This is a guest post written by my sister Kate. Besides the helpful tips and products for C-Section Postpartum Recovery, she offers some valuable advice and encouragement that is uplifting, no matter what kind of delivery you had or plan on having.
My first pregnancy ended in an emergency C-section. This was not the birth plan I had planned or hoped for but it was the plan meant for my family and me. After my experience with the recovery process, I think I have a few helpful pieces of advice for anyone planning to have a C-section or just wanting to be ready for anything!
– Maxi pads. While you didn’t deliver vaginally, your uterus is still taking part in the process of riding the excess fluids from the pregnancy, so you’ll have some bleeding still.
– Postpartum underwear that comes above your family incision and without a tight elastic band. Seamless would be best! I love these.
– Loose-fitting loungewear/pajamas to be able to relax and recover in comfort! Your incision will go through phases of healing and you don’t want to put any unnecessary tension on it. I lived in these pants and pajamas.
– Your digestive system will be a little backed up due to the medications given for surgery. I recommend taking Miralax, Colace, or prunes to help get things going and becoming regular again!
-The hospital will prescribe medication to help relieve a lot of the pain, and after a few days, I switched to just using ibuprofen instead of the heavier drugs.
-Support of family and friends. For the first few weeks, mobility is limited, and every instinctual habit of bending over, reaching for, and moving swiftly will all have to cease because you don’t want to risk a tear in your incision, nor do you want to feel that pain! So making sure that you have extra hands on deck to pass you the baby for feedings, changing diapers, fetching your water bottle, and do pretty much everything! This a crucial time for you and your baby to heal, recover, and nurture one another.
My biggest piece of advice is to not let yourself feel defeated. It may not have been your plan to have a c-section and so you didn’t plan for longer recovery of limited mobility and that can be frustrating. It’s difficult to get past the mental adjustment of accepting much more help than anticipated. But, often in life, we think we know what the perfect plan looks like and then that plan gets thrown out the window and a new one takes place. There is no right way for your baby to enter into this world other than by being embraced by love alone. What matters is that you have made it here and you may not see it immediately but it ends up being exactly how it was meant to be.
So take a deep breath, take the recovery required to heal, hold your new baby close and find peace in letting others do the rest for you. Lastly, give thanks that you and your baby are together and are about to start this new chapter of life!
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