I recently had a planned Cesarean, everything went well apart from the fact that i couldn’t stop throwing up afterwards blerg! I was sealed with dermabond which is standard in the UK but i know in some countries women are sealed with staples so their recovery may be a little different. So this is my advice for recovery following a Cesarean.

Don’t cough

Or sneeze ever again! because oh boy does it hurt. For the record vomiting hurts too, in fact i think that is the most painful, i was fortunate enough to catch a sickness bug from my 2 year old when baby number 2 was 5 days old! by about 3 weeks post partum i was just about able to cough gently without wincing.

Brace Yourself

So coughing and sneezing are fairly involuntary and at some point you will have to move. If you know you are about to do something painful, take a nice deep breath and brace yourself. Some women find holding a pillow over their incision helps i personally found keeping up with my pain meds more effective, saying that i didn’t feel the need for them anymore by day 6.

Get moving

Very slowly and very carefully. As the Anesthetic wore off i began to wiggle my toes and move my legs soon after. The midwives will encourage you to get out of bed and walk around as soon as you feel ready. The first time you stand will hurt like all hell but it does get better. It felt so good to be up, dressed and uncatheterised! these are all steps to get you closer to being discharged and i could not wait to get home.

Wash

For some reason i was given absolutely no aftercare advice following my Cesarean. Oh apart from ‘here’s some drugs’. Because of this i didn’t know if i was allowed to have a bath, if i could get my dressing wet or if i was supposed to take it off. The answer is yes you can, in fact having a bath helps to soak of the dressing which is pretty difficult to remove. Once i found out i was allowed to i was in that bath whenever i got a chance, it really made me feel better.

Look at it

Your incision wont be pretty, i remember feeling quite light headed the first time i looked. I definitely had times when i really didn’t want to think about it, but it is good to know what is ‘normal’ for you so that you can monitor your wound recovery. I also had quite a lot of sensation loss, so without looking i’m pretty sure an opening or infection would have gone unnoticed for some time.