Post-caesarean recovery

[AnyaJoeli]

Hi there

I'm a writer and a Pilates teacher, and I had my baby by emergency c-section last July, nearly a year ago! I found it a bit of a challenge, physically and emotionally, coming to terms with the emcs...and I now teach a post-caesarean Pilates class as I felt quite strongly that there seemed to be no info/advice about how to recover from the operation after this major abdominal surgery, and yet you'd probably be given a whole load of physiotherapy exercises if you broke your elbow.

So I've been formulating an idea for a book which tackles how to recover from a c-section, how your body heals, what kind of issues you might be grappling with on the emotional side as well. I've been blogging about it and got a whole load of responses...birth is certainly an emotive subject. I personally feel that I would have really valued some kind of guide to physically what I could expect and how I could begin to rebuild and strengthen...alongside the sleepless nights and handling of a newborn etc. What kind of diet might help with recovery, exercises to do, exercises to be avoided...a holistic approach to finding your feet after caesarean.

I'd be interested to throw this out to the forum and see what views it evokes, whether anyone out there feels similarly like you didn't have much/any information about physical recovery, and if you found the emotional fallout to be a challenge.

I realise that c-section birth can be a welcomed and positive thing as well, just as natural birth can have its trauma, and that everyone's birth experience has its own unique narrative.

I'm compiling a book proposal for a meeting with a publisher in a couple of weeks so I'm trying to conduct as much real life research as I can.

Looking forward to any responses....

Anya

[Kes]

Hi anya,

Yep that's pretty much how I felt after my emc! Given all the dire warnings in pregnancy that a c section is major surgery there seemed very little advice on how to cope afterwards! I've blogged a bit about this myself, pm me if you want more info or opinion!

Could you put a link to your blog too?

[AnyaJoeli]

Hello! My blog is at memoandjoepilates.wordpress.com

Would love to chat more about it

Anyax

[sillywoman]

I would love to read a book like this. The impact of a Caesarean birth, in particular unplanned (emergency) is often underestimated I think. To be able to help women in advance with a few, well researched, tips on best diet, pain management, scar healing, exercises and how best to manage feeding and coping with a newborn in combination with all the above would be just great. I'll be watching with interest.

[Charleeboo]

Hi Anya,

I had an emergency c-section and for me it was very traumatic experience - to say the surgery didn?t go according to plan would be an understatement!. However for me, it wasn?t so much the physical pain but the ?emotional fallout? afterwards. I am happy to speak more

[Knomester]

Hello. I too had an emergency c-section. Aside from the emotional difficulties, having had previous spinal surgery I have struggled to recover physically, despite having weekly pilates sessions both ante and post natal and doing some yoga. My son is now 22 months and I have still not regained my abdominal strength. I would be more than happy to talk to you / email. I'll PM you with my details.

[Ole]

I had an emergency cesarean and I received zero information as to what to expect afterwards. There was a lot of info out there on episiotomies, tears and anything to do with natural birth, but nothing on, for example, what your scar should look like, how the muscles should heal, what exercises would be good for improving muscle tone etc. This is coming up to 3 years ago now and I still suspect that I had the most awful stitch-up ever (my scar is still red, lumpy, uneven and crooked), but because it didn't hurt I have never thought to get it checked out. Eventually I found a book about exercises to strengthen muscles but by then I was 2+ months post-op so not much help. My post-natal midwive was clinically useless. Very chatty though.

[AnyaJoeli]

This is all really helpful and interesting...not least on a purely personal level to know I'm not the only one who felt this way.

My scar was red, angry and itchy for months and months, until Maurice was about 9 months in fact...my doctor was pretty unhelpful on the matter...

Would love to chat more with anyone who fancies over coffee etc...

[AnyaJoeli]

Hello again,

I'm putting together this book proposal after a slight interlude where I got a bit waylaid with other stuff!

If anyone would like to chat through their experience of caesarean with me I'd love to hear your stories. I'm generally free either with accompanying rampaging toddler Monday-Wednesdays, Thursday and Friday afternoons, or on Thursdays without rampaging toddler.

The book as I am planning it will encompass planning for caesarean and dealing with recovery post caesarean, both physical and also addressing the emotional psychological side of it if applicable. It will include a post-caesarean recovery exercise programme based on Pilates, and will also provide ideas for healing foods and looking into your diet to maximise physical strength and energy.

I'd love to hear your stories and how you would feel a resource such as this one might have helped you, what kind of information and advice/support you feel you would have benefitted from at the time of your caesarean.

Also if you've had experience of natural vs caesarean birth I'd also love to hear your comparative stories of recovery, or also, positive caesarean experiences as I have only experienced emcs and had a pretty tough time of it so I think I might be slightly biased!

Thanks and I'm looking forward to hearing from you

Anya

[email protected]

[sillywoman]

Hi Anya,

have you seen this http://www.amazon.com/Cesarean-Recovery-Chrissie-Gallagher-Mundy/dp/1552979040 ?

It looks as though someone has already done it :(

[AnyaJoeli]

Yes I've got that book...it's actually not quite really what mine is going to be, I didn't find this book to be massively useful actually although admittedly I didn't have it in the immediate aftermath of my caesarean, and it's quite dated as it hasn't been updated for a while. I can't really describe effectively without going into a huge long message but my proposal is slightly differnt and more comprehensive than this book.

There are a few books out there, I've got them all but only one or two of them are particularly recent, there's only one specifically for the UK market, there are quite a few US ones.

Thanks though for pointing that out!

x

[Carrie1]

My baby was born via C-section but that wasn't our choice. My baby had turned sideways and his head was not moving. The anesthesiologist came in and started preparing me for the surgery, but first I asked every question and expressed every concern I had with her. Afterwards, I felt completely comfortable with it and she made sure I wasn't going to feel anything. I went through that surgery w/no pain and felt nothing. I suggest talking it out with doctor to know what's going to happen. And that made me feel comfortable and the operation was successful, my recovery from emergency cesarean section has been easy but still sore.

[AnyaJoeli]

Yes...it's great you had a more positive experience and recovery. if it were that simple for everyone then I don't think there would probably be a need at all for a guide on recovery. My experience was very different, by the time the idea of caesarean came up my baby was in great distress and I wasn't doing brilliantly having been in labour for the best part of two days and having all sorts of negative reactions to drugs. There simply wasn't any time for a measured discussion, there was only alarm, fear and desperately trying not to succumb to a panic attack due to not being able to breathe. I also had lots of issues with my scar and experienced pain for months, and wasn't really offered much helpful advice from doctors, except that there was "perhaps" a lot of scar tissue due to the extreme hurried nature of my caesarean to save little one's life ( which it thankfully did), and that I could have an operation to try and rectify the scar tissue but opening me up might make it worse. Great! Thanks dr! I wasn't offered any advice on physical recovery in terms of what kind of exercise or massage would be beneficial, and I think for some people this kind of post op advice would be very much appreciated.

I know that everyone's experience is different, and I'm not in any way suggesting caesareans are a negative thing per se (baby alive because of mine!) but for some the post-caesarean experience is not always straightforward, and I think that some people experience emotions akin to post traumatic stress disorder due to the way things happened/how they were treated/how baby was, etc.

Incidentally, there is a book called the caesarean experience, by Sarah clement, which was published in 1997 so is out of print now but you can get it second hand, and it's brilliant. Tackles the emotional side brilliantly, and what to do next etc re vbac vs elective, etc. it doesn't focus as much on physical recovery but some of you might find it interesting to read.

[AnyaJoeli]

Not suggesting that your experience was "simple", that sounded quite dismissive, didn't mean it like that in the slightest! Just meant that just through talking to more and more women about their experiences I have found a fair few who have had a very tough time for various reasons not necessarily related to pain during the actual surgery, and recovery afterwards seems to be somewhat of a lottery as some people take it in their stride and others are floored for weeks. This I guess will be speaking more to those who feel their experience was on the tougher end of the spectrum and they need some guidance as to how to heal and move on...

[mima08]

Hiya, I think this is a great idea for providing more support - as most posts point out here, the post-cs support is a bit lacking (actually, the support for the issues some of my friends with vaginal birth experienced also seemed a bit hit & miss). I was lucky with my personal experience: despite extremely rushed decision to go for a CS as LO was distressed & I was exhausted after almost 2 days, I physically healed very quickly (could move around easily within days) and have a very neat little scar. I was told this was due to the fact that muscles were not actually cut, but "pulled" aside - I don't know if that is a procedure (apologies if I am not describing it correctly) that can be requested / is the norm now?

There was an emotional fall out (originally I had wanted a water-home birth - turned out quite differently :)) and I did read at the time that sometimes CS can impact on how easy/hard you find breast-feeding, not the least because of pain and awkward holding positions, but also because of the drugs & different pattern of hormone release. No idea if the latter is correct, but I did go on to having horrid problems with breastfeeding, so I clutched at any explanation. 2 years on, I am just grateful that Kings hospital staff was so amazing and brought my LO safe and sound into the world :)

good luck with your book!

[gwod]

"Also if you've had experience of natural vs caesarean birth I'd also love to hear your comparative stories of recovery, or also, positive caesarean experiences as I have only experienced emcs and had a pretty tough time of it so I think I might be slightly biased!

Thanks and I'm looking forward to hearing from you

Anya"

I had 1 natrual(ish) birth, 2 Emeregency C sections (one of which was under General Aneasthetic) and 2 planned C sections. If you think that you would still like to talk to someone with a range of birth experiences to compare, Id be happy to help. PM me if you'd like