Things I Wish I Knew Before Getting A C-section

I had my son in February 2022 at 38 weeks pregnant. I went into my 38-week check and my blood pressure was extremely high so my Midwife sent me to triage to get monitored. After 3 hours of being monitored, they found I had severe Pre-eclampsia and needed to get induced to have my son.
After about 6 hours of labor, they rushed me in to get an emergency C-section due to my high blood pressure and my son’s heart rate dropping. I had mentally prepared for and planned to have a Vaginal birth so I really didn’t do any research about C-sections, so here are some things I wish I knew:

**Disclaimer: I am NOT a medical professional. All of these tips are based on my personal experience.**

After a C-section, you’ll have to stay in the hospital for 3-4 days

I wasn’t prepared to have to stay in the hospital after my C-section for that long. If I had known, I would have packed a few extra things. The reason they have you stay in the hospital is to make sure that you are healing properly. Make sure you pack the essentials that you’ll need for a few days.

You may not use everything you packed.

Now complete flip from the previous suggestion. If you get an emergency c-section you’ll likely not use some of the things that you packed when planning for a vaginal birth. Make sure you do research and pack the things you’ll need for your c-section recovery. I genuinely thought I’d never have a c-section so I didn’t even consider researching what I’d need just in case.

Healing from a C-section can be rough.

Make sure you listen to your doctor’s instructions and don’t overdo it. Healing from a c-section is a journey and it can be potentially dangerous if you do not listen to instructions.

Walking may be painful and you might get lightheaded or dizzy when on your feet for too long. I’d recommend staying home as much as possible for at least 2 weeks before going out with your baby for too long.

Doing certain things such as lifting weights, putting on your shirt, stretching, sneezing/coughing, etc. will likely be very painful for the first few weeks.

Your lower stomach may be numb

After my c-section, I lost all feeling in my lower belly by my incision. I recently finally got my feeling back a year later, however, some people may never get their feeling back.

In the first few months, the numbness bothered me and made me uncomfortable. After a while, I never really thought about it and I adjusted.

You may not get immediate skin to skin

Depending on the situation, you may not be able to have that skin-to-skin contact with your baby after your c-section… If you’re able to be alert some doctors will put your baby on your chest. However, sometimes your baby may need to be whisked away to get needed care.

In my situation, I needed to be asleep in order for them to perform the surgery. I never got that skin-to-skin contact immediately. Due to my c-section and inability to walk from the epidural, I didn’t meet my son for 12 hours after having him and I was only able to spend an hour with him on that day.

You might grieve your birth

I was not prepared to be absolutely shattered by how my son’s birth went. It sent me into a spiral of postpartum depression and self-hatred. To this day I still want to cry thinking about the trauma behind that day. I never thought that I’d miss out on everything that seemed to make birth powerful and a wonderful experience.

Please reach out for help if you are mentally struggling after your c-section. I spent months alone and I never talked about what was going on in my mind. I strongly suggest you talk to your doctor or find a therapist if you have the same problem.

They’ll schedule an extra postpartum appointment

Due to the severity of the surgery, you’ll likely be scheduled for an extra postpartum appointment or two. In these appointments, they’ll check your incision and ask you questions about how you’ve been doing.

These extra appointments are very important to make sure you are healing up nicely and to check for infections. Please call your doctor if you are having any pain, bleeding, or redness/inflammation.

You’ll need to have a catheter inserted

This applies if you get an epidural, however, I was not prepared for how long the catheter has to stay in. I mean I believe I had it in for about 18 hours and my nurse had to drag my pee bag down with me to see my baby. I was totally not prepared for that.

Your body takes about a year to fully recover from a C-section

Your doctor will likely tell you to wait at least a year before getting pregnant again due to the risks. A c-section is a major abdominal surgery so you have to be mindful of that fact. You may not recover as fast as moms who had a vaginal birth.

Please be gentle with yourself and listen to your body. Don’t push yourself past your limits because this could be dangerous. Call your doctor immediately if you feel something is wrong.

There are 9 things I wish I knew about c-sections.

I truly hope that this blog post about my experience with my c-section was helpful. Please remember I am not a medical professional and all of these things are just my personal experience.

Let me know in the comment section below if you have anything to add or if you have any questions!

As always thank you so much for being here and reading this blog post. I appreciate your support and would love to hear from you.