Your c/s and pain?

[Indadhanu]

LOL maybe I was a wus then LMAO... I still blame the long labour though!

[Winter]

Same here, non-elective cs after 22 hours labour and found it relatively pain free. Only really hurt to laugh and then it would kill! So that's my big tip, don't get the giggles!!

As much as it wasn't the experience I wanted, it wasn't horrific or painful or anything scary either. I was up and about the next day and I could have been doing a lot more sooner if my rather over-protective mother hadn't been around. My DH knows what I can do and lets me go for it but Mum watches like a hawk and anything heavier than the baby and she was opening a can of whoop-a$s on me!

[Heaven_Sent]

wow, u ladies are amazing, i must be a sook lol i was really in alot of pain as u would expect tho its serious major surgery.

[Sterla]

I wonder if it's just different people's pain tolerance?

[Indadhanu]

Yeah, theres that, and theres where they are at in their head too I guess. If you are full of lovely lovey hormones after the birth, you're going to feel better than if you don't. I also had other emotional stuff happening, like losing my grandfather the day I went into labour. That whole time kind of sucked, I didn't start enjoying being a mum or feel any lovey hormones for a few weeks.
I thin that makes a huge difference too?

[Sterla]

Yeah I think so. Leasha - sorry your whole day/experience was so awful.

Plus, with mine I had everything happen so quickly that I was in such a daze that I didn't even think of the possibility of pain, IYKWIM? The newness of having a baby and the constant stream of visitors was probably also a good distraction.

[Sterla]

I should also add that I didn't experience any labour (apart from a couple of hours when they tried inducing me) - so I was relatively well-rested, etc before my c/s. I am sure that helped a fair bit.

[berrme]

Another fairly pain free recovery from emergency c/s here. I never took anything other than paracetamol and was up and about as soon as I was let off the magnesium sulphate for my pre-eclampsia.
I actually found it really frustrating not doing more physically as I felt like I was capable. I also found out the hard way that too much exercise or laughing was not a good idea, even if it felt ok at the time.
It still wasn't something I wanted to repeat.

[Gigi]

a c-section is regarded by the hospitals as "major abdominal surgery", you are cut through multiple layers of stomache muscle.

i laboured for 29 hours without ANY pain relief (just kneeling in warm water, in a birthing pool), i think i have a high pain threshold, to have managed that.

I had no choice but to only use lower dose pain relief after the emerg c -section, because i asked, every time, "will that drug be passed to my baby thru the breastmilk", and usually the answer was "yes", so i couldn't take those stronger pain relief options.

i don't think every person's experience will be identical. i wouldn't wish the experience i had (emergency c-section with the complication of Bandl's Ring discovered during c-section) onto anyone.

i do wish i had been more prepared for the variety of things that CAN happen, once you are in labour. i was so focussed on my homebirth, i didn't research c-sections at all, and then in the emergency, i was being asked to make all sorts of decisions, about things i knew nothing about, i cannot tell you how stressful that was (after being in labour for 29 hours already, awake the whole time).

If other people sail thru their c-sections and somehow manage to lift their arms above their heads, lift heavy washing, drive cars (not covered by insurance for first six weeks), do handstands, whatever, - good luck to them, but from the many women i have spoken to, if that happens to you, i'd go and buy a lotto ticket, it's not the most common of experiences.

the gist of this thread seems to be, if you were in pain afterwards, you are a wuss. i find that incredibly insulting.

i had no family backup. My dh went back to fulltime work after one week. i struggled by myself, with my nb each day for months, (i only ate when dh got home, i coudln't stand long enough to make myself a sandwich) it was hell - and i aged alot during that period. it was hell and i am not a wuss about pain.

[Heaven_Sent]

I was in labour 14 hours and would rather that pain anyday ova the pain i had with my c/s, as soon as i seen my little boy it was love at first sight, i was so happy, on cloud 9, didnt get 3 day blues at all, breastfed but still didnt take away the pain.

[nic]

So very true, not only are our pain threshold varied, but our bodies are different from everyone elses...
With DD I rocked up to my 40 week appointment, I was told I was in labour..I thought the 'pain' I had been having, were mild braxton hicks lol....40 hours later on, no sleep, pushing for a couple of hours, we were told she was stuck.. upon reading my notes a couple of years ago, I also found that there was meconium present, and she was posterior (suppose that explains the back pain i was having)
Spinal block didnt work, so GA was given. The pain when i woke was not nice at all. But it was when i started vomiting that my stomach really killed. It took me months to recover...I was so weak (think I may have been lacking in iron)

With DS, rocked up to the hospital for our scheduled c/s, told the OB when he arrived, that i was having some pain, he checks and tells me I was about 8cms! The pain from the second c/s was different from the first...(could have been that suppository I wasn't aware i was going to have) Vomiting again, and stomach begins to hurt even more... BUT, I did get around so much easier 2nd time round. GA also with this one, but not such a long hard labour (Leasha, think you have a real valid point there.)

I once read something that described how we recover differently depending upon the lead up to the c/s. If you've been labouring, your recovery could be longer, the longer you labour, the longer the recovery, also what drugs you were given pre and post c/s, how you reacted to those drugs, if you were given a spinal,GA, did you have gas, pethidine for pain relief in labour, or was it administered for a c/s ( I was told that pethidine shots given for spinals were a stronger dose than those given for GA's, which is why I could have been vomiting - I was given a dose for a spinal, had a spinal, didn't work, so then had GA drugs..

BG, I think you are right about the no induction if attempting a VBAC.

If I had my way, next time I would attempt a VBAC..Just not so sure my VBAC friendly OB would let me