Your C-section Experience

slorbets · December 2015

Hello, I am a FTM and my biggest fear is needing a c-section. I am wondering if any mamas out there could share their c-section experience and offer any advice.
Thank You!

PugsandKisses · December 2015

My 2nd one was wonderful. No pain. Held baby right away, BF right away. I was up walking in hours.

kja2011 · December 2015

Mine was unplanned after a long labor, but not an emergency, so things didn't feel rushed. Our doula was allowed in OR, so she was able to take video of the birth (I really appreciated later, as I was sad about c-section). Baby stayed with me and DH entire time in OR and recovery before headed back to room. Was definitely sore after, but healed fast and no complications.

2 things I didn't love:
1) I was shocked how much fluid/how swollen I got, especially feet.
2) hospital wouldn't allow immediate skin-to-skin. If I schedule RCS, I might change to a different hospital that promotes it

chelseakae07 · December 2015

My c-section experience was great! I had one with my first and knew from the start that's what would happen. Recovery was a breeze and I was also able to breastfeed my DD after a couple of hours (the meds made me very nauseous). It really wasn't bad at all! GL!

jlgriff11 · December 2015

Im also a FTM and I think its really the only thing I'm not worried about for some reason. I guess its because so many people I know had c-sections and it was just fine that I guess I'm just whatever about it. If I have to for the safety of the babies I'm totally OK with it. I think it will help if I suddenly have to have one, because I'm not so worked up to be against it.

Taymiller · December 2015

My c-section was amazing. I don't regret a single thing about it.

DobbysSock · December 2015

Mine was unplanned after a long labour, but not an emergency. There were actually a lot of traumatic things that happened to me during my labour/delivery/post-partum period but the c-section wasn't one of them. I'm totally at peace with my decision to have a repeat c-section and think it'll be healing to have some control over my experience this time.

My surgery went really well, and I healed fairly easily. I was able to shower day 1 post-op, and leave my incision open to air from that time on. At 1 week post-op my staples came out and my incision had healed beautifully (the surgeon took one look and said "Damn, I'm good!"). It's a really small incision and is below my bikini line, so if I was so-inclined (or still had the body for it) I could wear a bikini without anyone knowing.

I was only on morphine for about 12-24 hours, then my PCA was discontinued and I was put on a suppository. I forget the name but it was equivalent strength to an extra strength tylenol. That's what I was sent home with and continued to use them for about a week before I felt good enough to go without. The pain wasn't bad - I was moving slowly for the first week or so and couldn't do much besides lift DD. By 3 weeks post-op I actually felt pretty much back to normal, but continued to follow precautions as recommended until 6 weeks post-op.

DobbysSock · December 2015

Should have added - the best piece of advice I got was to follow the precautions to a T for the entire 6 weeks. It's pretty common to feel back to normal by 3 weeks post-op, but what's happening in your body is that the incision has healed on the top layer, but is still repairing itself deeper inside. The nerves have been damaged during the surgery so you don't feel the deep pain. Many women start to resume normal activity, and then end up damaging the deeper incision or end up tiring themselves out. I did notice that I felt awesome at 3 weeks, and then at about 5 weeks post-op I started to have some pain again (this is about when the nerves start to regenerate, I believe). I was really grateful for the advice I had gotten as I would have been in a world of pain if I had pushed myself too hard in those 2 weeks when I was feeling good.

Taymiller · December 2015

^this exactly!! Even though you feel "normal" take it easy that first 6 weeks!! Well said @DobbysSock

megth · December 2015

My first was a section, unplanned after over a day of labor. It was a relief after it was all over, but on my way to the OR I was very scared. It wasn't what I'd imagined, but I will never forget when my daughter was born and I heard her cry for the first time. I couldn't see her, but oh could I hear her!! And it was amazing. No matter how you give birth, you will be okay. You don't even know how strong you are yet!

anskip · December 2015

I ended up with a section with my first after 27 hours. Turns out her head was stuck behind my cervix and they couldn't get her around it. There was mecomium in my water and for that reason it was considered an emergency. They had a respiratory therapist in the or which was really scary, but it was precautionary. She got check out and was perfect.

The surgery itself was perfect and I had dissolvable stitches inside and out which I highly recommend if it's an option in your practice. I wasn't prepared to be alone while being stitched up, but I did have an awesome nurse who was with me for over half my labor and my surgery. I also showered 1 day post-op, which was the hardest thing I have ever done. Well, second only to the first bowel movement after. That hurt!!!! I didn't know about the referred pain I would have in my shoulder. I didn't notice it as much in the hospital because of the pain meds, but it was there when I got home. I was able to bf about 20 mins after delivery, which was great.

Overall it was a good experience, just not what we thought would happen. This one is a planned section and I'm very comfortable with that decision and feel very prepare as to what to expect.

I do agree with pp's that you should follow all post-op instructions exactly. Your body will thank you!!

PugsandKisses · December 2015

@anskip just an FYI, there is usually a RT (respiratory therapist ) and a NICU (baby ) nurse at all C/S, scheduled, urgent, emergency and life saving.

Pankers · December 2015

I didn't plan on a c section but DD was breach and they wouldn't deliver vaginally. I was in labour and contractions about 1 minute apart and the hardest part was sitting still for the spinal block. Surgery was fine, recovery was really good. I was up walking within 16 or so hours......(most if those were night and I had to wait for the doctor to ok the removal of the catheter). I showered the next day, went home the day after. I was warned stairs would be hard but they were fine. Getting out of bed was hard because your stomach muscles are a mess but you figure it out. I drove to the doctors and lifted DD in and out the car 2 weeks after surgery. Scar is tiny, it was glued. Actually, worst part was the pushing on the uterus every 4 hours or so, that was painful. Oh, like other PP said.....first bowl movement. I laughed when they kept asking me if I farted yet......but you know what, I went about 4/5 days with no farts or poo!!! It was weird, but yeah, stool softeners.....meds make you constipated. Try not to worry, however baby arrives, as long as you are both safe, that's all that matters.

anskip · December 2015

@PugsandKisses Good to know, but there wasn't a NICU nurse in the OR when I delivered, just the nurse that had been waiting on her arrival in the labor room with me. Also, as my doctor described it to me, it did seem like this was not common practice. But who knows, I could be totally mistaken.

DobbysSock · December 2015

@anskip it likely depends on the hospital. I did not have an RT or NICU nurse in the OR with me when I had DD. I had my surgeon, the anesthetist (also a doctor - I think in some countries they have nurse anesthetists?), and another doctor who was assisting and took responsibility for DD once she was out. There were also 3 (I think, maybe more) nurses present. The hospital at which I delivered did not have a NICU so I'm not sure what the nurses' specialties were, but they would have been either surgical or labour/delivery nurses, likely a combination of the two. DD struggled to breath at birth and had inhaled fluid, it was the assisting doctor and 2 of the nurses who worked on clearing her airway.

Puddles03 · December 2015

Disclaimer* I have not had a CS* only thring I have heard is that if you need/want one that if you have to do stairs, go up backwards, apparently there is less pressure on the insicion. Maybe someone can confirm? But yes regardless of how you birth colace is your BFF!!!

anskip · December 2015

@Puddles03 I was not required to do anything other than shower and have a bowel movement:). I'm not sure what you mean by less pressure. I'm just thankful I couldn't feel what they were doing!!

juliaL13 · December 2015

I had an unplanned c-section after a long labor...It's kind of "funny", because during the last tri I was so worried I'd have to have one (had placenta previa), but near the end I found out I could give birth naturally...only to end up having one anyway (baby's heart rate went down with epidural). Anyway, I wouldn't want another one but it wasn't that bad. What I disliked about it the most was not getting to hold my son right away, and being so darn exhausted after being awake for 2 days straight that even when they finally gave him to me I was too tired to feel this amazing emotional reaction. That said, recovery wasn't too bad. I was pretty sore for awhile and I found the hospital bed to be so uncomfortable to get in and out of...things were much easier when I was home. Bottom line: if you have one, most likely everything will be fine and you just need to remember to take it easy.

juliaL13 · December 2015

Oh and as a precious poster mentioned, the first time I pooped was a crazy horrible experience that took days to happen. I had heard that would be rough with a vaginal delivery, but had no clue it would be an issue after a c-section too. Take lots of stool softeners.

Puddles03 · December 2015

anskip said:
@Puddles03 I was not required to do anything other than shower and have a bowel movement:). I'm not sure what you mean by less pressure. I'm just thankful I couldn't feel what they were doing!!

I didn't say it was a requirement.... I meant when you get home and have stairs to climb, many of my girl friends were told to go up them backwards because it didn't hurt as much.

Pankers · December 2015

I was absolutely fine with stairs. No worries at all. Car journey was fun, you feel every pot hole!

anskip · December 2015

@Puddles03 my bad. I haven't heard that before.

ladythrice · December 2015

I had an unplanned C/S that emotionally left me scarred for months. I had prepared for a 'natural birth' (lord that still makes me cringe when I hear it...) but unfortunately my water broke and my body never progressed in labor despite an obscene amount of pitocin. Since my water broke, the hospital had a rule that the baby needed to be out within 24 hours and since my labor wasn't progressing, they called for a C/S.

The C/S itself was completely painless for me, I had an epidural. I shook really bad while in the OR so they gave me demerol, that made me completely loopy but I stopped shaking like a leaf. I did not get immediate skin to skin and my husband and baby were taken to the nursery while I was stitched up. I still get weepy about missing that time with them but at the time I was high on demerol so it didn't phase me too much. When I got to my recovery room, DH was there with DS. He was doing skin-to-skin (he started as soon as they released LO and waited for me to get back in the room... /cry). The demerol had me so loopy that I didn't feel safe holding LO on my own. The nurses had to hold him for his first latch at my breast for me (gah cue tears right now again...).

The emotional shit aside, I healed physically amazingly fast. I had a C/S at 3pm on a Friday and by 4am on Saturday they MADE ME STAND UP and GO PEE. I was terrified but it was okay. I was able to shower within 24 hours of the surgery. I took my meds (percocit and extra strength ibuprophen) around the clock at the hospital so by the time we left I felt great. By three weeks I felt ready to 'be active' and started going for short walks regularly. This caused some increased bleeding so I'd recommend giving your body more time.

Biggest pieces of advice:
-Plan your birth experience, be your own advocate, but accept that a C/S could be your reality.
-Take.Your.Meds. And allow for 6 weeks minimum to heal. I started feeling better a week after the birth and thought, "meh I can skip this one pill." Worst decision EVER. TAKE IT EASY! You just had major surgery, respect your body and let it heal.
-Take colace. I got this advice from my last BMB so I had it on hand for my planned 'natural birth.' The nurses gave it to me in the hospital so I just kept taking it at home. I NEVER had any issues because of this!
-Buy huge granny panties. Yes, you too will bleed for weeks just like the vaginal birth mommas. You too will need massive pads. Go buy some Hanes Her Way Granny panties. They fit the pads awesomely and ride way above your incision so nothing will irritate it.
-Live in large yoga pants that sit above your incision line. Don't try to squeeze into your pre-pregnancy jeans too early. Even maternity pants will be uncomfortable because the belly band area is lined with a tight seam that will ride right near the incision.

melodramatic26 · December 2015

I had a scheduled cs with DD1 because she was breech. Because it was scheduled, I had a good 2 weeks to get used to the idea that this was the reality.

That said, I was very happy with my cs. Dh took her while I was being stitched up so probably about 45 minutes. He LOVED getting that bonding time. Once I was done, it was immediate skin to skin and breastfeeding.

Because my hospital didn't offer VBAC as an option, DD2 was also scheduled cs.

With both, I was up walking around that evening. I followed the pain meds as scheduled and had no issues. I understand my situation isn't the same for everyone, but I can't find a single complaint about that them. Mostly because I didn't have any other "birth ideals" that were replaced by reality.

DataJane · December 2015

I also had a scheduled cs because DS was breech. I had no problems at all, surgery was in the late afternoon and by that evening I was bugging them to give me snacks and let me take a shower. The nurses actually made fun of me because I was like, ok, I feel great, it's been 3 hours, I want to walk around. They had me on morphine in the hospital and sent me home with Vicodin or something similar but I only took a couple and then switched to Advil because I wasn't in much pain. We had a big set of stairs in our house with our bedroom and the nursery upstairs and I didn't have any pain or problems with that either.

I did get a lot of swelling after the surgery which I was surprised about. I didn't really have swelling throughout my whole pregnancy but my whole body was swollen after the surgery, I guess from the IV fluids? I look all tired and puffy in the pictures after he was born even though I hadn't been in labor or anything!

ladythrice · December 2015

DataJane said:

I also had a scheduled cs because DS was breech. I had no problems at all, surgery was in the late afternoon and by that evening I was bugging them to give me snacks and let me take a shower. The nurses actually made fun of me because I was like, ok, I feel great, it's been 3 hours, I want to walk around. They had me on morphine in the hospital and sent me home with Vicodin or something similar but I only took a couple and then switched to Advil because I wasn't in much pain. We had a big set of stairs in our house with our bedroom and the nursery upstairs and I didn't have any pain or problems with that either.

I did get a lot of swelling after the surgery which I was surprised about. I didn't really have swelling throughout my whole pregnancy but my whole body was swollen after the surgery, I guess from the IV fluids? I look all tired and puffy in the pictures after he was born even though I hadn't been in labor or anything!

@DataJane Yup, the fluids! I looked like the stay-puff-mashmallow-mom!

DobbysSock · December 2015

@ladythrice I'm sorry you went through that - it sounds like we had a similar emotional trauma and I wouldn't wish that on anyone. DD had to be taken away for monitoring (breathing issues) and I had the shaking in the OR/Demerol as well (I think it was Demerol - I was so out of it by that point I don't remember), which really affected my ability to advocate for myself because I was so loopy. I've already decided that regardless of how uncomfortable I am with the shaking this time around, I'll decline the meds

DobbysSock · December 2015

ladythrice said:

DataJane said:

I also had a scheduled cs because DS was breech. I had no problems at all, surgery was in the late afternoon and by that evening I was bugging them to give me snacks and let me take a shower. The nurses actually made fun of me because I was like, ok, I feel great, it's been 3 hours, I want to walk around. They had me on morphine in the hospital and sent me home with Vicodin or something similar but I only took a couple and then switched to Advil because I wasn't in much pain. We had a big set of stairs in our house with our bedroom and the nursery upstairs and I didn't have any pain or problems with that either.

I did get a lot of swelling after the surgery which I was surprised about. I didn't really have swelling throughout my whole pregnancy but my whole body was swollen after the surgery, I guess from the IV fluids? I look all tired and puffy in the pictures after he was born even though I hadn't been in labor or anything!

@DataJane Yup, the fluids! I looked like the stay-puff-mashmallow-mom!

***Stuck in quote box***

I almost forgot about the swelling. I had tons of swelling before delivery but it got even worse after. I remember my first day at home kneeling on the ground and it felt like I was kneeling on a pillow, my legs were soo swollen. It was gross!

ladythrice · December 2015

DobbysSock said:

ladythrice said:

DataJane said:

I also had a scheduled cs because DS was breech. I had no problems at all, surgery was in the late afternoon and by that evening I was bugging them to give me snacks and let me take a shower. The nurses actually made fun of me because I was like, ok, I feel great, it's been 3 hours, I want to walk around. They had me on morphine in the hospital and sent me home with Vicodin or something similar but I only took a couple and then switched to Advil because I wasn't in much pain. We had a big set of stairs in our house with our bedroom and the nursery upstairs and I didn't have any pain or problems with that either.

I did get a lot of swelling after the surgery which I was surprised about. I didn't really have swelling throughout my whole pregnancy but my whole body was swollen after the surgery, I guess from the IV fluids? I look all tired and puffy in the pictures after he was born even though I hadn't been in labor or anything!

@DataJane Yup, the fluids! I looked like the stay-puff-mashmallow-mom!

***Stuck in quote box***

I almost forgot about the swelling. I had tons of swelling before delivery but it got even worse after. I remember my first day at home kneeling on the ground and it felt like I was kneeling on a pillow, my legs were soo swollen. It was gross!

Omg the worst part was the sweating to rid my body of the excess fluids! I slept on a towel for so many nights because I was sweating so much at night!!!

htn1763 · December 2015

My c section was easy. Recovery went as planned, I was up moving the next day. Also, now I don't randomly leak pee when I run/jump! I call that a win.

m8881 · December 2015

This will be my 3rd C-section and I am dreading it but the first two weren't too bad.
First one I was very nauseous during and after, threw up a few times after. Second one they gave me a patch behind me ear which took care of that. I disliked the second c-section. It felt like it took forever (it takes longer with scar tissue I guess). It was a little traumatizing. But I breastfed no problem in recovery after both. Kissed baby right after birth. Hubby was right next to me. The healing process was ok. No major issues. I'll be 5 years older this time around so I'm really nervous it'll take longer and be harder to recover.

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