C-Section Recovery Tips

I’m 6 weeks post partum and can now say my baby was born last month. OMG saying that makes him feel old.

How am I recovering? Really well.
Compared to my C-section with Bodie I have recovered so much quicker and feel great. I did things a little differently this time and also being a second time mum helps as I’m a lot more relaxed.

I remember with Bodie every time he cried I’d have an anxiety attack not knowing what to do and I’d never even changed a nappy prior to his birth. Now with Mason I don’t have those new mum nerves. I can change a nappy with my eyes shut and when he cries, I know he is either hungry or has wind.

We all want to get back to our best after a birth and especially after a c-section. So read on to find out
⭐️ What I did to speed up recovery
⭐️ How to shrink that baby belly
⭐️ And what happened to all that colostrum I had pre expressed....did I use it?

What I Did to speed up recovery

1. Take pain medication as soon as the nurses offers it to you. Pain is a vicious cycle so you need to nip it in the bud early. I took the pain medication (even the strong stuff) as soon as the nurses offered it to me with Mason while with Bodie (my first bub) I only took Panadol and Neurofem for the first 36 hours! I was up moving and feeling so much better sooner with Mason and I attribute that to taking the pain medication from the start. All up I took less pain medication and recovered quicker with Mason. I know it’s not very ‘naturopathic’ but remember you have just had major surgery!

2. Homoeopathics to help pain and recovery after the c-section

   Staphysagria 30C - for healing of surgical wounds.

   Arnica 30C – encourages healing and relieves swelling and alleviates that battered and bruised feeling.

   Bellis perennis 30C – refreshes the parts that arnica can’t and is great after abdominal surgery.

   I took 3 doses per day of each homoeopathic for the first 3-4 days after the c-section.

3. SRC Health recovery shorts – these compression shorts I absolutely swear by. If you are having a c-section do yourself a favour and get a pair of these! They help hold everything in so you don’t feel like you are falling out and they give you support around your whole core and around the hips where your c-section wound is. You feel a lot more tighter and don’t feel like anything is going to fall out. I started wearing mine 2 days post surgery and they helped me get up and get moving a lot sooner.

How to Shrink that Baby Belly

I’m not talking about how to lose your baby fat rather how to get that uterus to shrink down super quick and get that flat stomach back. Within 10min of Mason being born my uterus had contracted down to below my belly button. By the time I left hospital 4 days later my stomach had flattened out and I could see my lady bits again! What helps shrink that baby bump?

1. Water - drink plenty of water this helps flush everything through especially all that retained fluid from the pregnancy.

2. Birth Prep Herbal – I took liquid herbs from 34 weeks of pregnancy to help support delivery, tone the uterus and promote healing. I strongly believe that this had a huge impact on helping my uterus contract down quicker. This liquid herbal is only available from a naturopath or herbalist. If you don’t have a naturopath you can take raspberry leaf tea and/or nettle leaf tea post c-section instead. It really helps the uterus constrict right down to get that flatter stomach sooner.

3. Breastfeeding – helps the uterus contract back down but if you aren’t breastfeeding then I strongly recommend you drink raspberry leaf tea and/or nettle leaf tea.

4. Recovery shorts or compression belts – squeezing that belly in helps get that flat stomach back.

And what happened to all that colostrum I had pre expressed....did I use it?

I started hand expressing colostrum each night from 37.5 weeks. I collected about 5mL per night and frozen it in preparation for hospital.

Why did I do it? With Bodie I didn’t express colostrum and he had to go to neonates soon after birth for 24hrs. As I had just had a c-section I was bed ridden and couldn’t go to neonates to feed him. I expressed some colostrum while he was in neonates and had Scott take it to him but his blood sugars dropped and the paediatrician insisted, he needed formula. From then on Bodie had formula. I really wanted to avoid formula this time round so I started to express colostrum just in case bub had to go to neonates like Bodie.

Did I use it? Yes, I used it all within the first 6-12 hours of being in hospital.

When we got back to our room after the birth, Mason’s blood sugar levels were low, despite having fed, and the paediatrician insisted he needed to be topped up. Thank goodness I had the colostrum ready to go so he got topped up with 25ml of colostrum otherwise it would have had to be formula. An hour later his blood sugars where back to normal and I could continue just topping him up with a little expressed colostrum after each feed. So yes, I used all my colostrum and it saved Mason from going to neonates and going on to formula.

Have you had a c-section? What helped you recover? Feel free to share in the comments below.