So you’re going to have a baby. Congratulations!! After you’ve figured out your due date and maybe even the gender of your baby, the next most important thing to consider is how your baby is going to be born. As far as I know, there are two ways a baby can be born into this world; naturally or by c-section. In this post, I will share with you my two birth experiences with c-sections to help you gain some insight as to what exactly happens in this type of birth. Yes, no two births will be exactly the same, but you will walk away with more knowledge and help you decide if this is how you want to deliver your baby.
I am here to help you get a little more info into your journey! Personally, I have experience with types of c-sections. One was scheduled, and the other was not. I did get my vbac (vaginal birth after cesarean) so this is coming from a gal with experience in all types of births. If birth stories give you the heebie-jeebies, skip down to the bottom where there is a handy pro/con list to help you decide if a c-section birth is for you!
No matter how your little one decides to come into the world, it is nice to be able to have an idea of what happens during a c-section and gain some insight into this type of birth. Sometimes, knowing what is coming makes it less frightening. I personally want everyone to experience their best birth experience possible!
My Scheduled C-Section
I was 21 when I had my first baby, and I had NO idea what I was doing. My doctor told me my baby was going to be very large, and she recommended scheduling a cesarean (c-section for short.) Back then, the idea of birth scared me and scheduling a surgery that didn’t involve reenacting scenes from movies of women screaming in pain from labor sounded great.
Deciding to take my OB’s advice, I scheduled the birthday of my son, a week before his due date. Counting down the days, I felt confident this was the right thing to do, right up until we arrived at the hospital at 5:30am for my 8:00 surgery. No one told me what to expect, other than the standard “don’t wear nail polish,” and a two week recovery time.
I suddenly felt completely overwhelmed when the nurses told me that when they prep me for surgery I had to be alone. Wait, what?? My birth partner could join me after I was prepped. “Prepped” means getting into the hospital gown, hair in a hair net, laid down on a table with a board for your arm to lay flat and the IV can rest. The nurses also start your epidural, which for me, wasn’t as traumatic as I thought it would be! Thankfully they have someone called an anesthesiologist whose whole job is giving you medicine in your back and making sure you can’t feel anything. In my experience, it felt like a big pinch in my spine, then a tingling sensation, then nothing at all.
At this point, your birth partner can come back into the operating room wearing a fresh set of hospital clothes (for some reason I wasn’t expecting the costume change, so now you know and will be one step ahead of the game. Knowledge can be power, am I right?) Since my c-section was scheduled, all the nurses had a very relaxed vibe, and even asked me what music I wanted to listen to in the OR! I chose Imagine Dragons, it was the first band that I thought of.
When my doctor came in to officially deliver my baby, I don’t think I will ever forget the feeling. There is a large tarp-like covering hung like a curtain hiding your lower half so you can’t see anything going on (phew!) I distinctly remember a very strange feeling of tugging and pulling in a way that was quite unnerving. Did it hurt? No, but it was unexpectedly uncomfortable. In my case, this part didn’t last too long, it felt like just a few minutes. Looking around the room at all of the bright lights and equipment helped me to get out of my own head and not focus too hard on the sensations.
Then I was congratulated. My son was lifted over the covering so I could see him, and my adorable-but-also-graphically-messy big guys’ first cry rang out for the first time. At this point I remember myself crying with pure relief, more tugging as the doctor finished closing the incision, and after cleaning and weighing him, they put him on my chest. Feelings of complete amazement are mixed with feelings of complete inadequacy. “What in the world do I do now?” This was the beginning of my motherhood journey. The long road of recovery was also looming ahead.
Recovering from a C-Section
It’s true, the surgery itself is actually pretty quick and relatively painless (again, my personal experience.) What makes c-sections a hard pill to swallow is what comes after. It is important to weigh the pros and cons when considering what type of birth you want to experience. C-sections are easy to schedule, you get to potentially pick your baby’s birthday and not go through labor pains. However, you should also be aware that after your baby is delivered, the recovery process is much longer than a natural birth.
This is major surgery; your abdomen has been opened (sorry to be graphic, but that is reality!) The lower half of your body has been completely numbed, and you’ve been given some pretty hefty medications. You are not allowed to drive for a few weeks. Picking up anything over the weight of your baby is not permitted. You are healing from a wound that will require some down time, which might be difficult if you do not have help set aside.
At the time I had my c-section, they used “dissolvable stitches,” which were supposed to disappear over a period of time. I remember being pretty stoked. I have only ever had dissolvable stitches in my mouth. These were bit different in that they were covered with a thick glue and apparently I was supposed to take the glue off. Yep, nope, I left the glue on until I saw my OB again and she took it off for me! The scar now isn’t what I thought it would be. I am actually proud of it. The eight inch pink line is my battle scar, signifying that my 9.5 pound boy was born through me. That is pretty cool, y’all!!
Having to wait a while until I could drive myself anywhere was frustrating. I did have my mom to help me, but being a brand new mama, I just wanted to do everything myself (which I do NOT recommend, accept all the help!) It is exceedingly painful to get up and down to do anything that human beings need to do. Getting up and doing it anyways does help you recover faster, so if you take away anything from this, get up and walk! I promise that part fades and walking and sitting and going to the bathroom will go back to normalcy.
Is my body changed forever by my c-section? Yes. Sometimes I do look back and imagine what my body would look like if I hadn’t agreed with my doctor and just went for it. Would I have this hard of a time doing crunches and sit-ups years later? Would I have developed my overhang of loose skin after I’ve lost the pregnancy and baby weight? It honestly doesn’t really help to look back in time and dwell on the “what if’s.” Do your research until you can feel good about your decision, then live in peace with it, knowing you did all you could to prepare yourself. In my case, it didn’t even matter what the outcome could have been. My next birth experience was about to rock my world.
Emergency C-Section
No, I didn’t plan to have another c-section. I was planning my first vbac (so many fun acronyms, right?) three years later when my daughter decided she wanted to come into this world at 34 weeks gestation. I started spotting while my husband and I were on a date night, but I thought it was probably nothing so we decided to watch it. Two days later and conveniently after my husband left to go out of town for the week, I started having painful contractions and more blood.
We got to the hospital sometime in the afternoon where the doctor informed us that my placenta had detached and our baby needed to be delivered now. Very clearly I remember thinking “I don’t even know what day it is, and my daughter’s birthday will be TODAY?!” And so it began again, my husband was whisked away to change into hospital garb and I was wheeled into the operating room. This time there wasn’t any music. There were more people in the room with us to help care for a premature baby. Thankfully other things remained the same as my previous scheduled c-section like a healthy dose of anesthesia via epidural that you really can’t even see happening. The curtain/tarp situation to block you from watching yourself become sushi (bad joke.)
What really was a scary situation, the nurses helped make us feel like the world was still turning, and my baby was going to be okay. She took her time to cry her first tiny cry, but cry she did. No, they didn’t put her on my chest, but they showed her to me AND let my husband cut her umbilical cord. The excitement started to die down when they wheeled her out of the operating room with her Daddy in tow, and I started to feel cold. Shaking down to my bones cold. I was starting to hemorrhage again.
My story is not a common one, and I don’t mean to scare you in any way, but I think it is important to tell you because knowledge is power. These things, although uncommon, can happen.
My husband signed a waiver saying I could receive a blood transfusion. I really don’t remember very much until getting to the recovery room and being treated like a queen by the hospital staff. Ice water in those terrific plastic cups with the pebble ice and so. many. snacks! They knew I had a heck of a recovery on top of having our premie girl in the NICU (neonatal intensive care unit.) Thankfully at the hospital we were staying in, they had a NICU on the same floor as mine that was one of the highest rated in the country. That was the BEST motivator to get up and walking, my tiny 5.5 pound girlie needed as much colostrum (the stuff that comes before your milk comes in)as she could get to bulk up and bust out of the hospital.
She ended up staying longer than me, 15 days in the NICU. That was the hardest part, not being able to drive down to the hospital to hold my baby. Sure, my husband made the trip everyday to check in and hold her, but I felt terrible not being able to be with her. To those mama’s who have had to endure that stretch without your baby, you are incredibly strong. My hope is that no one has to go through that time of emptiness.
Are you ready for the happy ending? Okay good, me too. Our daughter had gained enough weight, she could breathe well on her own, and we watched a cheesy hospital video on how to properly buckle her in her car seat (this is a real thing!!)we brought her home. Our family was finally together, all four of us.
Birth is Beautiful
Ladies and gentlemen, birth is hard. It is beautiful, a gift, life-changing, and yet so challenging. There just isn’t anything that I have experienced that can quite live up to it. I did eventually get my vbac, which I will be posting about later, but I think that c-sections are absolutely amazing in their own way. They are not the easy route. You get a wicked cool scar. You have your own unique story to tell of how your child came into this world! I do consider myself blessed I have experienced a scheduled c-section. I believe God had his hand in my eldest daughter’s emergency c-section as well, maybe just for you to experience through this post. Nothing happens without reason,
C-Section Pros and Cons
If birth stories freak you out and you’d rather have some quick tips for your upcoming birth, I’ve got you! Please note that each birth is unique, my situations could vary dramatically from yours. Take these as more of guidelines than set in stone “this is how every c-section goes,” yes? Just checking(;
Pros
+ You get to pick your baby’s birthday
+ No waiting around for labor, or pushing a baby out of you
+ You get to stay in the hospital longer, which means more help from lactation consultants and nurses at all hours of the night
Cons
– If you want a big family, multiple c-sections are trickier than multiple vaginal births
– More dependent on others after birth (driving, carrying heavy things, moving around)
– More expensive than a natural birth
My hope is for women to be more informed about c-sections, what actually happens during your surgery, and the road to recovery afterward. How you give birth to your baby is a big deal! After reading my birth stories and deciding c-section is the route you want to go, then girl go for it! Fire up that playlist for the operating room, tell your birth partner they’re going to look hot in the hospital gown, you are going to do amazing. Do you want to know the best part? However your birth happens, you get your baby in the end. That is the most important thing in the world.
More on birth stories, including my road to vbac, are coming soon. With love, Paige
1 Sam. 1:27