Now you have a lot of questions about recovery time for a c-section. Once the baby has been delivered, your recovery time begins. You may have had some morphine so your pain level may be minimal for awhile.
If the baby is ok you will be able to hold him right after the doctor has checked him over. You may even be able to nurse him right away if you haven’t had any meds that could be transferred to the baby through your milk. The nurse can show you how to hold him so that he won’t lay on your incision.
You will feel a little groggy and nauseous immediately post-op and may experience some gas, pain and fatigue. Generally you can get a shot or pill for pain every three to four hours.
You will have a vaginal discharge. The first three or four days it will be mostly bright red blood mixed with tissue.
The nurse will tell you when you can get up and walk around, however your first time up, you will need help so wait for a nurse or your spouse to help you. You may not think so at first, but walking around will help you feel better.
Within three or four days of your surgery the doctor ill remove the staples or stitches and send you home. You will need help for about a month. Enlist family, friends and neighbors. You need to get a lot of rest. Try for at least two naps a day while the baby sleeps.
Walking helps prevent blood clots and promotes healing. After about six to eight weeks post-op you can begin to engage in moderate exercise and to resume sexual activity. During this same time frame your scar will shrink more and more and will begin to fade to closer to your natural skin color.
Drink lots of fluids to help prevent constipation. Incisional pain gets better little by little. Call your health care provider if you have swelling or oozing from the incision site, develop sudden pain and or fever.
You will probably be on over the counter pain meds after a week or so. If you are breast feeding, don’t take aspirin or any medication that contains acetylsalicylic acid.
Be prepared for emotional ups and downs, you hormone levels are changing. At this point some women get depressed because they didn’t or couldn’t have a vaginal delivery.
If you feel sad all the time or have thoughts of hurting yourself or your baby, don’t be ashamed, call your health care provider immediately and call someone to help with the baby right now. You could be experiencing post-partum depression. This is a serious mental health issue and should not be ignored. Get help now! Your life and that or your baby may depend on it.
If you feel like this, just remember you are not a bad person and that what you are experiencing may be related to a hormone imbalance. It happens to many women and there are medicines that can help you.
Just remember this is not your fault, nothing you did or didn’t do brought this on. It just happens. The only thing that you could do wrong would be to not get help. Your mental well being is every bit as important as your physical health.
You are in the process of healing from your c-section physically, mentally and emotionally. It isn’t fun or easy, but you can get there with determination and the help of your family, friends and prayer if you are a believer.
On a more cheerful note enjoy your baby. Every day you will notice something new about her. She is even at a month or two old, beginning to show her own unique personality.
Call your mother-in-law or a good friend to come sit with the baby while you go out with your husband, even if all you do is grab a cup of coffee. Hire a sitter if need be and call some friends from work and go shopping or to lunch to just relax and talk about something other than the baby although your friends will bombard you with questions about her.
Don’t do any heavy lifting for at least six weeks after you get home. Your body needs time to recover from the physical stress of pregnancy and birth.
Accept offers of help from relatives and friends. Let your mother-in-law do your laundry while you give the baby her bath and tell grandma she can give the bath next time.
By now you are probably grateful for the grandparents, aunts and uncles holding the baby or sitting so you can go shopping or get your hair done.
Recovering from a c-section takes longer than if you had a vaginal delivery so be patient with yourself and don’t try to do too much. The kitchen floor can wait until tomorrow or the next day. Take a nap and relax. Soon you will feel more like yourself and your c-section is the event that gave you your healthy beautiful daughter.
