Magnesium sulfate- help!

zbeesma86

Monday at 9 am our daughter will be here!!! 

Im so very excited and very scared and nervous! First baby and having a c section-- I'm so scared for the whole process!! The IV, the catheter, the spinal, the surgery itself!! Any FTM or STM with c section experience under their belt it's words of wisdom??

 Since I have pre eclampsia the doc is putting me on magnesium sulfate for 24 hours after birth for seizure prevention. Has anyone had this happen? I'm worried it will hurt my chances of breast feeding! Plus I hear you feel so lousy on it that you sleep a lot. 

 

irisheyez123

I had pre-e and was on magnesium sulfate. My c-section was an emergency and I had been on the magnesium since I was checked in so in the end it was about 2 1/2 days total. I'm not very sensitive to medications so it didn't bother me too bad. DS was early so I was on an agressive pumping/feeding schedule but my milk came in fine so I don't think you have anything to worry about.

On the other hand, in case you didn't know, you can sometimes get the shakes coming down off of the spinal/epidural. I knew this prior to going in so I wasn't scared when it happened to me but it would have freaked me out if I didn't know ahead of time. It lasted I think about an hour or so until I finally got my arms under control.

As far as your concerns, once the IV is in you are usually all set and any medications/fluids can be administered through them which is great so you don't have to be poked at all the time or they can administer medication if necessary. The catheter is put in after you are numb so you probably won't even notice it and I barely felt it when they took it out. The spinal should be a bit more bearable since it's planned (I was had an arm band taking my blood pressure every few minutes, contraction, and was dizzy when they were doing mine). It's okay to be scared - let them know and tell them what you need to feel more at ease. I had a good surgery and recovery. Allow people to help you and ask for help when needed afterwards - you don't need to be superwoman.

Good luck and congrats!

Jessie619217

Just had a c-section about a week ago. Honestly the catheter was the most painful/scary part. The IV wasn't bad, but I've had them before. The spinal was scary but it wasn't painful. After the whole experience I am pretty happy I had a c-section instead of regular delivery and happy that I don't have to deal with the tears, hemorrhoids, etc.

kle0113

I had a RCS and Mag sulfate for a totally different reason.  My daughter was 2 months premature so I got the mag sulfate to help her.  I can honestly tell you that it was awful!  It made me very hot...to the point that I was telling MH that he needed to ask the nurses if I should be this hot.  They said yes, and it is like you are going through your changes.  After about 45 minutes I was fine, but those 45 minutes were awful! 

I will also tell you that I went into labor with my daughter the weekend here that we had a very serious snow storm and the hospital I was in was running on generators so it was hotter then normal in the hospital (my room was showing 85 degrees) and with the mag sulfate it just made it worse.  Other then that, I did not sleep a lot because I was too hot.

My recovery was great!  I honestly loved my c-section experiences.  Good Luck!