Cesarean Section

Health professionals recommend breastfeeding within the first hour after giving birth. They believe this for a few reasons:

• It helps with the bonding of you and and your baby and helps increase your confidence as a new mother.
• Your baby gets to drink your colostrum (the first liquid you produce after birth), which provides protection against infection and disease.
• It will help stimulate your baby’s digestion system.
• It enhances your birthing experience for you and your new baby with closeness and skin-to-skin contact.

The above is generally recommended after nearly all birthing methods….. so what is different after caesarean section?

• After a caesarean section your first breastfeed may occur in the operating room, while your incision  is being closed. More commonly, it is in the recovery room, as soon as possible after delivery. If you do not feel comfortable or confident in these locations – then just enjoy skin-to-skin contact with your new baby and complete your first breastfeed, a short time later, when you are back in your room. Remember one of the reasons for early breastfeeding is for you to gain confidence.
• Your baby may be affected by the anaesthetic and this may affect the feeding behaviour of your baby. Your midwife should stay with you during breastfeeding if you are on intravenous drugs to relieve pain. Your midwife should be able to let you know if your baby is feeding well.

I will add my personal experience for your information only.

For me – my first breastfeed was in the recovery room. This worked well for me and for my new baby. I felt relaxed and confident. However, my milk did not come in until 3-4 days later – as compared to 2-3 days after my previous vaginal births. However, the colostrum I produced, was enough to keep my baby happy while we waited for the milk – and she was a big 9lb 9oz girl.

Detecting Infection after Caesarean Section

Contact your GP straight away if you:

1. Develop flu like symptoms

2. Get a temperature over 38 degrees Celsius

3. Have pain or difficulty passing urine

4. Your bleeding becomes heavy and you pass clots or have a smelly vaginal discharge

5. You experience redness/pain or increased abdominal wound ooze

And as I have said before, check out anything else that concerns or worries you as well.

Preventing Infection After C-Section

1. If you have been prescribed antibiotics prior to leaving the hospital – please finish all the tablets
2. Use sanitary pads rather than tampons until the bleeding/discharge has stopped
3. Do not swim in spa pools and swimming pools until all the bleeding/ discharge has stopped following your surgery 

Wind pain

Now I wasn’t expecting this … but apart from the pain … the size of my post-partum tummy, being so full with wind, meant I still looked pregnant! It took about 2-3 weeks to relieve and I was so pleased with the “size loss” and pain relief.

Wind pain after gynaecological surgery is common and is caused by interruptions in the workings of your gut caused by the surgery. Unfortunately it can cause discomfort.

Good ideas to help relieve wind pain:

• Keep Active - Walking around can often help encourage your digestive system to start working again.
• Peppermint tea is helpful and can soothe abdominal discomfort due to wind pain.
• The physiotherapist may be able to help with exercises
• Warm Pack placed on your stomach area to relieve the pain.

These tips may help relieve your abdominal discomfort and encourage your gut back to proper working order.

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Enjoy

Are you worried about a numb spot or area around your incision?

A c-section is abdominal surgery. You have had major changes to your body. Your body protects itself by noticing any changes. Your body alerts you through pain and the nervous system if there is anything different happening to your body. So yes, your body will be trying to let you know about the c-section and all that changes that have happened to it. In fact your body will be so aware – that you will need painkillers straight after the operation.

But what about at home? You will notice changes around your incision. The first time you touch your incision it will feel strange. In fact, my husband was the ‘brave’ one, who touched mine first. It is very normal to be worried about changes in your body.

You may find you have numb areas on or around your incision. They feel different and unusual. If you are worried about anything to do with your incision, however minor, please get it checked out. You have a new-born baby to care for and you don’t want to lose more sleep worrying about your incision.

If you are in doubt about anything to do with your incision, or if you are worried, please get it checked out and let yourself get some rest… you deserve it!

For me, the numberness surrounded only the last 5 cms on the right-hand side of my incision and stayed like that for months. Thankfully, it eventually went away. All I can let you know is my personal experience – a medical professional will be able to let you know what is happening with your body. There is no substitute for getting the right help for you when you need it.

My three must-haves after C-Section

1) Help – easily my number one ‘must-have’ – but I don’t think it matters where the source of help comes from – ie partner taking time off work, to mother coming to stay and even paid cleaning help.

2) Comfortable Underwear – both for personal comfort and to help recovery. I would not have a c-section in the future without a supply of C-Panty underwear.

3) Knowledge – understanding whether the pain and tingling sensations around the incision were normal or whether they required medical attention. I had some worries, only to be told all good. Luckily I never had any complications, but if you are unsure of anything – get it looked at! I had a great book on c-section recovery and also used the internet for information. Both were invaluable.

We all want to be good mothers, and as mothers we all want what is best for our baby. We make sure we get everything our baby needs.

But what about ourselves? I had a c-section and did not buy anything for my own comfort. I had a c-section birth with my fourth baby – but the baby blues were harder for me, as I did not feel special. I could not wear my own underwear. I was wearing granny underwear with 2 sanitary pads – one across the incision area and one for normal blood. These pads flapped around each time I went to toilet, reminding me of how ‘un-beautiful’ I felt. Having had 3 babies previously, I knew it didn’t have to be like this. It felt archaic and in no way helped with my emotional recovery after my c-section birth.

I wish I had treated myself to a few things to help my recovery. Just a few things that made me feel special and pampered. I believe this would of helped my recovery after the c-section and helped me feel good about myself.

A friend, who had 4 children, once told me that ‘What’s best for mother is best for baby’ – I really understood this, when I was struggling with my decision to give up breastfeeding after the birth of my first baby….why didn’t I understand that it was just as useful in caring for myself after my c-section.

Love your baby – but don’t forget to love yourself. You have given birth, but you have also had abdominal surgery.

Go on, SPOIL YOURSELF after your c-section.

Bending over while you are healing from your c-section can be a difficult and painful task.

What if you drop something?

A great idea would be a Reacher Tool. This can help you stay upright and grab all of those hard to reach items with a clever tool.

Take care of yourself after your c-section. You have had a baby, but you need to take care of yourself.

Great information about C-Panty

Available in Australia at www.cpanty.com.au and www.csection.com.au