What happens when you get a C section?

Question

My other two children were born vaginally, but this time If my placenta Previa doesn’t correct itself I’ll be having a scheduled (hopefully) c section.
What’s the process of this? What kind of prep is done and different things than having a baby vaginally? Do you still labor in your room until you reach 10cm??? What products do I buy for recovery?

Answer

If your C-section is for previa, they ideally won’t want you to labor at all. They’ll try to schedule you early enough that you’re unlikely to go into labor, but late enough that baby is fully cooked. It varies a little hospital to hospital, but you basically show up a couple hours before your scheduled C-section, they prep you for surgery, and then baby is here! Recovery can be much worse than after a vaginal delivery though, so stay on top of pain meds and constipation meds. You’ll need high waisted pants for traveling home since you’ll want them to avoid your scar. There are a bunch of hospital bag lists for C-sections on the app that you can search too. 🙂

Answer

I've had 3 csections. The typically schedule it a few days to a week before your due date. You check into the hospital, they do vitals and monitor you to make sure baby and you are looking healthy. Then they take you to the operation room. The anesthesiologist will give you a spinal which is a sharp pinch but soon all the feeling in your lower half goes away. They lay you down and put up a curtain and start the operation. Depending on how things are looking it takes an hour maybe two. They cut you open and pull baby out and you'll feel tugging and pressure. If baby and you are okay they allow you to skin to skin if you'd like. Then they put everything back and stitch you up. Then move you to a recovery room for about another hour or two. Then you go to your room which you will spend probably 2-3 days in the hospital. The first day you wont be able to move much and will have a catheter since you can't get out of bed. The second day you start to move around and go back to functioning normally. The recovery I heard is rougher than that of normal vaginal recovery, but it wasn't too bad in my opinion. Good luck!!
If you have any other questions you can message me :)

Answer

You won’t labor at all if you’re having a scheduled C-section. They’ll likely schedule you for 38-39 weeks so that you don’t go into labor on your own. You’ll be brought back to the OR, given a spinal, laid down on the table and then they’ll let your support person in. They’ll put a drape up so you can’t see what’s going on. The anesthesiologist will be up by your head monitoring you. It will feel weird. You won’t feel any pain but you’ll feel them touching and tugging down there. Then out comes baby. 
You’ll be brought to a post op recovery for a bit just to monitor while the anesthesia wears off. But then you’ll go to the normal postpartum room

Answer

No laboring! I loved the mesh undies the hospital gives you, snag some extra if you can. Comfy pants that either sit low or go over your scar, just avoid hitting right at the score which will be right about your pubic bone. Otherwise you really just leave the incision alone and doctor will check at the hospital and at your follow up appointments!

What happens when you get a C section?

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