C-sections versus Natural Birth

[Missy86]

Didn't take me 6 weeks to recover, i was fine in a week! Guess i am a lucky one.

Recommended recovery for a c-section is normally 6 weeks. Including no driving, no heavy lifting, I've even heard it be said not to lift a kettle if it's full!!!

That is true but I did what I felt happy with including making a cup of tea haha

 

[bathbabe]

I loved my natural birth, i wouldnt choose a c-section over a natural birth unless there were serious complications xxx

 

[aob1013]

Didn't take me 6 weeks to recover, i was fine in a week! Guess i am a lucky one.

Recommended recovery for a c-section is normally 6 weeks. Including no driving, no heavy lifting, I've even heard it be said not to lift a kettle if it's full!!!

Of course that's the recomendation we all know that, but when it comes to real life you do have to lift heavy things. I was just very lucky to be back to nomal in a week, would definately have another section!

I guess you don't know how you will recover until you have been through it yourself

 

[JASMAK]

Didn't take me 6 weeks to recover, i was fine in a week! Guess i am a lucky one.

Recommended recovery for a c-section is normally 6 weeks. Including no driving, no heavy lifting, I've even heard it be said not to lift a kettle if it's full!!!

Of course that's the recomendation we all know that, but when it comes to real life you do have to lift heavy things. I was just very lucky to be back to nomal in a week, would definately have another section!

I guess you don't know how you will recover until you have been through it yourself

yes...first...fine in three weeks...swam 1km at 3 weeks post partum
second...fine, right away...like a week
third...i am doing completely normal stuff including carrying my 7 year old and five year old (5 weeks post partum today)...been walking since 1 week post partum

 

[Vickie]

I definitely don't consider it the easy option. I think that both ways probably have their advantages and disadvantages (only had a natural birth so nothing to compare it with personally).

 

[smokey]

To me personaly a natural birth would be far easier, I had a very pleasent labour and birth and recovered well.
If I where to have a c section I have to be put out completly because of my sb so I cant have spinal local anasthetic and I have a phobia about going under because I came round half way through a op on my jaw when I was a kid so I hope I never have to experiance that.
Plus I hate the idea of not being concious or being able to hold my baby as soon as he/she is born.

 

[babyblog]

I don't think c sections are easier by any means. Mine was a little different as i had an emergency one, after 26 hours of labour hell! Although painless at the time, it is a very weird sensation-and i found the stitching up the hardest-it honestly felt like i had been cut across the entire width of my stomach and there was so much tugging i thought they were going to pull my insides out!

The pain after op was immense, i couldn't sit up and couldn't lay down. My OH had to leave for the night and i had to somehow manage to care my newborn having missed an entire nights sleep and without being able to actually move.At the time i thought i coped really well, i remember saying afterwards how i was fine,. just a bit of pain but when i look back i wasn't fine at all.

I am wondering what to do for next time, i cannot see how i will cope with the aftermath of a c section with another child to care for? Anyone else wonder this x

 

[PeanutBean]

I don't think c sections are easier by any means. Mine was a little different as i had an emergency one, after 26 hours of labour hell! Although painless at the time, it is a very weird sensation-and i found the stitching up the hardest-it honestly felt like i had been cut across the entire width of my stomach and there was so much tugging i thought they were going to pull my insides out!

The pain after op was immense, i couldn't sit up and couldn't lay down. My OH had to leave for the night and i had to somehow manage to care my newborn having missed an entire nights sleep and without being able to actually move.At the time i thought i coped really well, i remember saying afterwards how i was fine,. just a bit of pain but when i look back i wasn't fine at all.

I am wondering what to do for next time, i cannot see how i will cope with the aftermath of a c section with another child to care for? Anyone else wonder this x

Pretty much the same experience with my 'natural' birth. I wonder the same too, whether I have natural or section. I guess it'll be up to DH to take over with Byron for the two weeks he's off and I'll have to hope I'm up to it after that.

 

[polo_princess]

A section would be my absolute worst nightmare and i would only do it if either mine or the babies health were at risk, definatley not through choice, so to me its the "harder" option

The thought of someone rooting around in my stomach whilst im awake makes me feel ill

 

[babyblog]

I don't think c sections are easier by any means. Mine was a little different as i had an emergency one, after 26 hours of labour hell! Although painless at the time, it is a very weird sensation-and i found the stitching up the hardest-it honestly felt like i had been cut across the entire width of my stomach and there was so much tugging i thought they were going to pull my insides out!

The pain after op was immense, i couldn't sit up and couldn't lay down. My OH had to leave for the night and i had to somehow manage to care my newborn having missed an entire nights sleep and without being able to actually move.At the time i thought i coped really well, i remember saying afterwards how i was fine,. just a bit of pain but when i look back i wasn't fine at all.

I am wondering what to do for next time, i cannot see how i will cope with the aftermath of a c section with another child to care for? Anyone else wonder this x

Pretty much the same experience with my 'natural' birth. I wonder the same too, whether I have natural or section. I guess it'll be up to DH to take over with Byron for the two weeks he's off and I'll have to hope I'm up to it after that.

Yes that is true-i can't imagine the pain some women suffer from delivering vaginally, oooch !

 

[clairebear]

I had a section with Jack my first and i had the most awful time. After a 36 hour labour and failed vountose and forceps a section it was. Recovery was horrid couldnt lift or hold my baby and breastfeeding was so uncomfortable. I then got an infection in the wound and it took months to heal For me it wasnt easy it was horrid.

MY second birth was VBAC which was AMAZING! I was on my feet straight after and my episotomy wound healed beautifully and was able to be a mummy to both my children easily

 

[BlackBerry25]

I think every birth is unique. I don't really think about it to be honest.

 

[helen1234]

i had natural 1st time and hurt my cocyx (*sp*) bone, (tail bone) i couldnt sit properly for over year.

i had c section because pre eclampsia the 2nd time i was up and about properly 1 week later, scar healed really quick only had pain for the 1st 24 hours.

i have a choice this time and i'm goin c section, i'll still get to have skin to skin feed straight away etc.
i know lots of people say how wonderful vbac is etc, but i'm still haunted by my 1st birth i just want to go into it stress free get baby out while and get feeding him while i'm not too exhausted to. my oh will be home for 2 weeks maybe 3 so he'll do the donkey work while i feed and rest.

 

[kiwimama]

I think it depends on the type of natural birth or c section birth you have. You could have the most terrible natural birth - baby gets stuck, ventouse, forceps, 3rd degree tearing etc. You could have the most terrible c section birth - baby comes out with breathing problems, wound infection, ongoing pain from epidural or whatever. But then again you could have a straight forward natural birth or a straight forward c section birth.
For me, I would always want to have a natural birth if possible, there aren't the risks that come with c sections and you mostly always heal quickly and can do anything you want straight away. I am going for a completely natural (ie, no pain meds) this time around and from that perspective, I can't quite get my head around why someone would want to, with their first child, have an elective c section without having even given natural birthing a go. I can definately understand if your first birth went wrong and ended in c section and you elect for a c section for subsequent births.

 

[hopeandpray]

I don't know why anyone given the option would choose to be cut open unless it was for the health of the baby? the scar will never disappear but the body is made to recover from a vaginal delivery

 

[cleckner04]

^^I happen to love my scar. It's where my daughter came into this world and I often find myself rubbing it and remembering the day she was born.


As for the women that had a c-section and were right back on their feet, you were so lucky!! I wasn't back to normal for about 3 months. I think it truly depends on the circumstances. I went through 25 hours of labour before getting the c-section so my muscles were sore from all the contracting and tensing up, etc. I think if I would've just walked in and got a c-section without enduring all of that labour, it may have been easier. If that makes sense. But by no means is a c-section the 'easy' option. My incision burst open with fluids and leaked for months. It was just awful.

 

[Tegans Mama]

My section was the most horrific experience of my life, because my epidural failed during the op, and I could feel them cutting me open. I passed out, went into shock and had loads of other things go wrong including my heart rate going as low as 10bpm. For me, a section was and IS my worst nightmare. I don't ever want another. I remember when she was 2 days old and the pain was so bad I went in the bath to try and ease it, and I got stuck. I didn't have the strength to get out of the bath, so I stayed there for near 3 hours.

The recovery was not that bad for me. I walked a total of three miles the day my baby turned 3 days old (because she was in a different hospital to me and they wouldn't take me to see her, so I walked.) and was thoroughly back on my feet by the time she was 2 weeks - although she was life threateningly ill and in hospital, so I sorta HAD to be ok. It hit me when she came home at 8 weeks - I was in unbelievable pain and could hardly walk.

 

[PeanutBean]

Hey Tegan I read your story in another thread the other day and felt surprised because I didn't think sections were generally done on just an epi, usually a spinal. So I wondered how it was yours came to be? It's an awful story. I certainly couldn't have had a section on my epi, I would've felt everything too.

On the scar thing, I am certainly permanently scarred by my vaginal birth. Physically and emotionally.

 

[Blue_bumpkin]

a section is not easier at all and can be more traumatic in other ways too.

I could not get up and see to my lo wen he cried for the first night. now that is an horrific feeling. i had to buzz midwifes to give him over to me and wait till tey came before i could comfort him

 

[cleckner04]

a section is not easier at all and can be more traumatic in other ways too.

I could not get up and see to my lo wen he cried for the first night. now that is an horrific feeling. i had to buzz midwifes to give him over to me and wait till tey came before i could comfort him

The nurses took Emma away to weigh her and do all that stuff and when they brought her back they just sat her in the little bassinet and she was crying and I couldn't get to her. I just sat there bawling my eyes out because I felt so worthless. I know exactly the feeling you are talking about.
I also hated that I had to ask DH for help all the time when it should've been me doing it all. I couldn't even get in and out of our bed without help. I got stuck for like 20 minutes and I just bawled my eyes out. It's funny thinking about it now but at the time I was pathetic.