You poor thing Danielle, I know how your feeling as i also ill treated in the hospital after my first baby. I felt like they thought I was too young (i was 21) and they were just too busy!!! I had a terrible natural labour which has put me off trying to have a natural one again after tossing up between that or a c-section due to other issues. However listenting to your story sounds pretty scary too. Was it a planned cs or emergency?


I had a horrible first birthing experience, and was terrified going into my CSec as a result. What was helpful to me was speaking beforehand with the OB who was scheduled to do the procedure about my first experience and its impact on me so he understood why he needed to look after my emotional wellbeing as well as my physical wellbeing. I also talked it through with the anaesthetist at the presurgical appt...make sure you ask to speak to the Consultant...and he was able to allay my fears. He said that things like wanting to vomit were a sign that they needed to tweak what they were doing and I should tell him at the very first sign that I was feeling that way. As it turns out that didn't happen and the anaesthetist was fabulous - it was the first time in months that I'd been pain free and I was on a bit of a high from relief that all the things I was terrified about weren't happening.

I also made sure I'd written it through my birthplan - that I was traumatised and I expected to be treated with compassion in order to help heal that first experience.

I had a similarly long recovery from my first birth (with residual pain for well over a year) and I'm convinced it was my body's reaction to the trauma.
Did you have natural or cs with your first baby Marydean? I had a horrible and very long (3 days) labour with my first child and damaged my tailbone. I can actually say that the recovery from that was just as painful and long as a c-section. I found it hard to breastfeed too and could only feed for 5 weeks then had to change to the bottle.

What a great idea about writing it in a birthplan that you are traumatised. I think sometimes thats the only way you can get through to the doctors and midwives. Well im certainly going to try anyway!