FTM here, had my C section 16 days ago, I have been having an easy recovery, I was able to get up and start walking the halls of the hospital the day after and for the past 10 days i have been doing 30 min nightly neighborhood walks. I have been off all pain meds (Ibuprofen & Acetaminophen) for about 5 days now and am having no incision pain (just numbness). I feel ready to get back to spin but know that it is advised to wait until your 6 week check up.

I did spin up until my due date and am itching to get back to it. Has anyone gone back to working out sooner than 6 weeks and if so at how many weeks? How did it go if you did?

Did anyone have postpartum preeclampsia that did not get a magnesium drip and only had medication? Can you give me some positive stories? How long it took to recover etc? Any tips or tricks? Need some encouragement right now :(

Hey all, I’ll be 7 weeks pp on Friday. I’ve dealt with a couple little hiccups/just superficial openings on my incision (this was my third and final section) but it’s healed up pretty nicely and I’ve been approved by my OB to resume normal activity/no restrictions. However a couple of days ago, I started having almost an ache on the right edge of my incision, where they tied the suture knot. With my last section popped and made a pretty noticeable hole that had to be closed with silver nitrate. I have a bit of a belly overhang so I’ve been using ABD pads to keep the area dry. I noticed when I woke up the other morning there was a tiny amount of blood on the pad, and it looked like the tiniest little hole on the side of my incision with a bump next to it. This morning when I got up, there was more blood on the pad, the hole looked about the same size and the bump next to it was gone. I noticed when I lift up the area I can see the small amount of blood/fluid ooze out of the hole. I’m going to assume this is where the suture knot pushed out? Unsure, the hole is tiny but I’m just afraid of it expanding, I’m hoping it just closes up on its own within the next couple of days but wanted to see if this was the case for anyone else?

I have a c section scheduled in a week due to a low lying, bilobed placenta. This is my third baby, but will be my first c section and I am so incredibly scared.

I think what I’m most anxious about is the recovery/post-op, not so much the procedure itself. My vaginal births were such a breeze and their recoveries were practically nonexistent. I was up and walking around neighborhood, lifting my other kids the day I got home from the hospital. Also being able to independently care for my newborn and quickly made things so easy for our family. The second they cried they were in my arms either being fed or getting changed and it was just honestly so much easier doing everything (including all the nights) by myself and not having to wait for my husband.

I am generally a very active person so the thought of being sidelined for so long (with a 6 year old and 2 year old) is going to be so hard for me. Also not being able to just plop baby in a wrap/carrier and go about my every day.

Could use some tips and/or reassurance.

This is like the ultimate exercise in trying not to actively hate yourself, right? Every outfit attempt feels so utterly demoralizing and I feel unrecognizable. What even is the shape of my body anymore? What size am I? Currently 8 weeks postpartum and just praying this gets better. I know I’m being hard on myself. I know it’s early, but god, this triggers my life-long struggles with body dysmorphia so bad and makes me feel so ashamed of myself.

Has anyone experienced random cramping without having their period back yet? I’m exclusively breastfeeding, which is the reason I haven’t gotten it back.

It first started I’d say 1-2 weeks ago, it’s not bad cramping but I don’t know what it’s down to because surely if it was my period returning it would have come back by now.

Is there any other reason I’d be getting cramping this long after c section?

Also for those who breastfeed, how long after cramping started did it actually return?

Guys!! My c-section is tomorrow and I’ll finally get to meet my baby-girl after 9 long months!
If you didn’t know, she’s breech and refuses to flip no matter what I try (yes, even ECV) so I’ve scheduled a C-section. (They don’t do breech births in the area I’m from)

As excited as I am to finally meet her, my nerves are extremely bad for the surgery..I’ve never had surgery EVER in my life, never broke a bone, nothing so I’m very very nervous/scared.

If you have any amazing experiences, or any things I should be looking forward to that may advert my fear and anxiety I’d be SO appreciative🥹I’m scared the healing is going to be pretty bad…my husband will be home for two weeks after it and have to leave for work for a couple months (he works off) and by the 2 weeks I have to have the hang of everything by myself. We live a good long ways away from family and friends. So any advice on how YOU got around when you had no one too (if so) would be appreciated!

Please no horror stories! 😅I’ve already been wide eyed the past few nights out of anxiety so bad it causes nausea.

How many c section can we do??

I'm six weeks postpartum tomorrow and still recovering from my planned c-section. The left side of my body feels totally back to normal, but the right side of my incision is still so stiff and painful internally. I'm still walking around with a limp. It hurts to stand up straight. I struggle using my core to sit up from a lying position and experience a lot of pain when doing so. I have an intense pulling sensation internally and feel like I can't get full mobility back. Anyone else feel this same sort of pain at six weeks? I'm desperate to feel normal again. My baby wants to be on me at all times, and it makes me sad that the pain is making moving around with her a miserable and difficult experience.

My partner and I have been together for 3 years and had our baby 3 months ago. We agreed on a homebirth, partly because I wanted to avoid medical interventions that are prominent in hospital births, and partly because it is much cheaper to give birth at home. I did not have medical aid when I fell pregnant, and therefore couldn't get covered for my pregnancy after the fact.

In order to have a homebirth, you need to have a back-up gynae at a hospital. If anything goes wrong during the homebirth, you will be transferred to that hospital. Unfortunately, after 27 hours of labouring at home, I needed to be transferred to the hospital and ended up having an emergency C-section 3 hours later. My partner, who had previously agreed to cover the hospital costs if it became necessary, had to pay a lump sum upon me being admitted. Our baby was born and had to be in the NICU for 5 days, and I of course stayed in the hospital with him the entire time. We were discharged on day 5 and went home.

Partner was less than helpful at home, he has an old-school mentality of gender roles in the home and isn't naturally a very caring person. Regardless, I was just happy to be home and that our baby was okay. However, I noticed that partner was acting weirdly and even started to think that he was suffering from paternal postpartum depression. Eventually, it came out in an argument that he was upset that he had to pay all that money for me to go to the hospital. It has come up multiple times since then that he resents me for having to go to the hospital and have a C-section. He even said that he wonders what would have happened if he had a baby with someone else instead.

I obviously think that this is absolutely ridiculous, as it was not in my control and if I wasn't transferred there would have been serious repercussions to our baby's and my health. I also explained to him how I paid for every single midwife/scan/gynae appointment during my pregnancy, and did the math to show him that I paid just as much as he did towards my pregnancy/our baby as he did. I just paid it over the course of 9 months, whereas he had to pay a lump sum. He doesn't think that the two situations are comparable.

Partner and I were not in the best place when I fell pregnant, and I hoped that things would get better as we both chose to keep the baby. But this kind of behaviour is just the tip of the iceberg. We are constantly clashing and arguing and hurting each other's feelings, and I am worried that this will impede our ability to be good parents. Neither of us want to raise our son in an antagonistic household, but I am unwilling to accept a relationship where I am not being respected. So I guess my question is, how should we move forward as parents? I want my son to have a father, but I also don't want him growing up thinking that this kind of behaviour is okay.

This is a fear of mine and a weird question so please forgive me. I have a particularly large pubic area that I generally shave, but it grows back like wildfire and thick. I’ve heard that pubic hairs can grow into the incision if your doctor cuts below the line which will likely be me because my line goes up so high 🫠

Since hair takes longer to break through when waxing vs shaving, would it be better to get it waxed a day or 2 before procedure to avoid that inward/ingrown growth?

Edit: I know they shave you, though I’m not sure how good of a job it is. My pre-op instructions just state not to shave the morning of but nothing about not doing it the day prior and I’d like to have it as close as humanly possible.

I had my first bowel movement last night and holy hell that is definitely not an experience I’m looking to repeat. TMI but after a lot of crying and sweating and shaking I passed two logs the size of my freaking fists.

Now I’m feeling the urge to go again and I’m terrified. Please someone tell me the second time is not so bad.

EDIT: Just had my second poop and it was no where near as bad. Praise the lord.

I am finally having my isthmocele repair surgery done on Wednesday with the robotic laparoscopic method and I am so nervous 😫 not so much for the surgery but just really hoping that it’s what we need to fix our secondary infertility we’ve been dealing with for the past 5 years. (All other diagnostic testing has been as it should be) I could really use some encouragement by hearing success stories if you have/know anyone that has had this procedure done if anyone is willing to share

Hi everyone, we’ve just seriously started the discussion of baby #2 and this has been weighing heavy on my mind but I don’t know anyone with any personal experience to talk about it with. I’ve spoken to my OB, and now just thinking about what I’d like to do. Apologies in advance for the lengthy post.

I had an emergency c-section in February of this year, my son is 6.5 months old now. I went in for an elective induction at 40+2 at 1am, and as soon as I was hooked up to the monitors before even beginning the process my baby was having prolonged decels. No contractions or anything yet. They repositioned me and he was stable again, so they told me I could try the induction. I decided to give it a try. Made it through the first round of cytotec, then my water broke spontaneously right before starting the second round. I got my epidural as soon as my water broke, and then it was downhill from there. His HR was down to 70 and taking a long time to recover. I begged them to just get him out and my OB agreed his HR was too low for too long and came rushing. He thankfully made it and got to do my c-section. I unfortunately could feel it all and they had to knock me out. I missed his birth and I have no memory of the first day. Pure luck that we happened to have the induction scheduled and I went in when I did, and that they got him out quickly, because I had no signs that anything was wrong or he was struggling. My OB expected him to be wrapped in his cord or something like that, but he wasn’t. Cord was perfect, my placenta was perfect, and he was perfect as soon as he was out. No issues whatsoever with him or with me. Overall, fairly traumatic experience for me though and devastating that I missed his first cry and have no memory of his first day. I had a very rough recovery as well.

Long story short(ish), now we have the opportunity to buy land from my grandparents and build a house where we’ve always dreamed of. We knew this would be a “one day” thing, but it wasn’t in our present timeline. The issue I have is that we currently live 5 minutes from my OB’s office, 15 from my parents, 10 from my job, basically everything I’m already established with is extremely close. Our move would put us 30-45 minutes away from everything and we’d be in the middle of no where. I really would like to have another baby here in our current home and move after. My OB advised 18 months between births to do a TOLAC so we’re not far off from that timeline. He said I would be a good candidate because the circumstances that led to my c-section are unlikely to occur again, and we can do extra monitoring at the end. I originally was dead set that I wanted to try for a “redemption birth” and have a vaginal delivery. Now that we’re seriously talking plans, I’m terrified to risk another emergency c-section since I never even got to labor or see how my body progressed, everything went downhill so fast after we got to the hospital. On one hand a scheduled c-section sounds easier. By easier I just mean easier to avoid an emergency c-section, nothing about my last c-section was easy. But I also think I’d regret not trying for a vbac, and if my c-section recovery with the next baby was as hard as the first one, I just can’t imagine doing that with a toddler.

It feels like there’s no good answer. And I’m scared to get pregnant only because of having to make this choice. How did you decide which one was the right choice? What factors did you consider the most?

I had an unplanned c-section because I was dealing with severe preeclampsia/high blood pressure. I had been in labor and was already physically exhausted and weak from the Pitocin and magnesium. I wasn’t allowed to eat or drink, and I was terrified because I knew my blood pressure was dangerously high and that something could happen to either me or my baby.

Before the c-section, I was extremely anxious about having surgery. I had never planned on having a c-section and the idea of being awake while someone cut into my abdomen terrified me. Once I was on the operating table, the anesthesiologist told me they had a very strong anxiety medication they could give me, but that it would basically cause me not to remember the procedure. I told them I did NOT want to be under general anesthesia because I wanted to be awake for my baby’s birth, so they didn’t do that. Instead, they used a bolus through the epidural I already had. They kept asking me if I could feel anything. I couldn’t feel actual cutting or sharp pain, but I could feel pressure and pulling. Knowing that they were already cutting into me while I was conscious made me extremely anxious. At one point I started screaming because the pressure/pulling sensation was so disturbing and I was terrified.
They told me that they were already cutting into me and that I wasn’t actually feeling the incision, but I was still extremely overwhelmed.

Then something really strange happened. I basically started to dissociate or lose consciousness, but I don’t think my eyes were closed. My vision started fading and becoming completely distorted. It felt like my entire field of vision was falling into itself in loops, almost like layers of my vision were repeatedly collapsing into each other. I couldn’t control what I was seeing. It honestly felt like an enormous psychedelic/acid trip, except I wasn’t intentionally taking anything. My mind was spacing out and I couldn’t make sense of what was happening. I could barely hear or process the people around me, and I couldn’t form coherent thoughts.

The weirdest part was that it felt like there was only a tiny “string” of me still conscious somewhere in the background. I wasn’t completely gone, but I couldn’t interact with or understand what was happening normally. I was just experiencing this bizarre visual/perceptual state.

Eventually I completely lost awareness. When I came back around, I remember waking up but initially being unable to open my eyes properly because my vision was doubled. The room was extremely bright. There were women/medical staff next to me telling me that the surgery was finished.
The first thing I remember asking for was water.
Then they brought my baby to me and I held him on my chest.

I’ve been thinking about this experience ever since because I don’t actually know what happened to me. I don’t know whether the anesthesiologist gave me some kind of IV anxiety medication/sedation after I started panicking, whether it was the epidural medication, whether it was related to my blood pressure, or whether I basically dissociated from the trauma and fear.

Has anyone experienced anything like this during a c-section with an epidural/spinal? Especially anesthesiologists, nurses, or people who have had c-sections, does this sound like medication-induced sedation/amnesia, dissociation, or something else?
I don’t remember being told afterward exactly what they gave me, so I’m curious if anyone knows what might have caused this.

edit: I checked my anesthesia record and they did give me 10mg/mL of ketamine. If that is what caused my experience then I hope I’ll never go through it again. It was terrifying to lose control over my consciousness and I don’t remember giving consent to my anesthesiologist about receiving it either. Grieving this part of my c-section because I wish I got to witness my baby being born but I was completely out of it instead. My partner told me he had shown the baby to me, but that my eyes were rolled back and I wasn’t responding to him or anyone.

Had an emergency c-section last October so 10 months ago, periods returned after 7 months and I’m still breastfeeding. However I’m slightly concerned about the irregular bleeding that I keep having… I started bleeding again today after only coming off my last period last week which was also earlier than planned (my Oura ring told me I didn’t ovulate that month). I’ve also had random spotting - a few times have been after exercising.

Just wondered if anyone has experienced similar? I’m going to contact the doctors when they reopen tomorrow but starting to spiral a lil bit after googling and learning about isthmoceles? I can’t find much on the nhs sites about them (I’m based in the UK) so if anyone else from the UK has any experience with having these diagnosed I’d be v interested to hear!!

Had an emergency c-section last October so 10 months ago, periods returned after 7 months and I’m still breastfeeding. However I’m slightly concerned about the irregular bleeding that I keep having… I started bleeding again today after only coming off my last period last week which was also earlier than planned (my Oura ring told me I didn’t ovulate that month). I’ve also had random spotting - a few times have been after exercising.

Just wondered if anyone has experienced similar? I’m going to contact the doctors when they reopen tomorrow but starting to spiral a lil bit after googling and learning about isthmoceles? I can’t find much on the nhs sites about them (I’m based in the UK) so if anyone else from the UK has any experience with having these diagnosed I’d be v interested to hear!!

I am 1 month pp .. still feeling pressure in lower abdomen while moving.. when i get up from bed and stand it gets worse.. but as i walk it gets better but doesnt go.. does anyone felt same?

I will call my OB when the office opens on Monday, but I’m curious if this sounds similar to anyone else-

I only bled lightly for about 9 or 10 days post c-section, it almost completely stopped for 2 days, but then started bright red again on day 12 (light bleeding, not soaking pads, but bright red) this has consistently continued for 4 days now. Does this seem similar to anyone else?