another c section before going through that on paracetamol and gargling cold water.

My second was an emergency CS. Didn't get anything but those, that's standard. Actually missed taking them sometimes as so busy with baby, and got told off!
You get lots of injections too, for clots

I guess it’s different for everyone. Labour was horrendous for me and lasted over a day. I thought I was going to die.
the planned c section was a walk in the park in comparison. I only had pain for a few days and was running around after a toddler, cooking and doing house work on day 3

It will be OK. I felt the same as you when I heard that too. I have had 2 C-Sections and what worked very well for me was taking a medication every 2 hours, even through the night, alternating between paracetamol and iboprofen. For example: 8am Paracetamol 10am Iboprofen 12pm Paracetamol 2pm Iboprofen .....

I felt OK. Thought I'd stop pain relief by day 10, big mistake and then it took me a while to get back into the swing of it again.

Top up on 2 weeks worth of both medications, it'll take a few trips to the shops as they only sell you 2 packets at a time, but it will be cheaper than getting them on prescription.

Good luck

I've had 3 c-secs. It's really not bad at all after the first 12/24 hours. Just like a bad period. The trick is to keep moving or you get stiff and then it hurts. I slept semi sitting up for a few days. I only used paracetamol and ibuprofen. I even went supermarket shopping on the way back from the hospital and useless ex-h didn't have any food in!

Also bring your own pain killers, as you can be left waiting too long at times.

I’m wondering if they don’t give anything strong as standard because they don’t know who will breast feed and some meds are not safe when nursing

If you were having for example a hysterectomy you'd get more. It's situational.

They want you to breastfeed, stronger meds will affect baby. Makes them sleepy, feed worse, higher risk of readmission for jaundice and weight loss. Think also associated with breathing issues and they can get withdrawl if you take for longer than a certain number of days.

Also they expect to leave you in charge of a newborn baby. In my case partners weren't allowed to stay overnight so they didn't want me looking after a new baby as a first time mum high on pain meds. You wouldn't be looking after newborn alone after a few drinks, you also shouldn't be doing it on opiates. The woman opposite me had some oramorph, conked out and was snoring away while her newborn choked on the mucus they were coughing up (common with c sections). Me and the other woman in the room were yelling trying to wake her and I had to ring the emergency bell to get staff to come running in to help the baby as I was still numb. They helped the baby then still took several attempts to wake her after. Slept right through it. They didn't let her have any more after that and she was absolutely pissed off about it but it wasn't safe.

I only had paracetamol and ibuprofen and was absolutely fine. I needed a root canal about a year later and the pain while I needed that was honestly far far worse than my c section recovery.

I had codeine and paracetamol for the first few days, partly because I’m allergic to ibuprofen and diclofenac. The pain wasn’t too bad at all.

I only had paracetomal and ibuprofen after my second one and no break through pain. Im a wuss in general too! Don't panic. There is more if you need it but you might not.

No - most of just ask/ or prescribe what we know is safe for breastfeeding. There aren’t many drugs that are commonly used and cause a real problem for breast fed babies. Codeine is the main one that we avoid if we know someone’s planning to BF.

Paracetamol and ibuprofen were fine for me. You have to be careful how you move (e.g. roll onto your side to get out of bed, generally move slowly to begin with especially on the stairs) but other than that the C-section pain was fine. My nipples hurt more from breastfeeding a couple of days in though (that got better).

Cocodamol or other opiods could badly affect the baby through breast feeding. That's why. I struggled on paracetamol after c-section, but the fear of harming my child made me stick to it. Tbh you're so knackered with a small child you're not moving around much anyway!

I had some morphine in theatre when I got some breakthrough pain during the surgery itself. Afterwards I might have had a couple of doses of dihydrocodeine but I honestly can’t remember. I was out of bed about 4 hours after baby was born (my choice).

I actually found my tiny first degree tear after my VBAC baby was born more painful 🤣 Tbf no one had cut through any nerves for that and it was sore for weeks!

I used to be a postnatal ward midwife. Routine morphine certainly hasn’t been a routine thing for the past 15 years or so (although I think it was usually written up on the drug charts just in case - I might be wrong, it’s been a few years). Codeine is usually written up PRN (as required) but it’s terribly constipating, which isn’t ideal after surgery.

You can buy paracetamol with codeine OTC (solpadiene max is the strongest variant) and also ibuprofen with codeine (nurofen plus)

Both of those are available OTC if you speak to the pharmacist.

They probably won't sell to you if visibly pregnant, so get someone close to you to purchase both.

That's what I did for both my c sections, it worked and I wouldn't have been ok without them.

Omg is the code in all your responses that "pain is manageable" that it hurts a lot, but you have no choice? It sounds like you were in a sharp pain all the time!!! That's horrific. I'm sure after other abdominal surgeries they give proper pain relief

I don't think there's any 'code' in these responses. I had a caesarian section and was given some sort of painkilling injection (don't know what it was! probably morphine) directly after the op.

Then when the drug trolley came round next day they gave me some paracetamol. After that, they asked from time to time if I needed pain relief. I honestly didn't really. Then when I got home I just took it easy for a while.
Of course it feels sore and delicate, but feeling sore doesn't necessarily mean unbearable pain. As a pp said, it might hurt if you stretch a bit too far or when you sit down or stand up, but soreness isn't like being in horrible pain and the soreness is a helpful warning to not overdo things for a while.

Sounds about right.

You're covered for a few hours by the spinal, then a diclofenac suppository for a few hours after that. Midwives/post natal nurses were fortunately very good about giving paracetamol and ibuprofen on time, so the pain was managed.

Once home I set alarms for myself to stay on top of things. Sure there was some discomfort, but as soon as I was safe to stand I did, and tried to move regularly so I didn't stiffen up which made the pain worse.

codeine is not advised for women planning to breastfeed because of the risk of respiratory depression on the neonate.

Same it felt like an intense burning pain, I felt like someone was holding a red hot iron against my stomach.

I worked out the medication so I only ever had to wait 2 hours to take something. I couldn’t move without the drugs.

I’ve had gallstones and the pain for the first 3-4 days post C-section was on par with that.