Stitches, glue, staples?

Just wondering how everyone closed the gap for your c-section. Is one way better than the other? How long until you healed? etc.:lol:

I had staples for mine. I felt awkward walking around whilst they were in & was really worried that I'd do damage if I moved to quickly or twisted the wrong way. Having said that I'd probably have been the same no matter how it was closed ;) I had Zander at 1.27am on the Sunday & had my staples removed at lunchtime on the Friday after. I didn't feel them being removed except for the last one, which the midwife said was more than likely the first one in. It was a little ouchy, but nothing too bad.

I have had stitches with two of mine and staples with the last one. I did have a bit of bleeding from mine after and for a few days later. Mine hurt when taking the last one out and she asked if i wanted to keep them.

Did you Michelle? I kept mine & they're in Zander's baby box with his cord clip, hospital tags etc. I actually remember taking my mum's staples to school for show & tell after my baby sister was born!

I had stitches and healed up very quickly both inside and out IYKWIM. My scar still gets a bit red and itchy from time to time but I think that's normal for any major wound.

Sarah - I've been away from BB for a while and just noticed your pg ticker - congratulations!!!

I had staples for my first c/sec. It was done on a Thursday afternoon and they were removed early on Sunday morning. With my second, I had a continuous suture.The c/sec was on a Friday night and the suture was removed in one pull on Thursday morning. Neither removal hurt for more than a moment. I found that I healed much better and faster the second time around. After the first, I had trouble with hypertrophic scarring and eventually had to see a dermatologist. (I don't think this was related to the use of staples.)
One of the moderators, Dachlostar, had glue and perhaps she'll pop in & tell you about her experience with that.

I'm not sure what I had but whatever it was I didn't have to have anything removed so perhaps it was glue. It healed quite quickly and the scar is very fine now.

Staples for me, half out 2 days later, then the other half another 2-3 days later. Not painful, and an excellent scar.

I had staples both times..

Removed on day 6 and 7 the first time

Removed on days 6 and 10 the second time...

reason for waiting was scar was taking a little longer to heal properly..

I think my sister had glue? she said it was good...

I assume I will have staples again this time as i am going to the same hospital

errr well, now i'm feeling abit daft as i don't really know what i had? With Oscar i had this sticky mat type thing that i peeled off in the shower after a few days - does that mean i had glue? I didn't even have that with Will so what would that have been? definately not staples and no sign of stitches so i guess glue!

mmm so if thats what i had i would recommend it as it was no problems at all!

Julie x

same as Julie, I peeled the dressing off on day 3 no external stiches when I saw my sister (aussienic) on day 6 it was hard to even show her scar as it was so fine, I did overdo it at 3 weeks and now have 2 small 1inch sections that are a little inflamed as such

Hi ladies who saw no external stitches and had nothing removed - you probably had a sub-cutaneous dissolvable suture - which is a long dissolving stitch that is done under the skin. The plastic thing is a just a dressing they keep on to keep the germies out for the first few days (after which time the wound has mostly knit together again).

This is what I had and is the most common thing at the hospital I attended. Still only 2 weeks later so I can't really comment on how it has healed, etc.

I had one long stitch both times and had no problems. Both times it was removed on Day 5 and didnt feel a thing when they removed it. I will say though for the 2nd c-section it was fully closed for about half a cm at one end and oozed a bit after they took the stitch out. I dont know if that was because I didnt have staples ????

I had one long continuous stich which was removed on day 4. No pain on removal - a slight tickle type sensation. My suture line has healed remarkably well - there are spots where you can't even see a scar!

does it depend on the surgon or the hospital as to how they stitch you up? I had a running stitch with my first and staples with my second but they were both born in different hospitals with different ob's. This time around I'm in a different hospital again (dh is Navy so we move around a bit) so I'm wondering if I can choose the way it's done, I'll ask my ob at my next visit but I was wondering if anyone had any thoughts?

Usually it is the Ob's preference - they all have their ideas as to what is best (and what what they prefer to work with). You could put in a request - unless you're asking for something outrageous, I can't see why they would refuse? Who is your Ob? Perhaps someone on here has had the same Ob and can tell you what to expect...

Hey MG thanks, I'm seeing Dr How in the west, I'll check with the Ob board and see if anyone else has had a C with him

Hey there,

I had glue with the my first c-section and it was the best thing every, I didn't have to do anything with it, it wasn't painful, I didn't have to return to have anything removed and now you can hardly see my scar.

xxoo

i had staples once and the second time stitches,
the staples when being removed hurt like hell ive never experienced so much pain in all my life. they do say staples are better to use. Stitches also cant be used i herd if your to over weight and fat holds fluid and will de-solve the stitches to quickly.

if you have a choice and you dont have an issue with flaunting your bikini scar go for stitches.

i had all trapped nerves int he scar and still suffer from it from the staples. NEVER EVER would i recommend them i had a devastatingly horrific experience( they told me wouldn't hurt maybe slight pulling or tingly sensation) i don't know what went wrong but wouldn't do it again free willingly. you couldn't pay me 1 million make that 3 or 4 to do it again. i was white as a ghost and looked like i was dead after they got through with me. NEVER AGAIN

my biggest fear in this pregnancy is i i have moved and dont know if ill have a choice in the new hospital or not. there is no way i have staples not if i can help it. its brings tears to my eyes to think about even now.

I had glue. My scar is so skinny that you can barely see it.
I had some seepage/bleeding the first night so they put a pressure bandage on it which I took off a couple of days later. The scarring is a tiny bit worse on the side that had the seepage.

Hi,
I was just wondering with any of the 3 methods, would it be obvious that you've had C-Sect. A friend of mine had a c-sect and said you get a slight skin overhang due to the surgery, not sure what method was used to close the cut but this was about 13 years ago.

I had staples. I think there was about 3 that hurt when they were removed. The nurse said they had hurt because she thinks they were put in a bit funny ( i think she said something along the lines of them being almost sideways?)
I had a trainee nurse remove mine, I was pretty scared about it too. You can hardly notice my scar, even DH has to go looking for it.
Not sure what will happen this time though? Will be a question to add to the list

Nic

i have all the dots as well left over for each of the staples i had 24 staples put in. They all hurt like heck being removed.

With DD1 i had no skin over hang etc (i had one long continuous stitch) and you could not see where the scar was at all after about 3 months. With DD2 i had staples and had a slight over hang in the very early days but it is improving all the time (she is only 8 wks old) I just assumed the slight over hang was from my skin losing elasticity (sp) as i was bigger with No2. At 1st i really noticed the over hang and DH commented that it looked dreadful but as i say it is improving and is next to nothing now. For what it is worth i prefered my staples to the continual stitch but thats just from my exp. I did not want staples and voiced this but was told it was the obs choice on the day (i went public) i was petrified and really they just sound horrible they arent that bad. Even if the over hang does stick around for a bit its low enough that my undies cover it etc.

Thanks girls, I was told the skin overhang lasts forever and some have a tummy tuck to get rid of it.
I'm due in 7 weeks, and dont know how things will go.. Just trying to understand it all! Often you hear about the actual labour but not recovering afterwards, and the pain, discomfort and scars..

Well I had glue, it was very good that I didnt have to have any stitches or staples removed because of it. But it took me forever to heal, it was more like 6 months not 6 weeks until I could walk properly and even 12 months later I stillw asnt completely right, and I had blood clotting uder the scar which seemed like forever that was really painful. I am not sure if it was the glue that caused this, but my other friend has had staples both times and swears by them, she thinks the glue is why I healed so slowly, but I think its more just my body that heals slow in general I was the same when I had wisdom teeth out so who knows.

prama I think your friend was talking about the "muffin top" or "apron"?, it's like a sag of skin that hangs slightly, I guess it's the muscles/skin being stretched from pregnancy and then cut and stitched.

I had a dissolvable stitch this time around and it was great, way better than the stapples.

with my first i had the continuous thread which i did not like at all.
second i had dissolvable stitches.. and loved them..
although they didnt cut over my first scar they cut just under it, i have two scars VERY close together.
Am going public as i did with my other two, so i will request the dissolveable stitched again, but as someone else has said i depends on the Dr on the day.

My Obstetrician used staples. Although the thought of staples terrified me I have to say that they were brilliant. I had them removed (I had 19 of them) 4 days post OP then a steristrip was placed over the scar which I kept on for about 10 days. It didn't hurt one little bit when the staples were being removed. You can barely see my scar and there are no little dots where the staples went in either.

Re: the overhang. It's not usually your scar that causes this. Moreso just the fact that your skin is stretched whilst your pregnant and of course if your a little bit bigger you have more chance of an overhang. I call it a stoodgy belly! Also some people are just more prone to it then others . . .