Cesarean awareness month ❤️
Freddie was a planned cesarean due to his hemangioma and to begin with this seemed like the end of the world for me. With my first, I had a water birth at a local birthing centre which was how I'd already planned Freddie's birth would be. I was even thinking about a home birth. Then when this choice was taken away from me, I was devistated.
Eventually I came around to the fact that a planned section would be the best thing for Freddie, given his needs but even now I feel aggrieved to have had the decision taken away from me. I don't remember much of the actual procedure in terms of what they did or the feeling, I think this was all blanked out with the dramas that unfolded after Freddie's birth.
One thing I do remember was the strange feeling of the nurse moving my legs for me afterwards. I could see my legs moving but couldn't feel a thing! Freddie was transfered to GOSH 10 hours after delivery but due to the cesarean, I couldn't be discharged so had to stay 125 miles away in Bath which was heartbreaking.
I managed to get discharged 20 hours after my cesarean which is hindsight was far too early and I should have still been in bed. Instead I was sat in a car for 3 hours, desperately clinging a pillow to my stomach and dosed up to the eyeballs on painkillers. Nothing was stopping me from getting to my baby. Pain or no pain.
The day after my cesarean I was did 12,000 steps. This was stupid and definitely not something I recommend. I'd have given anything to have been at home, resting and bonding with my new baby.
Despite the lack of rest, nutritious food and stress levels through the roof, I seemed to heal pretty well although the deferred pain in my shoulder blade was an absolute killer!
This was until we got home 3 weeks later. It was amazing to be home but my body just gave up. It was so desperate for the rest it needed that my wound, that was healing well, started to open again in numerous places and I then got an internal infection. A quick phone call to the doctors and a course of antibiotics later, nothing changed. It was still oozing and bleeding and the parts that were opening seemed to be getting bigger.
Thanks to covid, my GP wouldn't see me in person so I bombarded them with photos and calls explaining I was falling apart. After a few more phone calls they eventually prescribed some manuka honey dressings and told me to get plenty of rest and to keep the wound covered. If that didn't work after a couple of weeks, I'd need to go back to Bath to be assessed by their surgical team. The thought of going back to the hospital filled me with dread so I made sure I followed their advise and made every effort to rest, as much as possible with a newborn and a 3 year old!
After a couple of weeks my wound was starting to heal and looking much better than the mess that was there before. Fast forward 9 months and my would is totally healed and barley visible.
I was worried that after a cesarean, I'd struggle to lose the baby weight and get my fitness back but I've managed to get back into exercise and am now fitter and stronger than before I had Freddie.
A cesarean certainly wasn't my first choice but it was necessary for the safe delivery of my son and in the bigger picture, that's all that mattered.
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