In the seven months since I first wrote this, I have received a lot of comments from readers. I have received even more private e-mails; the majority from women who just wanted to say thanks for sharing my experience with my C-section, and they too, had a similar experience.
Not all comments have been positive, and I didn’t expect them to be. It seems the biggest “complaints” from the comments about this post, is that C-sections are not really like what I wrote about, and I am trying to scare women. Since there are a lot of comments, and I am sure not everyone reads all the comments and my replies before leaving a comment of their own, I wanted to clarify my viewpoint about this post, hopefully BEFORE the post is read.
This is a realistic account of MY C-section. There are certain aspects to a C-section that EVERY woman will experience, such as scaring, and increased chances of uterine rupture with future pregnancies. There are other aspects to this account which I experienced. These may or may not be experienced by every woman who has a C-section. Just like no two vaginal births are the same, no two C-sections are the same.
I agree and support emergency C-sections 100%, and they do save lives. However, as you will read, I believe that the medical community is over-using C-sections in non-medical emergency situations (such as breech births). I feel I need to clarify this point as well, because when I originally wrote the post, my goal was to inform women who may be facing a planned or elective C-section (not an emergency one), and to offer my viewpoint from my perspective, on what a C-section is like, since my experience with my C-section was not a emergency C-section.
I wrote this post to inform women who suspect there might be more to a C-section than what she is being told, like I was. That is the spirit of the post-to inform. Like the famous quote, “knowledge is power.” The more you know, the more informed decision you can make.
To the readers who feel I am scaring women, I am sorry my account of my C-section is scary. Honestly, it was pretty scary. There are countless TV shows, websites, books, magazines, Hollywood celebrities, and doctors who will tell you C-sections are not scary, are not painful, and they are nothing to worry about. That was not the reality I found at all. I do not want to sugar coat, or tone down my experience. If I were to do that, there wouldn’t be much point it writing about it.
So having said this, before you read the post, please be forewarned that this post could be scary. I am attempting to share what a real C-section was like. If that has the potential to scare you, then please think twice before reading it. If you are searching for information on what happens during a C-section, possible complications that could arise, pictures of the procedure, the recovery period, possible impact on the family, and general information on C-sections, and how the medical community using them, and feel this information would not scare you, than this may be something you would be interested in reading.
If you have a comment after the post, please feel free to comment. I read every comment, and try to respond when appropriate. Please know I will delete any overly disrespectful comment. You don’t have to agree with me, but please keep it civil.
Thank you.
Heather- A Mama’s Blog
This post has been several months in the making. I have been thinking about what I wanted to convey in writing a post about Cesarean sections, better known as C-sections, or even as a “C.”
As I thought about it, there were so many different angles to take. I thought about writing a very detailed researched post, but you can find a lot of those by doing a Google search on C-sections. I decided in the end, I was going to write what comes naturally from my personal research and experience of having a C-section.
My intent for writing this post is to convey the reality, which is not often mentioned, of women, their new babies, and families, endure from C-sections. It is not meant to judge or make any mother feel bad who has had a C-section. I write a lot of the things that I wished I had known before hand about C-sections, which I was not told. This post is only meant to inform, and bring to light, issues involved with C-sections, that as a woman, and a mother I seldom hear anyone (doctors included) talk about in our society.
- My C-Section
I had a C-section with my first birth, with Ryan, only because he was a breech baby, and refused to turn. I wasn’t very informed on other alternatives for turning breech babies at the time, other than the external version, and accepted having a C-section was the only way to give birth to my baby.
- Lack of Options
Unfortunately, it pretty much WAS my only alternative. I did not feel comfortable having a home birth being a first time mother, with a breech baby. Not to mention, there were zero doctors in my area who would attend the birth of a breech baby. This is despite living in a college area, with a number of top rated medical facilities. So we agreed to the C-section, but really what choice did we have?
It has always bothered me more alternatives are not available for birthing breech babies. I did not want a C-section, but it was my only option. Even a home birth isn’t always an option- in several states (mine included), it is actually against the law for a midwife to attend a breech birth! This isn’t to say it isn’t done, but if you know ahead of time your baby is breech, this could be problematic in finding a midwife who is comfortable attending a breech birth, and possibly be in violation of the law, and thus be putting her certifications and her practice in jeopardy.
Finding an OB these days, who will deliver a breech baby, is a joke at best- even though as I found out later, delivering breech babies vaginally is very safe, in the majority of situations. In my opinion, this is a HUGE failure in the medical community to have only one option for a mother facing a breech birth- an automatic C-section.
- Major Surgery
C-sections are MAJOR abdominal surgery. The pain is agonizing. I never experienced greater pain in my life, than after my surgical C-section. Even going through natural labor and contractions with a VBAC (vaginal birth after Cesarean) birth of my second child for eleven hours, the pain was not as bad as it had been with the C-section.
The best way I can describe it is imagine your most painful, intense, contraction, and multiply it by at least 50 to 100%, depending on your pain tolerance. Now, realize the pain does not go away, after 30 seconds or a minute like the pain during contractions does. It is constant and never-ending. That level of pain is with you for DAYS (not seconds or minutes). Imagine your insides feeling like they are going to split open for several weeks, after the surgery, every time you laugh, cry, sneeze, get out of bed, stand up, or move too fast.
- Media Portrayal of C-Sections
It is also very disturbing to me how some avenues of the media, and celebrities portray C-sections. I have seen on numerous TV shows- including a prime time, number one show, (named Grey’s Anatomy, to be specific), where women who refuse a C-section, because they desire to have a NORMAL, vaginal birth, are portrayed as fanatic, and ridiculous. There is another show, The Baby Story, which shows many elective C-section births.
As a new mother-to-be, and even before I was pregnant, I watched The Baby Story. In my case, seeing so many C-section births, almost made it seem like it was a normal, healthy, alternative to giving actual birth. I NEVER saw the downside: pain, infections, and inability to get back to regular life after a C-section, shown on The Baby Story.
It is almost glamorized by the media when a famous celebrity has a C-section. “Too posh to push,” is how they sum it up. Whether that is the case or not, it is misleading to millions of women, who are faced with the same decision. What is NEVER mentioned is even if a celebrity chooses to have an elective C-section; she has resources available to her, which a normal woman does not. The celebrity can hire nurses, nannies, chefs, and cleaning services to take over for her while she recovers from surgery, when an average woman cannot. The strain and time it takes to recover from a C-section puts the average family under enormous stress.
Yet, the media continues to glorify and glamorize C-sections. It even seems like they make a special point to say, “Actress A had her baby (or gave birth), born by Cesarean section.” I have yet to see, hear, or read, “Actress A had her baby, born by normal, vaginal birth.”
I certainly never gave much thought to what really was involved with a C-section. I honestly thought, since I had seen so many women on The Baby Story, give birth by C-section, and they seemed fine, and never mentioned any drawbacks, certainly I could handle it.
- What A C-Section Is Really Like
Naive? Absolutely. C-sections are NOT as they are portrayed on “reality” TV shows, prime time TV shows, or by the media when reporting a famous woman had a C-section. Maybe if I hadn’t been bombarded by all these positive messages about C-sections, I would have thought twice about it. Maybe if I had, had someone actually tell me what a C-section really was like, I could have prepared better. Maybe if I could have found in a mainstream pregnancy book, the truth about C-sections, I would have known what I was getting into. But I didn’t, and at the time, all the information I had, said C-sections were no big deal.
C-sections ARE a big deal. So big, your life will never be the same. Here are some of the REAL outcomes from C-sections:
You may lose precious time with your newborn baby. Time that you will NEVER get back, because you are doped up on strong narcotic pain medications for at least 24 hours- usually longer- after the birth. Your baby might be groggy after birth in most cases, because the epidural and or spinal tap medication used to numb you, is in their system too.
Instead of spending the first few moments after birth holding, nursing, and bonding, with your baby, your hands may be tied down. Because of this, you probably won’t be able to hold your baby during this time, while you are being stitched back up.
Your baby may be taken out the operating room from you, while your uterus and incision site are being stitched. In my case, my hands were still restrained. You will probably have to wait at least 30 minutes after the birth (usually longer), before you can really hold your baby for the first time.
If you are lucky, your baby will want to breastfeed, even though he/she could still be groggy from the birth. If not, then starting breastfeeding becomes a much bigger challenge. As any new mother will tell you, breastfeeding a brand new baby can be hard at first. Now imagine trying to position your baby to nurse, but you can’t have your new baby’s feet, or body anywhere near your incision because you can’t risk having them push, or kick you in that area. You can use a pillow to block the site, but it becomes another aspect to figure out.
By having a C-section, your chances for hemorrhage, post-partum infection, internal injuries, post-partum depression, breastfeeding problems, reproductive problems, and maternal death, are increased than if you gave birth vaginally.
By having an elective C-section your baby’s chances for neonatal respiratory distress syndrome (RDS), physician caused prematurity (since they can only guess, what the correct due date is), persistent pulmonary hypertension (PPH), are cut by the surgeon’s scalpel two to six percent of the time, and are less likely to be breastfed, are increased than babies who are born vaginally.
In most cases, you will have metal staples in your incision for several days after the surgery. I thought my tummy looked liked Frankenstein’s forehead. It was so awful I couldn’t even look at it.
Your uterus will have permanent scar tissue, which is at a higher risk for rupture with future pregnancies.
You will have an scar just above your pubic bone for the rest of your life. Your stomach will more than likely hang over your scar, known as “belly flap,” for the rest of your life. Your incision / scar area will probably be numb for several months, several years, or even for the rest of your life.
Your birthing options with future pregnancies are SEVERELY limited, after you have a C-section. There is a saying, “once a C-section, always a C-section.” VBAC is a very safe choice for the majority of women, but VBAC’sare discouraged and you will be lucky to find a doctor and a hospital that supports this choice. In some states, it is against the law for midwives to attend VBAC births. In all actuality, you will be pressured to have a repeat C-section with future pregnancies, even though with every subsequent C-section, the uterine rupture rate increases, especially during pregnancy as the uterus expands. Usually another C-section is the only choice offered to you, even if that isn’t the best choice for you, and your baby.
You will probably have a longer recovery, after a C-section than if you had given birth vaginally. You can’t drive for usually 10 days. You are sore, and it can be a struggle to just get up and move, let alone walk, sit-up, sit, and lie down. It is recommended that you don’t climb any stairs for two weeks-too bad if your house has stairs- it can be very painful, every time you have to go up or down your stairs. You don’t dare laugh or cough for several days, because it just hurts too much. You may only have a limited amount of pain medication, because most doctors want to “wean” you off the strong pain narcotics a few days after the C-section. Keep in mind, this is all while you have a brand new baby to take care of as well.
(Many of these facts in the above blue boxes can be found on Childbirth Connection’s page on C-sections.)
- Recovery Time and Complications
Being a new mother is one of the most challenging life experiences. We rise to the task, but when you are trying to recover from a MAJOR surgery, YOU need to rest, and be taken care of. That does not happen after a C-section, for the majority of women. Maternal instincts take over, and we need to be with our babies. We push our pain, and discomforts to the background, in order to take care of our baby, and family.
This only adds to the recovery time, and often results in women “overdoing it,” which leads to ruptured scars, which leads to infected scars, which leads to another hospital stay, which leads back to square one, all over again. It can be a vicious cycle.
The general thought is it usually takes about 3 weeks, to recover from vaginal birth, and 6 weeks to recover from a C-section, IF everything goes well.
That was not true for me at all. It took me about 12 weeks to feel almost 100% again- meaning I didn’t have pain that kept me from doing daily activities. That is 3 months! If I were to count the time that it took for my scar to heal, and to not feel any pain whatsoever- I would say NEVER. Even now, four years later, if I move at an odd angle, I will get a weird pain in my abdomen, that I never had before having a C-section.
After the VBAC birth I had with my second baby, I felt back to normal, after about a month. Yes, there was pain, discomfort, and stitches involved with a vaginal birth, but it was SO, SO, SO much more manageable and less painful than a C-section. Having given birth both by a C-section and vaginally, I would pick a vaginal birth every time- without hesitation. As one of my friends who also had a C-section, and a vaginal birth said, “The worse vaginal birth, beats the best C-section anytime.” No wonder we were made to give birth vaginally, not surgically!
- Risks Outweigh The Benefits
C-sections are a medical tool, and should only be performed when absolutely necessary. C-sections DO have a place in obstetrics, and I have a friend who would have died, if she had not gotten an emergency C-section.
The World Health Organization (WHO) says anytime a country’s C-section rate rises above 15%, then the risks outweigh the benefits the surgery could provide. In the US, the C-section rate is 30.2% of all births. Just 100 years ago in the US, almost every baby born, was born at home! What has happened? Clearly, something is very wrong, and thousands of women are receiving unnecessary surgical C-sections, where the risks are outweighing the benefits.
- The “Hidden” High Costs of C-Sections
Another aspect that is hardly ever mentioned is the financial aspect and costs to a family. Obviously a C-section is more expensive than a vaginal birth. My C-section in 2004 cost 50% more than my vaginal hospital birth in 2006. That was with no complications- just a “by-the-book C-section”. Even with insurance, a family pays substantially more for a C-section, and that is just for the procedure! Most women have to stay in the hospital for a minimum of three days after a C-section, compared to anywhere from 12-48 hours with a vaginal birth. I had to stay for five days. Not only do you get charged for your care, but you get charged for the care your baby gets too.
If you factor in the extra long recovery time, the costs of hiring some household help, extra doctor and or hospital visits due to infection, pain medication, extra time the father may take off of work, to name a few- it is astounding how expensive a C-section is, and how fast it all adds up.
For a woman who has to return to work, 6, 8, or 12 weeks after giving birth, she may not even be fully recovered from surgery, before she has to take on the demands from a job as well.
- Ignorance Is Not Bliss
I believe that every woman who is faced with the possibility of having a C-section (emergency situation aside) should be given ALL of the information on the surgical procedure including the emotional and financial aspects beforehand. Ignorance is NOT bliss- it just keeps you from having to face the reality of this surgical procedure until you are in the thick of it, with nothing left to do, but see it and its consequences through.
During my recovery, I was in so much pain, and realized that I didn’t even know why, until my husband (who had watched the surgery) said, “If you had seen what they did, you would know why you are in pain.”
Then it hit me that I had no idea, what they even did during the C-section. They never show that on The Baby Story either. I have decided to include several REAL pictures from actual C-sections that I found by doing Google and Yahoo searches. Believe it or not, pictures like this were very hard to find. There just aren’t that many pictures of actual C-sections out there. I spent a lot of time trying to find pictures with the goal of showing what really happens during a C-section.
The pictures are graphic in nature- that is the reality of a C-section. I have provided the link to the site where you can view the pictures as well. There will be descriptions of what the picture is of.
Since some will prefer not to look at the pictures, I will include my closing comments now, instead of at the end of the pictures.
- Conclusion
Despite what we are told in the media, C-sections are NOT glamorous, or posh. If you choose to view the pictures below, you will see what it really is.
The emotional and financial toll it can take on you and your family is massive. Ironically, a lot of women choose C-sections, because they think it is a lot less painful than vaginal birth. You will have no pain during the C-section itself, because you are numb from usually the chest down. But, a surgical C-section birth is not a way to avoid pain during birth. Ironically, in most cases, it will cause you substantial amounts of more pain in the long run.
The end result of a C-section is beautiful- a new, hopefully healthy baby and mother. For me, that was my goal. But I never realized beforehand, as I wrote, you lose a lot of time with your newborn when recovering from the surgery. Time that you only get one chance at. If you have to return to work, as you know, your time is not endless with your baby, and that time goes by in a blink of an eye.
No mother I know, would willingly give up her precious time with her new baby, to attend to surgical dressings, be “out of it” due to pain medication, maybe miss out on breastfeeding, if they choose to do so, raise their risk of post-partum infection, and depression, and pain. Yet, that is what happens to one degree or another, with EVERY C-section.
If you prefer not to look at the pictures, I hope some of this post will help you, a friend, a sister, a daughter, a cousin, or anyone, who needed more information and truth on what is involved in a C-section.
I know first hand that sometimes a C-section is your only option. In these cases, I hope some of what I wrote may help in giving you more information on what to expect, so you can prepare better than I did. If you are considering a C-section that is not medically necessary, or you have other options, I hope if you have read this far, that maybe you are reconsidering having a c-section.
While writingthis post, I decided to write another post in the near future with ideas for mothers who are preparing for a C-section. I plan to include information on things she can do to prepare for it before hand. I also will include ideas and tips she can do post-partrum, to help with the healing process, pain, and the overall transition back to family life. E-mail me if you have any tips or suggestions, you would like to share.
Every woman deserves to know ALL of the facts, before facing a major surgery, especially one with the goal of bringing a new life into the world. Doctors should take into account ALL the factors, pre-AND post-surgery, on how C-sections can affect their patients and their families. The entire medical community (doctors, hospitals, etc.), should start offering vaginal breech baby birth options. Finally, C-sections should stop being glamorized by the media as a healthy alternative to vaginal birth. It is very dishonest and misleading.
I sincerely hope by sharing my experience, and facts that usually aren’t disclosed about C-sections, it can help women who are facing C-sections, to make an informed decision.
I would love to hear your comments and feedback.
- Additional Information
I urge anyone facing a C-section to read the article, “Cesearean Birth in a Culture of Fear.” It is written by Wendy Ponte, and it appeared in the September/October 2007 issue of Mothering magazine, and is the best article I have read on the subject to date. If you can get the actual magazine, there were some very good illustrations, showing the C-section procedure. I tried to find these illustrations on-line, but was unsuccessful. I was able to find something along the same lines, in a slide show presentation, with ten drawings from The New York Times, showing the C-section procedure. (These drawings are not graphic- they are what you would see in a newspaper.)
************************WARNING!!!!! ********************************
************DO NOT READ OR SCROLL ANY FARTHER IF YOU DO NOT WISH TO VIEW C-SECTION PICTURES- GRAPHIC IN NATURE************
Removing the staples from a C-section incision.
There is also a picture of a new C-section scar held together with staples, and more post-partum C-section scars, including verticle ones, in this gallery at About.com .
Mother 1: C-section scar 2 days after the surgery, 20 year-old mother
Mother 1: (The same mother as in picutre above), her C-section scar, 11 weeks after the surgery
Mother 2: The C-section overhang (“belly flap”)- this is after the first c-section (third pregnancy), this 28-year old mother had, one year after the surgery
Picture from Terra, (a mother who read this post and sent me some of her C-section pictures) of her C-section incision
Picture 1 of Terra’s Infection at Incision Site
Picture 2 of Terra’s Infection at Incision Site
Mother 2: (picture 2) Same mother as the above picture; side view
Mother 3: Picture of scar, more than 3 years after C-section (it is the second line, towards the bottom-not the thin red line)
Mother 4: Pictures of infected C-section scar, 3 to 4 months after the surgery, during this 38 year-old mother’s
fifth round of antibiotic treatments for the infection
Above pictures from https://www.caesarean.org.uk/ScarPictures.html#group1. There are several more pictures of C-section scars at this site, in various stages of healing.
My scar- 4 years after C-section.
Another picture of my scar. On the right end of the scar, you can see how it looks indented. A few of my staples became loose, while I was in the hospital, so the skin there was open, while healing. It left a lot larger scar on that end of the incision, and tends to “cave in.” I doubt this will ever go away. The marks higher up on my stomach, are the marks from my pants. 🙂
(All of these photos, the ones of myself included, are unedited. They have been reduced in size, however so they could fit on the site. )
Technorati Links: C-Section,
cesarean section, birth, pregnancy, VBAC vaginal birth after cesarean section
362 replies on “The Reality of C-Sections”
Just wanted to share the experience of my best friend who had her daughter naturally 5 years ago and still curses the doctors for NOT giving her a c-section. Despite the fact that they could see on ultrasound that her daughter’s head was extremely large, they decided to let her push- and it tore her all the way to her rectum. As she was delivering, she repeatedly told the doctors that she didn’t think the baby was going to fit through, and they had her continue pushing anyway. Five years later, she suffers from incontinence and pain, and nastier scarring than any c-section would have given her.
On another note, I had an emergency c-section 10 years ago, after going into labor with a breech baby. I read about how attempting to turn a breech baby can cause serious distress to the baby and decided not to let them attempt it. And my daughter was perfect, and alert after delivery. I was able to climb stairs a week after I delivered. It was painful, but worth it to have a healthy baby 🙂
I’m not trying to down your experience or anything, and even though you made a post to clarify that this is just your opinion, when reading your actual post you state things in factual form as if they are true facts when they are not. The truth is, MOST c-sections are NOT horrible like yours. I’m sorry yours was so hard, but really all you are doing is scaring women. You can’t say that you don’t mean to because you really are! A lot of your facts are wrong, too!
1) They do NOT remove the uterus during surgery anymore.
2) They do NOT cut through muscle anymore.
3) In one of your pictures you say it was 11 weeks after, but it was really only a few days after. You can tell because the tape marks are still there and the stretch marks are still clearly fresh.
4) Injury rates are just as high if not higher during vaginal birth as opposed to c-section.
5) Morbidity rates are certainly not higher during a c-section(maybe in emergency situations, but not in planned ones like for breech babies.)
So yes, your misleading facts are scary.
However, I will agree with you that women should be allowed to at least attempt a natural breech delivery if they want to. No woman should be forced into something she is uncomfortable with. Whether that be a natural birth or a c-section, the mother should have every right to choose what she is most comfortable with and the fact that they are trying to “outlaw” natural breech births, and elective c-sections for those who want them really sickens me.
Uhm I just decided to have a vaginal birth after seeing and reading this… So thank you for the information. I just never thought about the downsides and I feel kind of stupid now.. Vaginal it is, since I have no medical reasons for C-section. I wish you all the best.
I also had a HORRIBLE c-section. The pain was intense for even longer than 3 months, and my bleeding also lasted longer. My son is nearly three and I almost cannot use the muscles near the incision. My incision was put together with steri-strips and you can barely see it, but I do have the ‘overhang’ even though I lost ALL the pregnancy weight and MORE before the ‘fourth trimester’ was up (mostly due to anemia from the surgery). Did I mention I breastfed during all of this? I could not get up in the middle of the night with my baby, my husband had to and he had to go to work the next day! He would set us up with diapers, food, and water on the bedroom bed. He’d turn on the TV for us and we’d spend all day for nearly two weeks on the bed because I could not move around. The skin is numb between the scar and my belly button–but even today the FLESH undernearth the skin is VERY TENDER. I cannot wear jeans with a zip and button top. I have to make my own pants and skirts that are HIGH WAISTED or continue to wear maternity jeans. MATERNITY JEANS!!! Did you also know that the surgeons sometimes have to handle your colon? Whatever is in the way, they have to move it. Cesareans should be a LAST RESORT–never an option!
Oh, and my hands WERE tied to the table. I was in shock and the shaking was uncontrollable and violent.
And yes, vaginal births IN THE US are almost just as dangerous as a c-section, but NOT IN OTHER COUNTRIES. This has to do with the extremely incorrect way we force our women to give birth—pushing for 10 seconds as hard as they can, pushing while on their backs, giving birth out of their homes, and the lie that birth is medical and not natural being drilled into their heads since…well, birth. In Greenland, you are not attended to by a doctor unless you are high risk and you almost ALWAYS give birth at home. Their mortality rates are MUCH lower than ours! In point of fact, America has one of the highest mortality and injury rates on earth. Even women giving birth in huts in Africa have a better chance of having a safe birth and healthy baby than the ‘healthiest’ pregnancy in America attended by the most experienced physician. Birth is a business in America, and it’s killing our babies and mothers, and in my opinion is one of the leading causes of postpartum depression.
Yea.. Victoria.. You’re entitled to your opinion about birthing options and places, but your facts are HORRIBLY wrong.
Of those you listed, America actually has the lowest infant mortality rate.
Infant mortality rate by country:
America– 6.3
South Africa– 44.42
Central African Republic–96.8
Greenland– 10.72
Those are deaths/1000 live births
So no.. it’s not safer to have a baby in a hut in Africa as opposed to a hospital in America.
However, I will agree that America doesn’t go about birthing the right way and that most women here are scared to death of it. Myself included, which is why I’d much prefer a c-section.
I was wondering what treatment was given to you before and after to help prevent infections?
Just read your article and I have to say that I wish I hadn’t asked for a C Section during labor. My doctor originally wanted me to have a C because my baby was weighing it at 9lbs plus at 36 weeks when I went into labor. However I knew that size alone doesn’t constitute a reason for a C and tried to deliver vaginally. Even though I was progressing normally in labor, they broke my water and started pitocin. I was so focused on my contractions and breathing and birthing ball that I pretty much just said yes to whatever. My doula unfortunately wasn’t really that helpful as she thought internal monitors were a good idea…so I went from manageable on a birthing ball at 5 cm to on my back with camelback contractions at 10 cm in 45 minutes. I pushed for around 4 hours but the baby was sunny side up and it was agony. I finally asked for an epidural and lo and behold it did nothing.
I told them I was too tired to push and they urged me to keep trying. I pushed for another 30 minutes and then just could not do it anymore. The doctor said the baby had a big head and it was probably best for a C section when I stupidly asked for one.
I had no idea how absolutely horrible it would be. I won’t go into it, because you describe it so well. But I will say this…recovering from a C section after trying to push out a baby for several hours is a special hell.
But what is even more insane is that the hospital where I delivered doesn’t have showers in the mother baby unit rooms. So I had to walk down a long hall way with an IV pole, staples in my stomach, feeling like I was being torn apart with a steak knife. And then once I got to the shower, I had to use antibacterial soap and wash the incision site. Then after getting dried off and redressed…arms over head kills…..walk back to the room, get in the bed, and nurse. The first time I tried this shower procedure, I ended up in tears and pulling the cord so the nurse could come get me. I also could not bend well enough to change my peripads.
My fiance knows everything there is to know about maxi pads now.
I had a c section almost 10 weeks ago with my first baby. Through my pregnancy I knew I didn’t want a c section (mainly because of the scar and having anxiety about being awake). But – luck was not on my side for that. My water broke 5 days after my due date on thurs at 10am. I went to the hospital and was 1cm dilated. Friday at 3:00 after 30ish hours of pitocin..I was still 1cm. They decided a C section was best…and it turned out I had a small infection from my water breaking and the baby not being born quickly. I think the worst part of the whole thing was my anxiety which caused nausea on the table. My hands were tied to the table during the procedure, but they released them after she was out so i could touch/hold her. The pain was bearable. I took a walk that night in the hall (12 hours after surgery) and got a shower the next day. I walked saturday night and got myself ready for bed. Sunday I was up ready to give the baby a sponge bath. I was released Sunday night, and walked up my stairs to my apartment. I had eye surgery earlier in the year (i am cross eyed) and would have 10 c sections before I would have eye surgery again. I do believe it depends on the person. I was lucky to have an excellent experience. My scar is healing well and other than some numbness around the incision, I have no pain or problems. I do think people should have more information and education about c sections. If my friend hadn’t told me they pretty much rip through your muscle…I would have never known. It does seem to be a trend lately. I never would have voluntarily asked for one unless it was necessary – but in retrospect I’m glad it happened the way it did. I thank you for your information. And its horrible that your experience was a bad one.
Here’s my problem with this post:
I had an emergency c-section due to my baby’s heartrate dropping during contractions. I was absolutely terrified because I had researched c-sections. I didn’t think they were glamorous or easier than vaginal births. My experience was completely different than yours (just like vaginal births!). I was in very little pain during my 3 day stay in the hospital. I spent an hour in post-op and then spent every second of every hour of those 3 days with my baby (minus an hour or so when he was with the pediatrician). When I went home I only needed my pain meds once a day, not the 3 times I was supposed to take them. After 3 days I didn’t need them at all. I didn’t have staples so the only “wound care” required was washing with warm water and soap while I was in the shower. The steri-strips fell off on their own. So, my experience was great. But that’s MY experience. Just like the above was YOUR experience. Your article is written as if that’s what happens most of the time. Not true. Just like it’s not true that my experience is the norm. Every women I spoke to about c-sections recommended them! But every experience is different. I had the fastest recovery of anyone I shared my story with but they were all still pro-cesearan section.
I think it’s great to put out there what happened to you, as long as you make it clear that it’s not always going to be that way. You’re not always going to have an awful experience with a c-section, just like you’re not always going to have a great experience with a vaginal birth. I’m not saying you shouldn’t share your experience but I agree with some others that the tone of the post makes it seem you’re trying to strike fear in the heart of expectant mothers. Like I said, my c-section was an emergency, it had to happen. Had I read this prior to my delivery I would have been even more terified – and that’s saying a lot. So if you’re reading this and you’ve yet to deliver, there’s no way to know what your experience will be like. You can make a plan of what you’d like to happen but be ready for that to change. Whatever your experience might be just remember that if you come out of it with a happy, healthy baby and mom then you’ve had a successful delivery!
I would just like to add my experience, I had a c section 15 weeks ago and I agree that the recovery is extremely tough and long! I was unable to drive for 6 weeks and my scar also was infected and still is now.
My little girl beastfed ok, but unfortunately I ended up with an abscess following several bouts of mastitis! so I had to stop! Not caused by my section though.
I would just like to say that despite the above, the birth was VERY easy and the experience quite pleasant. I was introduced to my baby very quickly and was up and out of bed less than 12 hours later.
I had my first c-section 12/09 after many vaginal births. It has been very difficult to recover from. My hands were strapped down, I didn’t see my baby over the curtain, no one would tell me how she was, after they took her to the nursery, no one would tell me what they were doing that was causing pain, pressure and shortness of breath as they repaired the incision.
My pain was not adequately controlled (and I’ve done several pitocin labors w/ no meds) and they seemed reluctant to give me pain meds.
My incision opened up 2 days after I got home – I am now having to pack the wound w/ a dressing impregnated w/ silver to heal it (4 in X 1 in X 1 in deep).
I developed pneumonia in part because it was so painful to cough.
My baby was suctioned – a tube ran down her throat to remove the fluids that would have been squeezed out if I had a vaginal birth. None of my vaginally birthed babies had to be suctioned.
She has a hemotoma on her head from some type of injury when she was removed from my uterus.
My uterus was taken out of my abdomen to be repaired. Again, this just happened at the end of December, 2009.
I didn’t get to hold her while I was being stitched up. I saw a tiny bit of her face and her hand before she was taken to the nursery.
Thankfully, I didn’t have staples, but many of the drs in the area do use staples.
I also knew enough to refuse the drugs they wanted to give me after she was out to “calm” me. So, I was able to remember everything and nurse her when I was back in my room. You can say no to them but you have to be informed that they’re going to want to give them to you. Or, they’ll just do it.
The spinal took over 40 minutes to administer – they finally had to call a dr in to place it. I have pain and a bruise the size of the palm of my hand on my back from all the pokes.
I had pain when I urinated from being abraded from the catheter. I still have pain while urinating – I assume from the bladder being manipulated because there is no infection.
Some of the problems w/ vaginal births are because of drs who don’t help women into better positions to push – just like some c-sections are more difficult because a dr isn’t as skilled. I pushed all my babies out squatting or side lying and never tore and didn’t have prolonged pushing phases.
I agree that women aren’t fully informed about what can happen during a c-section. Lots of women do recover uneventfully, but I’m not one of them. My c-section was necessary and I’m grateful that we’re both ok (cord prolapse), but I would never sign up for an elective c-section.
I like that you did a post on this. I have a c-section go VERY wrong due to malpractice. I should have sued. I was talked out of it. I almost DIED! I was fine until a week after being home. I called my doctor saying my stomach was hot to the tough and I was in a very high amount of pain. He had me come in, and said “ohh you might have a small infection, take these antibiotics and it will go away” So I go home irritated but do what he says. The next say my stomach literally exploded while I was changing my daughters diaper. I looked at the floor wondering why I heard a water dripping noise. Well it wasn’t water… it was tons of blood. I was also home alone so I called my husband and he rushed me to the ambulance. (we live in a small town.. they are slow and it was just faster this way.) Turns out… I had a STAFF infection due to non-clean tools used in surgey. Well the doctor jus tsaid something was unclean.. “no big deal” he says. My blood was SO low that the paramedics didn’t understand how my heart was beating. I had enternal bleeding that filled my stomach along with infection that made my scar just open right on up. Scaries moment of my life at 19 years old. However, I now have a 10 month old healthy baby girl… I still get sharp pains in my stomach from time to time… but it took 7 months to heal from that. My recovery consisted of about 4 feet of gauze being packed into my stomach and ripped out twice a day every day for that 7 months… every month or so we’d narrow down the length of gauze. I have never felt so much pain. I also had home health for that time too. My home health nurses were in amazement at the fact that this happened. They just didnt understand how my doctor could act like it was not a big thing.. After going to the hopital for my stomach exploding they had to give me a second surgery and clean it all out and give me blood….Here are a couple of links to the pictures. The one with the big black scab looking thing is rotted skin where there was a blood clot. They had to remove it not long after so it left me with two holes with a bridge in between. they almost cut the bridge out as well because it was not attatched underneath. The second link is of a picture about 2 and a half months in recovery showing both holes. I also have a video of having to pack the wound..I will just post the pictures though. Oh I will also post a link of what it looked like after stuffing the wound… Unless you’d like to see it haha… anyway here are the links:
Picture one: Hole = approx 16cm deep and 8 cm across. https://tinypic.com/r/200pc2b/6
Picture two: two holes the top is where the blood clot was. also had to be stuffed. https://i46.tinypic.com/x29kdw.jpg
Picture three:… packing time! It doesn’t look like it since it is packed pretty tight, but this is about 3 feet of gauze at about month number 5 of healing https://i47.tinypic.com/jpwnxw.jpg
The top hold healed more quickly width wise but was still deep in the last picture.
Kristen
I forgot to add, my reason for having a c-section was that even after being enduced for 24 hours, i would not dilate to ANYTHING. I was 41 weeks at this time.
Kristen, I am so sorry you had to endure this. This is one of the most horrific C-section stories I have received. I am glad you are recovering and your daughter is healthy.
I receive a lot of comments on this post, some very critical, and I have defended my position many times. Stories like yours continue to show that even as of last year, things do go wrong with C-sections, and it is a major surgery with the possibilities of major complications. That is the reality of C-sections.
Thank you for sharing the link to your pictures. I know they will help inform others on the risks and complications involved with C-sections.
Please keep in touch, let me know your recovery goes, and how you are doing.
Heather
Thanks again for taking the time to share your experience.
i ran across your blog trying to find a picture of the classic “belly flap” for a friend of mine but i ended up reading this post. i feel that what you are saying should be told to EVERY mother who is expecting. i KNEW the complications that could arise, medically, by researching it myself while i was still pregnant. BUT no one ever thinks about the emotional complications after a c section.
on 4/15/09 i was admitted to the hospital for induction, i was 11 days overdue at that point. when i met the doctor on call she asked “why arent you having a c section? you have gestational diabetes and your baby could be HUGE” i said “because i DONT want a c section.” after the doctor left the nurses placed cervidil on my cervix. i was already contracting when i arrived but was unaware of it. all night long i was in pain…not from labor…but from a tooth ache that i had been having all throughout my pregnancy. when the nurse asked if i needed pain meds i told her “YES, my tooth is killing me.” so i was handling the contractions better than i had anticipated, thanks to my stupid tooth! i labored for 12 hours over night and woke up to a nurse sitting at the foot of my bed. i asked her if she could check my blood sugar so that i could have something to eat. the nurse replied with “we’ll see, we need the doctor to come in first.” at that point i KNEW what they were going to say, so i just started crying. i kept saying “i didnt go 12 days overdue to have a c section” i even begged them to let me go home. just as i was panicking the doctor walked into the room and my baby’s heart rate dipped into the 70’s for over 4 min, the nurse jumped on top of the bed and jammed her hand inside of me, trying to check my cervix and remove the cervidil. i was only 1 centimeter dilated so the doc said “see, we need to get her out” i was freaking out and agreed to the c section out of fear that my baby would die. so they set me up for an emergency c section but my baby’s HR came back up and said that they were going to wait for 30 min before taking me into surgery. i had heart surgery 3 months before getting pregnant and being wheeled into the operating room…seeing the doors close behind me really freaked me out, so they let me walk to the operating room….silly i know…but it made a huge difference in my mind, seeing the doors and walking through them and the door closing at my back rather than being wheeled backwards and seeing them close in front of me.
i was sitting on the operating room table, stark naked, as the anesthesiologist placed the spinal. as he was trying to find the “spot” i could feel pain shoot all the way down into the bottoms of my feet. after the spinal was placed they repositioned me and started prepping for surgery. a few minuets later the nurse brought my husband into the room, he sat by my head and tried calming me down. as they were working on me i kept feeling this weird pain…but i was scared that if i mentioned it that they would put me under general anesthesia and i would miss her birth…so i said nothing and just endured the pain. turns out what i was feeling was the doctor cutting through my nerves. after a few min i heard a tiny cry from around the curtain. my instinct was to bring my hands up to my chest and face, but i couldnt, they were tied down. then the nurse walked around the side of the curtain holding the most beautiful baby that i had ever seen. i continued to subconsciously fight the restraints, it was horrible. i wanted to hold my daughter so badly but i couldnt, i didnt even have the choice to do so. i then watched as they took her out of the room and asked my husband to follow. i was ALONE and i missed everything. i feel like i was a bystander at my baby’s birth. i had NO part in her being born…other than being strapped to a table.
when they wheeled me into the adjacent recovery room, i kept asking “where is my baby”, “please, can i see my baby”, “how long do i have to wait to see my baby” i felt like i was begging to see my daughter. about an hour and a half after her birth the pediatric nurse came through the door with this screaming baby and says “she is hungry mama” and proceeded to place her on my breast and kept jamming my nipple into her mouth. i just started balling. i felt like a freak show…sitting there, crying and having this strange little person thrust upon me. i was at odds with how to breastfeed. it took me half the day to figure out when she was latched correctly or not. my milk came in quickly and i was terribly engorged and my DD refused to latch because of it. the first few days of my daughters life were horrible. it makes me feel bad even thinking about it.
i was in horrible pain after the surgery. every 4 hours, on the dot, i was asking for pain meds. i was so drugged up that i only remember bits and pieces of the hospital stay and what i DO remember, is being frustrated…i did not feel like she was my baby…i just cried… a lot. when we went home things didnt get any better. she still wouldnt latch on because my boobs were so swollen. so i sat in the other room and pumped while my husband fed her breastmilk from a bottle. this was a huge defeat for me. i NEVER wanted her to be introduced to a bottle…but THAT bottle was in the back room calming my baby down. i felt like a failure…i couldnt even give my child the basic necessity of feeding her or calming her let alone birthing her. it took almost 10 days before the engorgement went away. luckily i figured out that i could get her to latch on by drizzling breastmilk over my nipple and into her mouth. i also continued to pump so that i could have a bit of backup supply. i didnt notice until a couple months after she was born that i had been dating the bags of milk wrong….way wrong, i dated a few of them years before she was born. not only was i dating her milk wrong…i can hardly remember the first 2 weeks of her life because i was still having to take pain meds to control the pain.
it took me months before i actually felt like i had truly bonded with my daughter. NOW i couldnt be happier and more in love with her but even just thinking about my c section experience makes me cry. i have had to stop and take several breaks while writing this because i couldnt see from crying so hard. SO, other than being in intense pain and feeling my nerves being cut, my c section had NO medical complications BUT i had severe emotional complications. i am not sure that i will ever get over the emotional trauma i experienced when my daughter was born. i am still dealing with postpartum depression but things are easier now than in the beginning. at first i sort of resented my daughter for the way she was born. but i realize now that it is no more her fault than my own…we are both victims of a casual medical outlook on c sections. IMO they should only be reserved for life and death situations. i personally dont believe that my situation was life threatening…but more along the lines of “needing to be closely watched.” i am happy to say that i am still breastfeeding my daughter at 9 month and hope to continue doing so until she is two years old.
i guess the point of my commenting is that you should be applauded for trying to help make women aware of the incredible toll that a c section can have on a woman, not only physically but emotionally. becoming a mother is supposed to be a joyous time…not traumatizing. the physical pain took a backseat to the emotional pain, in my case, but i must say…the pain was excruciating.
Thank you Sarah for sharing your story. I am SO very sorry you had such an awful experience with your C-section. I am so glad the nursing is going better, and that is great you are planning to nurse until your daughter is two!
Even though this post is almost 2 years old, I am still learning from comments women leave. When you write, “i am not sure that i will ever get over the emotional trauma i experienced when my daughter was born,” that struck a nerve with me.
Your comment has inspired me to write another C-section post- something I haven’t done in almost a year.
Hang in there, and enjoy your daughter. The trauma does get better, but you don’t forget, and I don’t think we should…by remembering it will enable us to pass our exeperiences with C-sections on, and hopefully help make other women aware of the risks.
I dont know if this happened to anyone else, but I could actually feel it when they were doing the c-section, and I soon found out why they strap your arms down=I was yelling PAIN PAIN and they said no pressure,then I started freaking out, b/c it felt like they were ripping my insides out=and I felt them pumping more medicine in but it just felt like water running down my back, and didnt stop the pain. When they strapped down my arms I remember thinking whats this? i never seen this on TV(I watched those pregnancy shows all throughout my pregnancy) and was thining, well if I wanted I could slip my arm out sideways cause the straps are lose this is ridiculous lol, but when I freaked out I was just trying to flail my arms and had lost reason due to pain, so the straps actually did work-as SOON as they got the baby out they knocked me out, I didnt get to see my baby for almost 6 dam hours after I came to-I think that was a problem with the nurses though, it made me really mad, by the time they came I was trying to get up and go down the hall(wow it is VERY hard to walk after a csection)to find out why they hadnt brought my baby-I had been ringing and ringing and they kept saying oh were bringing him, and I didnt even know what he looked like! oh it was horrible=and then the recovery…My husband had to work, there was no option of him getting time off, so I was alone with my baby and all the pain, I thought I would be so happy to get home, but when I got home, no more upright bed! and getting up off a regular bed after a c-section, wow horrendous pain-liftin even a little 6 pound baby-OUCHHH and yes I got the dam stomach hang makes me sick, I didnt even want to go outside b;c I was so embarrassed about that, Ive always been heavy set, but I aint nver had my stomach to hang until I had the c-section! I didnt want the surgery anways, but I was in labor for almost 40 hours and not even dialated to 2, and of course they were filling me plum full of patocin which was giving the killer contractions without the benefit of frikin dialting. Well if I could go back in time, I swear I would NOT havve gone to the hospital until much later, I wonder how things wouldhave went without all that pitocin-I was just scared cause my water had broke
Oh and by the way, I wanted to breast feed, but no one told my when you have a csection you have to TELL them not to give your baby a bottle,so when my boy came out,unbeknownst to me,they shoved a bottle in his mouth directly (I only found this out when I got the pictures developed that his father took)so I couldnt understand why he just would NOTTTTT nurse, and I tried and tried and tried but he just wanted that bottle-my milk finally dried up around 4 months.Oh and I had stitches, and on one side they came open a bit so my scar is thicker on one side too, but after what I know now, Im just thankful I didnt get an infection!
Ok one more thing, though the experience was dreadful, and I didnt get to see him for many hours afterwards,I do NOT feel it affected my bond with my son at all,the first time I laid my eyes on him,was the HAPPIEST moment of my life, hes 3 now and most DEFINATELY a mammas boy-lol
i had to have a c-section with my second child. she was breach and i was 3 centimeters. They gave the excuse that they had c-sections planned for later that day and if I didnt get it done right away, they might not be able to schedule me in…..WHAT? now that I am not terrified of my baby dying, and I’ve had time to think about it, that is a lousy excuse to put a woman through that kind of ordeal. I was not having contractions or anything. I was crying and one of the nurses told another one, look out, this one is dramatic. they were shaving me and i was apologizing for crying and when we got into the emergency room, i was still crying and the nurse told me dont be sad. today is your baby’s birthday!(trying to cheer me up) and the only thing I could think of was hey lady lets switch places and see how you feel in my place. when they had my baby out and were checking her over, i started hyperventilating and i think one of them even rolled her eyes. (even though it was something that they said would happen because of the drugs they put in me)well, after my c-section i was so groggy from all the drugs they were giving me I could barely keep my eyes open. I could barely focus on my daughter. I could barely hold her to breastfeed her. the nurse yelled at me because i was supposed to be up walking around, but I asked her how could i do that if I couldn’t even keep my eyes open? finally they cut down the drip and eventually they just gave me storebrand meds. I glimpsed my staples one time and never looked at them again. i even cried. I thought i looked like frankenstein! and oh the pain! vaginal birth was so much easier. they tell you you will heal faster with a c-section and that some women even favor them. bullcrap! well, it wasn’t that way for me anyway. I was in constant pain and had a 7 year old and a newborn to take care of. To top it all off, when my daughter was 2 weeks old, my stupid husband got this great idea for us to go to a theme park. we got into a big fight and he went while me and our newborn stayed home. I mean, I wasn’t even supposed to be lifting her without help! when my daughter was about 8 weeks old, i was healing pretty good, but the area where the stitches were tied off inside of me were killing me! it was itching and burning where the stitch knot was rubbing against my skin inside! It drove me mad! The more I moved, the more it bothered me!
My daughter is almost 2 now. I can’t see a scar on my abdomen anymore. Not sure about the belly flap yet because I am overweight now anyway. When I get back in shape, we’ll see how that looks. (crossing fingers) I have trouble with my back now though. does anyone else have back pain now since their c-section?
On a side note, my divorce is almost finalized. There were alot of problems in my marriage. But what kind of jerk expects his wife to walk all day when she just had a c-section?
well, I’ve never wrote about this before, so it feels good to finally get it all out.
for myself personally, now that I’ve been through one, I would never willingly choose a c-section over vaginal birth unless it was absolutely necessary. But alot of people are turned on by the fact that you can choose your child’s birthday that way! how silly is that?
hey i love this post! i was surfing the net to find ways to get rid of my c-section stomach and what i call a [ flap and fold]….i stumbled upon this blog in doing so.
i love hearing about different experiences about this it’s very weird. i had my c-section at cedar sinai hospital in los angeles it was the best surgery ever i didn’t have ti get any stitches and my scar is small oh i also didn’t feel any pain. while i thought they were still prepping me for it i asked me husband when are they gonna start the surgery and as i got the question out of my mouth the doctor said and we have a baby…i did not feel a thing they have the best paing treatment ever.
now i had emergency c-secton i mean i cried and i cried because i knew what would happen after having one. i went 42 weeks in my pregnancy and then i went to be induced everything was going well. i had dilated to 6 1/2 centimeters and the doc comes in and says your babies heart rate is slowing down you need to have an emergency c-section. i went crazy man the babies head wasn’t coming down.
i said all that to say that i was horrified at the thought of having one for my own reasons. i must say those reason rang true.
my stomach at the bottom has not gone down im so sad. but i was walking the same day i had my c-section and my nurse would get mad at me because i was not taking the pain medication. i had my baby almost 7 months ago and i still have the pain medication that they sent me home with…….
my husband wants another baby but i don’t i can’t do it again because i feel like my stomach is gonna get worse.
i have not come across anyone who got rid of the stomach after c-section.
I have to comment on the woman who had an 11 pound baby via “emergency” c-section, and was very unhappy with the procedure and related events. She commented that her 11 pound baby might, and she thought, probably, wouldn’t have been able to be birthed vaginally. A close friend had a 9 lb, 10oz baby by “emergency” c-section also, was told she couldn’t have birthed such a large baby. She then birthed (at home) a VBAC 10 lb 11 oz baby with no tearing.
Witnessing this birth, and hearing her story was a turning point for me, I birthed both mine at home, happily, with a midwife. In my view, doctors don’t really know what women’s bodies can do!
thank you for this. I was actually looking to find out how common it is to have damage to the bladder during c-section.
I had both of my daughters by c-section. The 1st due to footling breech. Unfortunately I was not told about a possibility of getting her to flip. My husband was in Iraq, and I had been scheduled only with 3 days notice, as my dr wanted to avoid an emergency c. No chance of hubby comming home.
I had a problem during surgery where I had mentioned to the anesthesiologist that I may need more epidural medicine than most because I have had a past of resistance to numbing medicines. he shrugged it off as a common worry, and halfway through the proceedure I felt sharp pain inside, They gave me something else for it, and I lost time, people told me things I have no recollection of from that day. I had a fallopian pregnancy just over a year after my daughter’s birth. It was in an unusual spot, instead of in the middle of the tube, it was right where the tube connects to the uterus. I didn’t know until it ruptured. The tube pretty much tore off, and could not be saved. I didn’t know if my other tube worked or not, but less than 5 years later I was pregnant again, and if I had not had the damage to my uterus where the tube tore off (the dr explained he had to put some stitches in my uterus as well) I would have tried for a vbac, but I did not want to risk uterine rupture. The dr agreed. I my second daughter decided to come nearly a month early. I had gone into laber several days before, and spent 2 nights in the hospital after they gave me all kinds of meds to stop the labor. I was back 2 nights later, no more stopping her.
this time I suffered damage to my bladder. The catheter punctured through my bladder, and this time I had to recover with go figure, the catheter that caused the damage to begin with, inside the bladder because the dr didn’t want my bladder to fill up with urine, so it could heal( for a week and a half!). But this time the anesthesiologist took me seriously (a woman)so at least I didn’t feel pain during. As far as breastfeeding goes, I breastfed my 1st for 10 months, and my second is currently 8 months, and still breastfeeding. because of this I don’t believe any women that say they “can’t” breastfeed because of a c-section. It may hurt more, but I think the moms that say this may in some way not want to breastfeed, and that is fine, it is her choice. I think this excuse just makes it more ok in her mind.
I chose to have my remaining tube tied at the time of my 2nd daughters birth, and my dr said I had so much scar tissue in there, that things were adhered together in there (likely from previous surgeries) and that I should never have any other abdominal surgery unless absolutely necesary. he was ready to gnaw my tube off with his teeth.
April,
the way anatomy works, muscle has to be cut through to get to the uterus!
I had my first c-section 21 years ago, I was young and naive and when the doctor told me that my daughter was breech and it was necessary I did not ask questions…. when I awoke from my surgery, much to my surprise, I discovered that my incision was made vertically. I have had 2 more since the first also vertical… after the third i had a difficult time recovering, just was not feeling right …three weeks later I was rushed into emergency room the diagnosis was a pulmonary embolism due to the c-section, which nearly killed me. My stomach is the bane of my existence I am still a young woman, I have a healthy diet, I exercise on a daily basis , but still have this hideous stomach…..I wish that I had had more knowledge, and read of peoples personal experiences back then. If anyone knows ways of improvement other than surgery I would love to know. thanks
I wanted to leave a comment to thank you for this resource. It made me angry to read some of the self-righteous comments made by other people about how you were trying to scare women. Guess what guys? The doctor doesn’t always explain stuff. The extent of my pre-op teaching was “You’ve been in labor a long time and this isn’t happening. Honey, let’s go down the hall and have a baby.” My hands were tied down during the procedure. My baby was taken away. All of these things were done over my protests. Although a doctor is “supposed to” explain all the risks and benefits of a procedure as well as the risks and benefits of NOT performing the procedure, they very rarely do. I can say that with confidence because I’m an RN and I’ve sat by the bedside of countless patients while their doctor glossed over or downright lied about the risks. So, thank you very much for having the courage to share your experience.
My stories are long…. But I hope some actually take the time to read…
For the video version (https://vimeo.com/7470732)
I will start with the pregnancy of my first child, Camden. When I got pregnant, I was not all that educated about natural birth in general. I had worked as a doula, but through a crappy agency which I separated from rather quickly. So when I found out I was pregnant, I figured seeing a female Obstetrician would be like seeing a midwife. WRONG!!!!!!! But, I was pleased with my provider for the most part. I was considered a “high risk” patient because of surgery which I had on my cervix in my teen years, so of course like so many other women, I blindly followed what my Doctor told me, because of course, Doctors are never wrong…. right?
As my pregnancy went on I started seeing another female Obstetrician in this practice I proceeded to dub “The Wicked Witch” she was mean, old, cold, and simply rushes me without ever answering any of my questions or concerns. Then it seemed as though, every time I would schedule an appointment with MY OB/GYN I would always end up seeing this other Doctor. It was driving me crazy! Same went for if I had to call the “on call” for the evening, something felt wrong or something was off, and this same Doctor would always insist I went to L&D and be checked. By the time my son was finally born, I am sure they were all glad they wouldn’t be seeing me again!
Then in early November, our family was struck by a tragedy. My husband’s brother died suddenly at the age of 23, which sent our whole family into a tail spin, this was 4 weeks before my due date. From that time on, I proceeded to get sick daily, sometimes several times a day, I started losing weight despite eating like I regularly did before. At my last visit at 39 weeks and change, the Wicked Witch expressed concern that I was losing weight (15 pounds by this point) and that we should go ahead and schedule an induction before it has an impact on my son. Of course like any mother would, I freaked out and agreed. I didn’t want to have something happen to him, and in a way, I was happy because I was uncomfortable like EVERY pregnant woman was in the end.
I went in that Tuesday to get induced. It was December 11th 2007, and we showed up at 6:00am, and they escorted us up to my L&D room, and looking back on it, I wish I knew what I was getting myself into.
My L&D Nurse came in for my little questionnaire/intake and when I said I did not have a desire for an epidural, she and the Wicked Witch OB laughed at me, and told me I would change my mind shortly. From then it just proceeded to get worse!? By 9:30 I was hooked up to pitocin, which in my opinion is PURE EVIL!? Like they had said, after 2 hours of pitocin, 3cm dialated, I was begging for an epidural. I got the epidural but it didn’t seem to do much for me. The OB came back around at noon time, checked me and said I made no progress. I was still at 3cm, -1 station, 80% effaced. Which was a total blow to me because I was hurting and I thought I would have progresses SOME! She told me she was going to go have lunch, see a couple patients and she would be back around 2pm.? My husband and my mother went to get something to eat, I tried to rest a little bit, and eventually she came back. At 2pm, there was again no progress. And this is when she said, well, I am going to come back at 3, and if there is no progress then we are going to have to book an OR. I knew then my worst nightmare was coming true. This cascade of interventions was directing me straight to a cesarean section. From the start of my pregnancy, when I was told about placenta previa (which corrected itself) via ultrasound, I cried at the thought of a cesarean.
She came back at 3pm, and there was no progress, or at least that is what she told me, and they started preping me for surgery. The OR was cold, and bright, and without my husband, it would have been even more terrifying.? In the back of my head I was happy I was about to meet my son, but I was scared to death.
He was born at 4:37pm screaming, 7pounds and 7oz. Which then one of the OB/GYN’s commented, someone of my size (petite frame and short stature) would have never been able to birth that baby. Ya ok!? My mother, my size, gave birth to an over 10 pound baby, HER FIRST CHILD!
My recovery sucked, and during that time, I reached out to ICAN and learned there was no chapter in my area. So, I started one.
In September 2008, we learned we were expecting our second child, and even before I got pregnant, I knew I never wanted to go through another cesarean, nor would I willingly go through it.
My pregnancy was? uneventful, NOT HIGH RISK, attended by amazing Midwives, and so much different from my first.
On May 16th, I was doing a baby fair at our local hospital for our ICAN chapter, talking with mothers all day, giving out information, and around noon time, I started to feel… off. Something just wasn’t right.? Thankfully for me, my Chiropractor was at the booth right next to me at the baby fair so I made my way to him and got adjusted. Once I got adjusted it all clicked. I was going into labor at a baby fair. Were we in a movie?
Next thing you know, the women doing the booth with me said I looked white as a ghost, like I was ready to pass out, so they made me have some water, and eat candy. Lovely combo, but it helped! I wrapped up the fair and headed home. I called my doula and let her know what was going on, but I wasn’t certain I was in labor yet.
I laid down when I got home and tried to take a nap, but I couldn’t get any rest at all. My contractions kept getting closer and stronger. It seemed as though my labor was progressing fast, and I wasn’t sure what real natural labor was like because of my induction the first time around. I called my doula back up and she decided to head on over, and off to the bath tub I went to relax and try to work through the contractions.? Back labor, all the pain was in my back, and later on I found out my little guy was posterior.? By the time my doula got to my house, and things really started to rock n roll, it was around 8pm.? I watched the season finale of Brothers & Sisters which I had DVR’ed, listened to music, and spent a ton of time on the birth ball. Hours seemed like minutes, and next thing I knew it was midnight and I called my midwife. I told her I had been laboring for a while, and things were getting more intense, contractions were about 90 seconds apart, and we still had a 45 minute drive to the hospital I picked, which was one of the most VBAC friendly in the area. So around 12:30am we headed off to the hospital in a 3 car caravan. Myself? laying in my doula’s backseat trying to sleep in torrential rain on the highway. My best friend in her car, and my husband in our car.? We arrived at the hospital between 1 and 1:30am.
We got all checked in, and my midwife greeted us, and gave me a little check. I was 2-3cm which made all of our jaws drop. My labor was so intense we all swore I would be further along!? I decided to get on my hands and knees with the birth ball for a while, then take a shower, I thought about getting in the tub, but it was nearing 4-5am and we all wanted sleep. I couldn’t rest for the life of me.
At this point I asked for an epidural so I could sleep. I knew no matter how much I planned that I would not have one, things change when you are in the actual situation.
I got the epidural around 6am.
I was able to sleep until at 8, when my midwife came back and checked me again 3cm at most.? What was going on?? Why was I not dialating? What was wrong with my body?? Contractions started to slow, then get back to being a minute apart, then slow, then get quicker. Something was just not right, and on top of it all, I am sure the epidural was not helping either.
Around noon time my midwife popped back in and checked my cervix one last time.
Still 3cm and now my cervix was starting to swell, and we were having complications.
I was devastated, my VBAC was crashing and burning in front of my eyes.
My body was defective, I could not birth my baby, my own plan had blown up in my face.
My epidural to sleep, selfishly kicked me right in the ass!
My Midwife consulted the on call OB/GYN who came in to talk to me, along with the Resident who was on call. They were both amazingly warm, friendly, and comforting, and at that point I knew that a cesarean would be how my son was born. But I was not as bothered by it this time around, because after nearly 26 hours of labor, something was wrong, seriously wrong. My mothers intuition turned on and my son was in trouble.
At 1:59pm Benjamin Emil Elwood was born, bruised and looked like he had been through a war! When they opened me up, he was jammed behind my pelvic bone, which his forehead was pressed up against it all that time. He wasn’t coming down, his head wasn’t applying pressure to my cervix for it to dialate. At that moment I knew I made the right choice consenting to the cesarean.? I knew in the long term, it helped my son, and that was simply the way he needed to be born. During the days after my midwife would come see me every morning, sit, chat, and just helped me get through it all. I still today, cannot write about this without crying because the scars from his birth are still fresh. Nearing 6 months old, the pain of the failure is not any lighter. It seems like it was yesterday.
The story I tell is a story of a completely unnecessary cesarean section with my first child, and a life saving cesarean with my second.
The story I tell is a story of pain, and hurt, and betrayal by the one person I trusted the most, my Doctor.
The story I tell is a story of hope for other mothers to learn and become educated from my words.
The story I tell is the story of my sons, the loves of my life, and the ones who have made me the mom, advocate, and woman I am today.
All in all, I am now the North East Regional Coordinator for ICAN, a chapter leader, and the head of a maternity care campaign in my state of Connecticut. My experiences, my children, and my battle has made me become so active that I have been honored to support other women who have been where I have, and I have helped others to prevent unnecessary cesareans.
When people say completely asinine things like “They went to medical school, I didn’t!” it makes me crazy!!!
REMEMBER, that OB/GYN’s are surgeons FIRST!
My best friend had a c-section. She was induced, and she was “only” 5 cm’s dilated after 8 hours. They convinced her it wasn’t going to happen, and talked her into a completely unnecessary c-section. The TRUTH is that they didn’t want to wait for the baby to descend. That’s the truth. The baby never had a moment of distress.
This is the MOST USED EXCUSE for c-sections. “failure to progress”. It’s a sham, most of the time.
I just wanted to share my C-section experience.
I was scheduled to be induced June 26th, 2009 because according to my doctor I was 42 weeks (they estimated).
I went into L&D at 7am but I had to wait until 8am to get everything started because right when I got there they had just started an emergency C-Section on another women, i started crying because i knew i didnt want that to happen to me and then it seemed like it took forever from the time i heard them announce the birth to when the baby actually started crying. At 8am pitocin was started and my doctor checked me and i was at 1-2cm (which i had been at for almost a month) my doctor decided, without telling me, that he was going to break my water at 8:30am by noon i was dialated to 4cm and thats when i actually started feeling the contractions even though they were 45-60seconds apart for hours before then. I decided to use the labor ball which worked great for 2 hours, i asked to labor in the tub but they wouldnt let me because my doctor had already broken my water and they told me to lay down, stupidly i listened to the nurses. Back labor set in horribly! I got an epidural at 2pm at that time i was dialated to 5cm, at 4pm i was dialated to 6-7cm and my doctor checked me again at 5pm, he said i hadnt progressed at all within the hour and if i didnt progress more within the next half hour he wanted to do a csection, i freaked out i couldnt stop crying because throughout my pregnancy all i had imagined was giving birth naturally (i didnt even want an epidural but my nurses wouldnt stop telling me to get one even after i kept telling them not to ask me). At 7pm my doctor said he was going to do a csection because it was taking too long and it took until 8pm to get everything set up, by this time they had stopped pitocin and gave me more epidural, i was so out of it i couldnt even see my moms face. I was then tied down to a table and at 8:34pm my son was born, perfectly healthy 7lb 5oz 20inch baby boy (now does that sound like a baby that had been cooking away for 42 weeks? i dont think so).
After my csection i wasnt able to hold my son for almost a full day because of the effect the epidural and another pain killer had on me, so i lost out on the important bonding time and it makes me feel horrible that i will never get that back no matter how hard i try. I wasnt able to breastfeed, i was in too much pain to move at all. I was released from the hospital 3 days after my son was born but had to go back that night because i couldnt handle how much pain i was in. The emergency room doctors found a hematoma in my abdomen from the csection, i was readmitted, i had a bunch of ivs of antibiotics to try to break up the hematoma, nothing worked. A needle was stabbed through my stomach (right next to my belly button) to see if the hematoma was filled with pus or blood (it was blood), i was givin more pain meds. I was then told i had pneumonia (which i later found out i never had) so i wasnt aloud to see my son for a week, i couldnt take him to his first doctors appt or anything.
I got fevers of 104.5 every night for a week while in the hospital, the nurses didnt do anything to help me, if it wasnt for my mom and my best friend i would be dead today i have no doubt in my mind about that.
My Iron level was tested because i got really really pale and found out my iron level had dropped down to 5, i then received 2 blood transfusions and was released yet again the next day.
The 2nd time i was released i ended up going to a different hospital because i was sick of not being treated properly at the first hospital. At the 2nd hospital they reopened my incision cut through the muscle wall and drained over 2 pints of built up blood.
So after being in the hospital for almost 3 weeks, i dont see how anyone would want a c-section, i know most dont get the complications that i got, but i pray everyday that when i do choose to have another baby (if i do) that i will not be forced into a csection because of labor “taking too long” the only reason my labor was taking too long for my doctor was because he was going on vacation the next day and wanted to go home, so yes my csection was not medically necessary. I have pictures but i do not know how to post them on here.
I just hope that anyone considering a C-Section knows the risks involved, yes there are risks with a vaginal birth but they are way less likely than with a C-Section.
Thank you for anyone that actually read my whole post and thank you AMamasBlog for creating this article.
Dawn,
Unless it is a DIRE emergency using the vertical cut instead of horizontal and the baby has to come out like NOW they do not cut through the muscle! They do stretch the fibers apart, but they don’t cut through them, which makes it much easier to heal from.
I didn’t read through all of the comments, but I just have to add this one in. I almost lost my baby due to my OB strongly encouraging/scaring me into having a second C-Sec.
My first was breech, my second she said that the skin seemed really thin around the scar and I was putting myself and baby at a huge risk to have a VBAC. This of course, was not the case since I asked her after the surgery and she told me that the skin was not ‘as thin as she thought’.
Anyway, my baby girl stopped breathing after a half-cry when they took her out. 4 doctors worked on her at the table while I could just stare and pray. She was gray-colored when they whisked to to the baby ICU and hooked her up to oxygen, antibiotics, fluids, etc. The doctors were amazing, got her breathing and she ‘recovered’. The worst half hour of my life was this not-knowing on Christmas Eve 2008 (yes, the OB scheduled it for Christmas Eve since the rooms were all booked for every other day/time). I lay there on the table unable to move …. with tears running down my face praying my little baby would pull through. She was in ICU for 2 days.
For 3 months afterward, her face would turn beat red as she stopped breathing – 2-3 times a week. I’d pick her up, gently pat her back and gently nudge the heel of my hand up her stomach – almost like heimlich. This always got her breathing again, but it never got any less scary. Now, at 15 months, she is heading to a respiratory specialist because she has chronic lung problems associated with the C-Section delivery…her ‘very bad case of wet lung’ as they called it. She always has breathing issues, and when she gets the sniffles, it is serious enough to whisk her into emerg because she can’t breathe! She has had 2 sets of Chest X-Rays at this young age because even the doctors are worried they are missing something.
My point is I guess, something I hadn’t really considered before Hallie’s birth….Its not just the MOM who is at risk, the baby in an unnecessary C-Sec has a risk of many complications…the rate of asthma in C-Sec babies is 50% higher than V births! A more minor result, is that my baby girls voice is husky like she always has a cold (perhaps she’ll be a country singer:) and doctors have told me that is probably because of the tubes shoved down her throat at birth. I’m so thankful for her every day, she is an absolute joy, but so angry at OBs and the media who push unnecessary C-Sections because she shouldn’t have to go through this!
The reason you get so much negative feed back is because of your choice of wording. “The reality of c-sections” “I wish someone told me how c-sections REALLY are” “Maybe if I could only have found out the TRUTH about c-sections” as if all the positive things you’ve heard from people were lies.
The reality of c-sections is the same as vaginal birth. Some are wonderful and amazing one of a kind experiences, some are horrible and life altering. That’s what you should be saying.
I love your blog – just started reading it. And I think you wrote this post a little for yourself and then for others. So I don’t want to criticize you or anybody else. I just want to share what it was for me:
First of all, every birth experience is very different and unique! And I am glad for you that at least one was a good one.
With my first child, I wanted to do it naturally, but because there was meconium in the water, they gave me 24 hours to deliver. I was in mild labor for over 12 hours, and got scared of having to have a C-section. So I thought an epidural will accelerate things. I got it and, for me, it did opposite, it slowed things down almost completely. In my 22nd hour, the heart beat got low and I ended up with an Emergency C-section any way. Something I had tried to avoid all along! It was sooooooo (!) disappointing. It took me months to get over it… but I had a beautiful baby in my hands and THAT was (and is) more important.
BUT it was not that bad from the medical point of view. I took meds for about 24 hours, then I refused – which was fine in my case. I recovered pretty quickly and was up and walking normally by week two. Yes, you can’t laugh or cough for a couple of days, but there is worse in life!!! And I can rely to that too – as I had to have a radical hysterectomy. THAT did take me full six weeks to recover from. And there is a reason! With the C-section, they only (!) cut through some layers of skin down to the uterus. In a Hysto, they cut everything, muscles and tissue and all. They did staple mine too, in both cases, and it was great. It did NOT hurt to take them out, it is just a little uncomfortable to have them in and bend over…. Also, my baby was NOT groggy at all after birth, just normal sleepy like all babies are! My second was just as tired after a vaginal birth!!!
Though I have to say that the previous C-section actually saved me from being cut open top to bottom with my hysto! So it was good that I had that before, so they used the old scar! Great.
Also, I have a friend who has had three C-sections now, and she is up moving after a couple of hours, left the hospital the same day!, and goes about her business like every woman who gave birth vaginally. It’s amazing! She had no trouble breastfeeding either.
I had a c section with my first born and had no pain or problems afterwords and healed very quickly. Three days after having my c section I was doing heavy house hold chores and laundry. No problem.
I happened upon this while googling C-section recoveries. Though I wish I would have happened upon this before mine, it wouldn’t have made a difference. I ended up with a semi-emergency c-section…I had pushed for four hours (2nd child), had a failed vacuum extraction, my epidural had worn off and my baby’s heart rate dropped every time I pushed/contracted.
…So I ended up on the operating table, husband holding my hand, my mom watching the “action” and totally freaked out. Not only could I feel everything that was happening, but the doctor did not believe me and insisted I was feeling pressure, not pain (because she would know better than the person going through it). They finally knocked me out when I started throwing up…that is the last thing I remember.
I woke up in Post-op about an hour later feeling like I had survived a plane crash.
FOUR long hours later I finally got to meet my daughter. Granted I was still groggy and had been up for 44 hours but it was a perfect moment when I finally got to hold her.
Then came the good news…My doctor had scheduled a C/T scan to “make sure everything was ok with my bladder” (apparently when stitching up a c-section, rupturing the bladder is a very common mishap)…so they took my baby and off I went. A few hours later the doctor came in with even more good news. My bladder was fine, but she had threaded a stitch around my Ureter (tube from your kidney to your bladder) thus cutting off the flow…so I had to go into another surgery, 7 hours after my c-section…A Urologist had to re-open everything, take the stitch out, re-suture everything then place a stent into my kinked ureter…had to remain in for 2 weeks.
I find out tomorrow if I have permanent kidney damage.
All from having a C-section, a doctor that was either having a bad day (or is just totally incompetent in the end..though she seemed find the 9 months leading up to this fiasco), and not knowing if there were any other options available.
C-Sections should definitely be a last resort.
Thanks for your blog, I think it is great to get the info out there so people know what they could possibly have in store for them.
Kudos to the lady above me (Tyla Lee) who was up and at ’em 3 days later, I would say with everything I’ve read during the past 7 weeks you are very lucky and that is not your typical recovery result.
Everyones experience is different some bad some good.
My mother had a c section years and years ago with my older sister and gave birth to me vaginally. So ladies once a c section always a c secton NOOOOOPE it depends on the situation
Love the post. I don’t think its meant to frighten at all, and if it does GOOD. Today in the US pregnant women are so blissfully unaware of just how often c-sections do happen. I mean seriously the section rate is up to 53%, ABSOLUTELY UNACCEPTABLE. OB’s are woefully undertrained, hospital’s have super strict policy and we forget that pregnancy and birth are natural things. We were built to deliver babies.
I’m a momma who had 3 sections, 1st for the reason that the baby weighed too much the other 2 repeats. Now that I’m 3 years wiser, I would have told my OB to shove the c-section, I’ll have my son at home when he’s ready thank you very much.
You go Momma, you beautifully stick to your guns about this! I pray this post will reach more women, so they are better informed. Knowledge is power!!!
To me the “scar” from the writers c-section looks great. I see alot of women that have it alot worse just from vaginal births. There are things that can go right and wrong with any delivery method, i think its interesting to hear other peoples accounts of thier experiences, but being pregnant right now the last thing i want is negative imput about decisions I am making for my body.
After reading all that I feel very sorry for new moms ending up with c-sections! I have three sons and a daughter, all born by c-section, my experience has not been bad at all! My cut, although opened 4 times, healed beautifully each time. I never had my hands tied down and never had staples. My cut healed within 10 days every time. I never had any pain that ordinary painkillers didn’t take care of. All my children took to breastfeading easily and I breastfed all of them for over a year. My youngest son aged 12 months is still breastfeading and it doesn’t look like he’ll be weaned soon. I drove my car after 2/3 weeks and never had any problems with stairs. Good luck to all of you having planned c-sections, its not half as bad as this lady recons. Regards Leta x
I just wanted to say that i had a c-section because my daughter was way to big to even try and have vaginally. she was born 11/5/2009. my OB did not use staples when he “stitched” me up. he used a strong version of butterfly tape. the tape came off about a week and a half after the procedure and it was completely healed without any complications. my daughter is now about 7 and a half months old and you cant even tell i had surgery. i also listened to what the doctors orders were and took it easy for about a week so that it could heal and i made sure to carefully clean the area so i wouldnt get infection. she also was very alert and had no problems with breastfeeding. she is a perfectly happy little girl.
i guess what im saying is that half of issues most women have are due to the fact they ignore doctors orders in my opinion. and your experience is only as good as you make it.
i dont mean to offend anyone or anything but i just wanted to let some readers know that you can have good experiences!
I think that your post was very truthful and just (as you said) your own experience with your c-section. If you received negative feedback, that is just too sad. I guess c-sections can be tough and everyone has their own point of view. I read through your post (at least your most recent one) and think you have every right to want to inform people on your experience. I have had 4 repeat c-sections and will be having my 5th in about four weeks. The first one was definitely a lot to handle and I was clueless on what to expect. It was an emergency due to me having pre-eclampsia and being in labor for 20 hours without dilating past 5 cm. The others were not my choice (my doctor did not want to let me VBAC because he did not want to wait in the hospital the whole time as this was the recent change in the medical profession at that time). I was “forced” somewhat into that one. However, with my third, I really still wanted to VBAC. I found a doctor that was willing to let me and was very supportive, although I know she was worried. Towards the end, she made me feel so much better about everything, you know, less of a failure and more of a mother who worked very hard and did very well to deliver my last two babies. She was so amazing. I decided on my own that I would rather deal with the risks of a c-section rather than that of a VBAC after two c-sections. Each mother should have that choice. The doctor should lay out the risks of each and let the mother chose. After all, it is what the mother is able to live with, not the doctor. This one went so well, it was like my body was just used to it! 🙂
Since then, I get scared every time of course…a bit anxious, but the fourth also went very well. Recovery was so much easier the other times and I hope it will be again. Without doubt, I am more nervous than ever, but do pray for a healthy baby and recovery.
I would like to suggest something to all mothers that either are choosing to or need to have a c-section. If you do not like the narcotics as I don’t, …ask for a drug called Toradol. I am not sure how to spell it, but that is the only non-narcotic drug I know of that works amazingly! It seems to work similar to Tylenol. You don’t feel anything except pain relief. The pain of the c-section is decreased incredibly. I noticed that with a narcotic drug, you feel a lot of pain still but just feel groggy! It’s weird that anyone thinks it works!? Similar to having a beer and cutting your leg, sure you feel the cut, but you just don’t care! 🙂 right?
Anyway, I just wanted to let you know a little about my experience too. I think anyone faced with a c-section decision should read as much as they can, including a blog like yours. It is important to have a very wide view of the risks, the emotions, and the pain, etc. There is always a feeling of disappointment I think with the first and maybe even the second. But when it comes down to it, with me anyway, I just realized that the most important thing is having my baby at my side no matter what the cost to me (i.e. pain or scarring). I realize that everyone is different though. I just hope that everyone sees the wonderful picture…that beautiful new life we worked so hard to create for nine painful months! 🙂 And do not be disappointed in yourself! EVER! the nine months is enough to earn the credit of that little one (let alone labor and deliver, no matter how the baby ends up coming).
Nice reading your blog.
Take care, Amber
hi heather,
just looking through some of my old pics remember how bad my c-section was and i thought of u and how u helped me… it has been 21 months as of the 17th since my c-section it took me almost 6 months to close completely… and after 21 months i still get pains if i move the wrong way and the scar still hurts to touch it i dont think my body will ever be the same.. but i have a beautiful baby boy that is walking and talk actually mouthing me now…lol he tells me no every chance he gets..lol still wish i had him natural like my first 2.. but i see my pictures are still on here and i hope they have helped people cause if i would have found this blog before my c-section i would have fought harder to make them do something else first.. and i still say the same thing i said 21 months ago if u are going to have a c-section for a quick easy delivery please look at my pictures up top and rethink cause it wasnt fun or pretty and my son had a hard think bonding with me his own mother because i couldnt get out of bed in the middle of the night to comfort him until he was 6 months old he knew his daddy more then he did me i slept on the couch 4 months after i got home cause i wasnt aloud to walk up stairs.. my doctors words was and i quote ” do not get off that couch unless u have to use the restroom or if your house is on fire” but heather i just wanted to read some more stories and say hello it has been awhile…
Thank you for every thing
Terra
I guess I’m blessed that my c-section went very smoothly. I was in no pain a week pp… and I healed very well. I was slightly disapointed by having to have a c-section instead of the vaginal birth I have visioned, but once I heard my daughters cries nothing else mattered. yes.. it was a good hour before she was brought into my room and that was sad and yes the pain was unbelievable for a week. I literally slept sitting up because laying down would stretch out my stomach and cause me terrible pain. so, While a c-section wasn’t my first choice, I had to do it to save my unborn childs life and in the end it worked out ok.. I Just want everyone to know, that if you have a great obgyn, like I did, your c-section story doesn’t have to be so bad.
i had a c section with my lil girl in 2008, its 2010 and mine is infected because they left two metal staples in me im thinking of suing the hospi, can i ?
wow i though this was only happening to me i have i hole the size of a nickel and about 1cm deep mind u i had my daughter a year ago and things just keep happening
I’m from the uk and I want to thank you for your information, I had a c-section in feb this year and I feared that all these pain twinges and the numbness was not exactly normal for a c-section, the only person I had to inform me about what a c-section was like was my mum and she had hers 36 years ago so its a lot different now.
My lil one is now 6 months and although I can look after him I sometimes suffer pain when lifting him, I also still suffer after walking to far.
My health visitor has told me that it will be at least a year before my body starts feeling normal-ish again, and am able to walk like I used to do she even told me that I’m not even supposed to carry the baby bath when it has water in it, but yet I have to lift my child, its kinda a catch 22 if you get what I mean.
I think the thing is nowadays, some people think because your out quicker that you heal quicker, not so as I often try to point that out to my partners mother, but to no avail, she tends to think I’m just being lazy.
For women out there looking for advice about this, please if you have other options other than c-section please take them, its 6 months since I had my lil one and I’m still trying to recover from it and the complications I suffered afterwards, I ended up having to stay in hospital for 9 days because my blood temperature dropped dramatically and ended up being on a penacillin drip for two days because of this, I then suffered high blood pressure, meaning they wouldnt release me until it was back in the normal range.
Although I had some nice midwifes and nurses while in there, when it came to helping with my baby they werent much help, I was still expected to lift my baby, even though my midwife had advised me I shouldnt I wasnt even shown how to bath my baby properly until the day before I was discharged, and I had a very rude and nasty midwife while in there and trying to see a doctor in there was a joke, I saw 2 in those 9 days, I think another problem nowadays is that some doctors get paid for basically doing nothing.
I wasnt really informed about any alternatives to c-section, because I saw my midwife and she told me my baby was still in breech position and was sent to hospital to check, which it turned out he was, I then had to go back the following day so they could try to turn him, they tried for over half an hour but he barely moved, I was then told that he wasnt going to budge and I would have to have a c-section and was booked in for about 4 days later, I was also told that I should be out that day or within 24 hrs, I had to be there for 7am, but I was then waiting til nearly midday before I was taken down, I was kept in but was told I should be out the following day but was not, at this point they had still not discovered my blood temperature problem, it wasnt discovered until the friday when I had enough and really wanted to leave, so I discharged myself, but not one of the nurses, doctors or midwifes explained how bad this was or could be, it wasnt until the following morning when my partner rang our local doctors that I found out how bad it was, at which point I admitted myself back in hospital and had another 5 days there.
My overall experience of a c-section was and is bad, I would never go through that again, so I’m not having anymore children because of this as was told one you’ve had a c-section they basically wont allow you to have a normal birth (or its not recommended) due to the fact of the strain it puts on the body as your muscles never go back to normal and it makes it harder to push and your at risk of rupturing something.
To anyone who reads this please seriously think about it before you opt for a c-section and make sure you get all the information out there on it before you do, if you truly have no other choice make sure you know the possible risks that could happen and make sure your doctor or midwife tells you every thing and if your not happy with there opinion then seek other medical advice, it doesnt harm you to make doubly sure of your options.
Sorry its long winded, but I havent really got anyone who I can talk with about all this as my own family live over 2 hundred miles away, and I hope it makes people think twice about choosing this option lightly.
I wish good luck to all expectant mothers out there who read this and hope all goes well and that your babys are born happy and health because at the end of the day thats whats really important and what makes it all worth while x
I had a c-section about 1 year and a half ago..it was not a great experience..When I first arrived at the hospital I was being treated so well..the nurses were very kind checking up on me every five minutes or so..than one nurse walks in and starts looking at the monitors..she goes somethings not right..walks out another walks in next thing you know my babies heart rate drops very low on the heart monitor and I am being told I have to get a emergency csection..heart rates too low.. I felt like I had no time to think no time to ask questions no time at all…Once I was being prepped for csect..the nurses attitudes seemed to change…they took my bag of diapers,etc, they gave me when I first arrived.. I was stuffed in another smaller (much smaller) room..It made me feel bad..completely terrible like I did something wrong:( So 1 year and a half later, my scar healed pretty good..I had staples and boy were they uncomfortable. I have joined this conversation finally after about 1 year of discovering it and reading Your stories.. I never had the courage before..but I have a serious question for all the csection moms..Do you have a large amount of saggy skin on ur lower belly? If so did working out help at all? I was told by my GYN that I could only get surgery to take care of this saggy skin..but I was told by others including a friend who had a relative(that had twins), she had a saggy belly and worked it out ..she has reduced the skin to a small pouch..if this is certainly true,a small pouch I could live with..so any answers?? thankyou
I had an emergency c-section last year with my 1st child. While I do understand that everyone is different and that everyone’s ideal birth is different I can honestly say it was not that bad. The pain can’t be any worse than someone who tears and needs stiches! In fact I’d guess that tearing probably hurts more. The pain meds helped me feel very little pain and I was able to sincerely enjoy my first days as a mom. Sure, I wasn’t able to hold and bond with my daughter until after I came out of the OR (like an hour) but my husband and family were there with her the whole time. It’s not like she was just dumped off in the nursery somewhere. Sometimes I feel like people are way too uptight about c-sections. Sometimes they really are the best option for a safe delivery and that’s really all that matters – having a healthy, SAFE baby. I could care less about the scar. Whenever I see it, it reminds me of the moment I first saw her in the OR. I’m very happy with how she was delivered and wouldn’t be upset if I had to have another c-section in the future.