Pain relief after birth

Just reading the spinal block thread, and someone mentioned pain relief after the c/s, and it reminded me of a question I meant to ask aaaaaages ago.

After having Tallon (vaginal birth), the nurses kept coming around asking if I wanted any pain relief - panadol or anything. What is that for??? I just looked at them and said "no thank you" and they were often surprised. DH and I had a chuckle, thinking geez, I just went through labour with no pain relief, and they're expecting me to need some panadol?? This went on my entire hospital visit. I never bothered to ask, coz I was too involved learning to breastfeed etc, and they always just popped their heads in the room to offer me the panadol.

Anyway.. just wondering, is there a common pain or something after giving birth that requires pain relief?

It was the same with my hospital Liz, although I did have a c/s. Zander was born in the early hours of the Sunday morning & I was asked all day Sunday if I needed anything for the pain. I was doing fine, a little uncomfortable but nothing "painful" so I kept saying no, but they still came in with a pethadeine filled syringe every time. Sadly though I ended up saying yes just to get them to leave me alone. The next few days they kept coming in with some drug (usually it was pandeine, but I'm allergic to codeine, so it was something else) and I kept refusing again. I was told by one midwife that I should be suffering through the pain to be brave. I don't think they believed that I was fine.

After pains can be stronger with subsequent pregnancies as the uterus has to work harder to get back down into shape. Some women have pain and some don't, as the uterus contracts back down - which it does so very quickly. By the time you leave hospital it will almost be of pre-pregnancy size.

I was never asked if I wanted it that often, but a few times I was asked if I needed something after feeding and quite often I did, because my afterbirth pains were sometimes more painful than the actual birth pains when I was feeding the girls in hospital. Even once I got home there were 2-3 times where it got really bad, but then I would have a heavier lochia for a bit afterwards too.

I had a drug free birth but ended up having peth afterwards... go figure! After pains were quite bad for me. Like you Sherie birth was a walk in the park in comparison to the afterbirth pains. And it was very hard to enjoy the first few moments with such intense pain. Although new information suggests peth is just as bad post birth as it is during labour, wish I had known that before (oh well) so if I were to have really bad after pains next time I'm not quite sure what I'd do for pain relief.

ETA: Its also more common with VBAC's (so I've been told) to have heavier lochia and more intense afterbirth pains.

*hugs*
Cailin

Oh wow. Ok. I always thought the uterus contracting was like period pain. Gosh. I'll mentally prepare myself for afterbirth pains too then next time! Lucky I didnt' have any probs this time.. or it would have been a rude shock!

Cailin - how come peth is bad after birth.. I understand during, coz of it going thru to bubs. Does it affect breastfeeding or something?

Yeah apparently its quite bad as it does come through to the milk. Kelly has more info on it I think.

*hugs*
Cailin

Pethidine is a narcotic and gets into breastmilk. Its okay for us, it takes a few hours to filter out our system. But in a newborn, it can take days and is not good for establising breastfeeding - makes baby sleepy and less effective sucking etc. so not an ideal situation. I only heard about how bad it was a few months ago when the leading authority in breastfeeding and drugs spoke at a seminar in Australia and urged women to consider something other than pethidine during labour (and after) as its one of the two drugs majorly contraindicated for breastfeeding.

There ya go :) Isn't she great :) Thanks Kel! A fountain of knowledge!

*hugs*
Cailin

I had panadol after all 3 and voltarin after the last 2 births.
My tears were very sore and I'm a wuss :p though I managed to get through the births with gas only.

Because I had Peth only about an hour before Paige was born, she was very sleepy afterwards too.

Liz, sometimes the afterpains for a first bub are a walk in the park compared to subsequent ones, but I only ever needed Panadol to take the edge off them.

I had really bad afterpains when I was feeding Jenna in the first couple of days. I had to have a wheatbag on my tummy everytime, and I was almost bent over with the pain of it all.
I also had an episiotomy and needed some pain relief for that as it used to get pretty sore and swollen. I only had voltaren 3 times I think, and panadol a few times. It was near impossible getting pain relief off the nurses/midwifes in hossy. One time I waited nearly an hour for 2 panadol. That was the afternoon I decided to go home, cause it was rubbish! And I had to wait for a heat bag to be warmed up - the microwave in the feeding room was for bottles only, and patients weren't allowed access to the wheatbag one.
Needless to say, this time I'm AOK with teh 24 hr discharge. I'm OK with self medicating panadol for gods sake!!

I too had excruciatingly painful afterbirth pains. Almost worse than contractions as it was constant and there was no break in the pain. I had to have a morphine injection to help!! I have a generally high pain threshold but these were insane!! I had no idea that they could be that bad the second time around!!

I had panadol for a few days after Emily's birth, the tear was pretty sore for the first week or so and also the afterpains. Actually the afterpains were worse with her than with Toby.