Elective Caesarean Section experience?

[Mum2EandR]

what did it feel like to have the epidural/spinal inserted? What kind of pain is involved with that, is there pressure? What did that feel like for you? How long does it take to come info effect?
It was fine. The local anesthetic that they used to numb the area hurt more than the spinal! It was like a little prick, and it was fairly instantaneous. Within a minute or so I'd say!

Did you feel sick during the procedure due to the anaesthetic? I'm aware that it mucks with your bodys temperature regulation but I hear it has made a few people feel ill?
I was sick through both of my c sections, although it was due to blood pressure dropping. Every time my blood pressure dropped I spewed. They gave me drugs though constantly to ring my blood pressure up each time it dropped.

How long does it take for them to stitch you up before you're taken to recovery?
I think it was about 30-40 minutes to get into recovery after they started stitching

What are your recovery like?
My recovery was good (by c section standards) both times. I was walking the next day, home in a few days, and driving by 1 week

[Kez12787]

Hi there, I had my daughter almost 3 years ago via planned csection. She was born at 8.30am Friday. (breech position)

I found the experience a lot easier then I had feared. The epidural didn't hurt at all as they numbed the area first with a local. They warned I may start to feel sick and if so to let them know. Well within about 5 minutes the horrible nauseous feeling hit me but as fast as it came they made it go away with medication. From then I didn't feel sick at all, well maybe a little later on but that's because I was starving. No other problems from the epidural.

Baby girl was out and born with 15-20 mins after starting the whole process. I got to say a little hello before she was sent off with my partner while I was fixed up.. The next minutes I'll admit felt like hours. My partner was gone, baby was gone and all the doctors around me were just casually in conversation about what ever it was I can't remember. I felt so alone at this point and felt like screaming but I will add I was only 22yrs old and up until that point had never experienced being in a hospital environment. I think it may of been another 20 mins or so before they were pushing me into recovery but once there the doctors/nurses were super friendly. They joked with me and got me super excited that it was down hill from there.

Recovery from then: it was pretty easy. The first 24hours was the hardest, it was painful on/off as I was having the after birth contractions but they gave me pain killers for the next 48 hours which eased that quite a bit. Saturday morning I had a light breakfast and by 10am they had gotten be out of bed and into the shower.. From then I was up and walking around and felt so much better. It's a little tough getting up the first few times but once I was up, i didn't want to lay back down lol. I stayed in hospital for 3 nights. The second night I was completely able to look after my baby girl without any help from the nurses.

This time round I'm hoping for a successful vbac. (I'm due in two weeks). I figure seeing as I'll have my dd to look after as well as my new baby boy I'm looking forward to a faster recovery.. She's a very active lil girl so I'm sure she will appreciate mummy being up and about sooner too. Hope this helps, feel free to ask any other questions. And good luck