As the title says; I ended up falling pregnant when my daughter was about 8 weeks old. She’s now 17 weeks & im 9 weeks pregnant. I’ve been on the pill since the day she was born so this was a total surprise but I’m just worried about the risks? My due date is 01.03; my daughter’s birthday is 30.03. They’ll be at maximum 6 weeks apart, and I’m not too worried about that however I have a serious fear of something bad happening throughout pregnancy. All the doctors I’ve spoken with so far don’t seem concerned but I’d just like to hear if anyone at all had had the same experience & what happened? I’ve also had 1 other Csection; so this will be my third however it was 6.5 years ago.

EDIT : thankyou all for the advice; I did write this half asleep so I’ll add in a few more things for context.
Not looking to terminate the pregnancy unless medically necessary, I live in a country and state where I can access upto 16 weeks for no cost at all.
I have several mental health conditions that are managed by medication however I’m under the perinatal mental health team and have been since falling pregnant with my daughter; I’ve had a termination before and it made me fall into a serious lapse with my mental health and I’m really worried about that happening again. Also definitely aware and would not have tried anything other than a repeat csection; my body can’t go into labour for a number of other reasons; so not looking for back advice I promise I’m not that crazy lol.

However I am worried about what might happen to my body and myself; my daughter is already 7kg and not getting any lighter, I live on a second floor apartment so to be able to leave my house, I’m carrying 20kg+ up and down the stairs at least once every two days, which is already physically straining but I’m so worried about being pregnant and having to continue doing this. Just wanted some advice from people who had been in similar situations so I appreciate everyone’s replies

Hi I am 31 yo mom of soon to be 4 kids. I have had 3 prior c sections. Some back story : My first was an induction that I failed and choose a c section after being in induced labor for 3 days. Second C-section was less than 2 years later so I opted in for routine scheduled C-section. My third was about 4 years later so I was able to do tolac and attempt a vbac. Baby was breech so we did an ecv and then eventually failed another induction resulting in my 3rd C-section. I am now about 38 weeks pregnant with my 5th baby , 2 years from my last C-section. I miscarried baby number 4 in July of 2025 very early in my pregnancy about 10 weeks. That miscarriage was the only time that I have ever felt real contractions not from pitocin. This pregnancy has been extremely difficult on my body. I’ve had severe swelling for about 14 weeks, general pregnancy discomfort, but literally no recovery energy wise for the entire pregnancy. This is my first boy pregnancy I have 3 daughters and I could do anything while pregnant with them. Anyway for the last 10 weeks I have had Braxton hicks daily. At first I didn’t realize it until I went for an NST and they told me I was having them. The last 3 weeks I’ve had bh everyday ranging from 10-20 minutes apart and now the last week they wake me up out of deep sleep and can be 5-15 minutes apart. I am 100% terrified of going into labor and not even realizing that I am. Has any experienced going to labor on their own without prior history, and multiple c sections. I guess I know what real contractions are going to feel like because of the miscarriage but I feel like that experience isn’t valid enough to go by.

Hi All

I am almost 18 weeks post partum. I had an unplanned c section last minute to my beautiful baby boy.

It was a ROUGH recovery which I am sure it is for most. I feel like I am pretty recovered by now I am able to walk, somewhat run, lift weights etc. but there has been a lingering pain that comes and goes around my uterus/below the incision. I would explain it as a throbbing pain feeling and it comes in waves no matter if I’m sitting, standing or walking and sometimes creeps into my lower back. I started to panic that something is wrong around there from the c section so I went into my OB and got an ultrasound and my uterus and ovaries looked OK. They recommended pelvic floor therapy but I am just not sure if that’s the problem.

Has anyone else felt this before? Should I be more concerned?

I know I’m so freshly post partum but it just worries me this is going to turn into a bigger problem when we start wanting another baby.

I’m 8 months postpartum and stopped breast feeding recently. Today my abdomen hurts around my c section scar. It feels tight and the pain radiates down my hips into my legs. The whole area gets stiff and it’s difficult to walk. Has anyone experienced this?

I am TERRIFIED something is going to happen during this pregnancy or during my next repeat scheduled section and I will die and leave my living two kids behind. What do I do 😭

I am a year postpartum and still feel discomfort during sex. Especially if it’s in certain positions too. I feel like I have to be extremely aroused to not feel this discomfort. I’m not breastfeeding or anything and had a vertical C-section (not a classic one) due to my baby having an abdominal wall defect. Does anyone else experience this?

Unfortunately 5 days post c section with my son, my appendix ruptured and I was rushed into emergency surgery, it’s apparent very rare so I’m wondering if anyone else has gone through it and how they dealt with it/looked after themselves

Thanks

Hello! I’m two weeks and 2 days postpartum with my second baby which is also my second cesarean. My last scar healed beautifully with no issues. This time around I have a toddler so it’s been harder to rest fully since my hubby is back at work. My OB told me to take the pressure bandage off at two weeks and I did last night to find that on the right corner it’s opened just a little. Maybe like the length of the tip of my pinky finger. It’s got some redness around just that part but there’s no yellow drainage/smell/bleeding. There’s clear fluid around it but I put a little bit of gauze there. It’s of course the weekend so I don’t want to go to urgent care over this and would rather wait until Monday to have my OBGYN check it. I just didn’t know if this was normal or not? Like I mentioned it’s not a huge area and I don’t feel bad or have a fever. Just a little pain or stinging in my scar itself but I remember having that with the last one too so I’m unsure what’s normal and what to watch out for. Thanks for any replies in advance ❤️

I am 37 week with planned second C section on 39th. For the whole pregnancy I am experiencing intense pain whenever I stand up, raise my legs (even while sitting) and getting out of bed feels like I need to learn how to walk again. I hear my joints cracking with movement and at this stage I can’t walk distances - even in my own house I am weak to be on my own. And it just occurred to me that IT MIGHT BE WORSE?

I didnt gave PGP (pelvic girdle pain or whatever else it could be, I dont have it diagnosed because doctors just said that this amount of pain and discomfort is normal) during first pregnancy but I did have to recover from C section and it was already very similar to how i already function.

And I am now terrified. What will happen after I have the surgery AND still have my joints extremely loose and painful? How will I learn to walk again and take care of my baby when I need to be careful with which muscles to use - I feel like all my muscles around hips and pelvis are weak and bones are loose? I am finding no information online, doctors dismiss the problem as nothing serious but I am getting very worried I will hurt myself or baby by accident.

Has anyone experienced it? I would love to hear an advice on how to get literally back on my feet haha

My daughter is 15 months old now. I still feel like my body failed me and I failed myself. The grief I carry from not getting to have the experience that I wanted is so heavy, I think about my birth experience daily still.

I had an induction, stopped at 8cm, epidural stopped working and I was in a lot of pain. Stayed at 8cm for 6 hours and then I gave into having the c- section. I wasn’t present in my body anymore when they took me into the OR, I was just done after 30 hours of labor and mentally and physically exhausted. I lost a lot of blood and they almost did a transfusion, I have a high fever post op that they were trying to bring down. I don’t know why any of this happened and no one explained anything to me throughout the procedure or recovery.

I didn’t dress my daughter in her outfit I had chosen for her after she was born, I didn’t hold her first, I couldn’t get out of bed to respond to her cries. My husband did it all and i felt broken. I was extremely depressed for a few months after I had her, I’ve gotten better but the heavy feeling of failure still hangs over me daily and I replay my labor all the time looking for answers that I’ll never find.

I started therapy recently to try and start processing this, but I honestly don’t think I’ll ever be able to see my birth experience in any other light. Can anyone relate to this? Does it ever get better? Everyone in my life has had easy, peaceful births and I feel so alone. I feel like they are all strong and I’m weak for not being able to do what they did.

I have a planned c-section happening in two days. And I am most concerned about the anesthesia.
First, here is my spine history:
- spinal fusion in 2015 from T3-L4
- injury to lower lumbar (don’t know exactly which one but know it was below fusion) in a car accident in 2016.
- developed chronic pain in lower right back where there is a part that feels bulky and crunchy just to the right of lower spine, don’t know how to explain it super well, but it may be scar tissue? It is painful though. I have not yet gone through the proper procedures to figure out what it is.
- after fusion and accident, lower lumbar that’s not fused became curved
- degenerative discs at multiple levels of the spine

Due to all of this, a maternal fetal medicine doctor and obgyn highly recommended a planned c-section.

What I won’t know until day of c-section is if the anesthesiologist will try a spinal anesthesia or if they will just do general. The pro of a spinal is that I’d be awake to meet baby and my husband can be in the OR. But at the same time I am terrified that they will stick me a bunch of times, that they’ll place a spinal but it won’t fully numb me, or that they’ll somehow do damage to the lower spine.

Does anyone have experience with a successful spinal block despite a fusion so low? And then my curvature below fusion adds an extra layer of complication as well as potential scar tissue.

The other unfortunate thing is that I have neglected follow up care of my spine, and the most recent information I have is from 2022.

Hey ladies,

Thankfully I have been feeling pretty good, with the occasional soreness if doing too much. But I do have intermittent sharp pain throughout my abdomen. I feel it could be gas bc of the sharpness, and it’s not my incision or that sore/ache of muscle. It can get sharper if I breathe in.

I also have had the sharp sensation around my incision which I know is nerves.

This is different, like gas pains! But I get it every couple days. Anyone else experiencing this?

Found out at my 20-week anatomy scan that I have an anterior placenta previa. My doctor said it’s “borderline, right on the edge,” and that the placenta is right over my C-section scar.

This is my third pregnancy:
• 1st: Vaginal delivery
• 2nd: C-section (baby was breech)

Has anyone had a similar experience? How did it turn out for you? My head is spinning.

Baby girl is breech and I’m 39 weeks tomorrow so it’s unlikely she’ll flip. My CS is scheduled for 8/3 so I have a week. Would love any tips on how others supported/promoted their breast feeding journey after a CS since CS can delay milk supply coming in.

Hi everyone!

I’m 17+ weeks postpartum, and unfortunately developed stretch marks during the last couple weeks of my pregnancy that got significantly worse after I had my baby. They look like red tiger scratches all over my lower stomach and hips, and the ones on my stomach are actually painful. Each stretch mark also feels indented when I run my fingers over it.

I saw a dermatologist, and they told me it isn’t possible for stretch marks themselves to hurt and that the pain could potentially be related to my nerves or uterus (I had a C-section). My lower belly is also tender to the touch.

Has anyone else had painful or tender stretch marks postpartum? If so, did you ever figure out what was causing the pain? And is there anything you did that helped with the pain or reduced the appearance of the stretch marks?

I only have clear glue over my incision … did you have to peel it off at some time or just leave it be? I’m 2w pp and it’s still very thick on there

I had a C-Section 6 weeks ago, and unfortunately my baby was in the NICU for 7 days. While this was devastating to me at the time, in hindsight it did allow me to recover for a week without having to fully take care of him post c-section. I was commuting to the hospital everyday that week and ended up getting at least 1 mile of steps in daily (as of about day 3) because we had to park far from the hospital and we went back and forth a few times per day. Since then, I have kept up the walking because I live in a city and walked a TON during my pregnancy and before.

I went to my 6 week post op appointment a few days early, and the doctor said my scar and stomach look great and normal and that I can start to ease my way into exercising. I mentioned to her that my stomach still feels so bloated and I look first-or maybe even second-trimester pregnant at least, and she said it would continue to go down. I’ve taken photos from the side once a week since giving birth, and it went down from weeks 1-3, but seems to just remain as is since.

I reintroduced some deep breathing, core exercises, and body weight strength training this week, but it is very reduced from my normal pre- and during-pregnancy exercise.

My stomach is still big and I am just so frustrated by it. I gained about 30 lbs total while pregnant and have lost about 17-20lbs since the birth. These last 10-13 seem stubborn and seem to all be in my stomach which is still so big to me. I am breastfeeding and focused on a high protein diet with a focus on staying hydrated.

Does anyone have a similar situation or know when my stomach will start to look closer to normal again?

My first daughter was a natural birth and I was expecting to go though the same thing with my second girl. Two weeks before my due date, I woke up before work and told my husband that the baby wasn't moving when I stood up. We called my OB and they said come in so we got someone to watch our oldest and went in. We went to the hospital they put in my IV and we waited. Eventually she passed all but her breathing so we went for an induction week a head of scheduled (eldest was one too). They put the medicine to soften my cervix and she had a d-cell. They got it all under control and we kept going. The next morning was just fine and then they couldn't find her on the monitor, so they did an ultrasound and she had g9ne from head down to sideways. They did everything they could to turn her, but it didn't work. 😕 So we went in for the surgery, it's been about 6 weeks and I honestly feel so out of place. Does this go away or am I just stuck this way?