The Truth About C-Sections

The below information was a reply to a few ladies on a pregnancy forum that I frequent, who had expressed their fear at having c-sections because they didn't really know what was involved in the process. I hope to have been honest with them, and that now at least they feel a little more informed.

The information you are looking for changes from person to person. I guess it really depends on how you look at life, what your pain threshold is, and how quickly the process happens.

My daughter was an emergency c-section. The only thing scary about it was that it was not planned for.

They give you a local anesthetic, which numbs you pretty much everywhere because they tend to just put it in your IV. Then they call in the dude that will give you your spinal block, which sounds awful, but because of the local anesthetic you won't feel it, so just focus on something else.

You will be able to feel things from your chest up, but they will be tingly and a little tiny bit numb. Like walking in out of the snow. They wheel you in to the OR, and put up the screen. They lay your arms out to the sides, making you form a T-shape. This is so that they can make sure your IV/pulse etc is good.

You feel a bit of pressure, and they pull out baby. They will do a quick check of your ovaries and any nearby internal organs for cysts or abnormalities (I mean they're in there already, they might as well have a look-see and catch anything odd without sending you home to find out later about it)

They make sure baby is breathing, then wrap him/her in blankets and put on the little hat, then let you see them before they take them off quickly to the neonatal care unit to do their sight and hearing tests and take a blood sample.

I sent DH with the baby at this point. I'd rather he be with her and make sure she was fine. I had a lot of people helping me out.

Then they suture everything up and send you off to recovery.

In recovery, you've lost a bit of blood, but not to worry, baby gave you a lot of extra blood this whole pregnancy, so you had some to spare anyway, and now she doesn't need it anymore. But between that and the medication you are going to feel cold. You'll shiver, but this is your body coming off the medication and it only lasts a little while. They will bring you warm blankets (They felt like they were right out of the dryer after my mum had done the laundry when I was a kid! :P)

Once you're "Stable", as in no longer freezing your fanny off, you will be taken to your own room.

They will come to check how much bleeding you are having. They want to make sure that as much tissue is passed (The er, normal way) as possible. This will decrease chances of infection later. They removed the Placenta during your operation, so now it is just the thick layers of membrane that you built up on the walls of your uterus to protect baby that needs to be shed. Women who have had babies typically bleed for 2 to 6 weeks after having baby. So have a lot of "Overnight" sanitary napkins at your disposal.

You get to stay in this private room for 3-4 days and have baby with you as much as you'd like. They come to help you breast feed if you want them to, they will teach you to change diapers if you've never done that before, they will even teach you to bathe baby properly. Speaking of bathing, you can't have a bath for a week or so, but you can shower. you just can not soak your incision.

The incision is less than the width of a pencil lead, and it will be 5 or 6 inches long. It will look a lot worse when you first get it than it will when it has healed, I PROMISE you. I can still wear bikinis on the beach and no one is the wiser.

Hospitals bring you food, drink, clean bedding and information. Not to mention, they have brought you the best thing ever. Your new baby.

Please do not be scared ladies. If I had known how this process was going to go before I had it done myself I would have shrugged it off. It is not a bad process at all. They keep you well medicated so you don't feel pain, and it is all over within an hour.

*Hugs*

Again, everyone has a different experience, and I know well enough that sometimes things go not so well. But I've a few friends that can back me with their experiences being similar, so I imagine most of them are like mine.

Good luck, DON'T PANIC.