Hey, mamas! I just wanted some advice and tips on what worked for you on c section recoveries, light post-maternity bands, vitamins, smoothies, such? To help that tummy retract back!!! Anything helps !!! Please make sure to send product names and websites too!!! Thanks in advance!
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Each woman is going to heal differently from a csection. Remember you just had major surgery. Be easy on yourself.
I was recommended an abdominal binder to sleep with after the surgery.
It took me a full 8 weeks before I could really move and feel like a person. I still hobbled a little.
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Two C sections for me ā¦ first one was a breeze healed quickly second took more time I think the worst feeling of it all is laughing or coughing feeling like your gut is going to fall out lol !
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Nursing help me a lot āespecially losing weightā
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I have had 2 c-sections and nursing was the one thing that really helped me lose weight. Take it easy until your dr gives you the okay and then do stomach exercises as well. I unfortunately ended up with an umbilical hernia and was unable to do certain exercises until I get it fixed . Also remember every womanās body is different and. Or everyone can bounce back. Donāt be hard on yourself!
Iāve had three. No tricks or secrets. Take it easy. Give yourself time to heal. My last csection. It took a good 8 weeks before my body felt ānormalā. You may feel ok while taking your pain meds but donāt overdo it or you will regret it the next day. They can give you a belly binder at the hospital but I found it uncomfortable. You need high waisted everything! Underwear and pants/shorts and about three sizes too big. Donāt lift anything heavier than the baby for 6 weeks. It helps to sleep elevated for a while. Have a pillow to hold on your belly when you cough, sneeze or laugh. Let people help you even if you donāt want the help take it. Heating pads are amazing! Take care of yourself and soak up those first few weeks! Good luck and congratulations!
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Rest and take time.
Iām both OCD and stubborn so relaxing and letting things go was impossible for me.
Best advice- just let it all go. AND REST.
Time thatās the best advice I can give you (csection mom x3)
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My first one was unexpected. I did not know to do my research on any of the recovery. I did a lot of things wrong. #1 Donāt skip your pain meds in the first few days. Set a timer on your phone. #2 Get up and move as soon as your nurse or doctor says you can. It will hurt like hell but you need to do it. #3 When you get home, find a chair that sits up taller and is easy to get up from. #4 If you have a thick mattress or high sitting bed, do whatever you need to make it sit lower to the ground ahead of time. You want to be able to swing your feet over and be able to touch your feet to the floor. #5 Breastfeeding causes uterine contractions which HURT, but a lot of women are able to get back to their pre-pregnancy size by burning calories breastfeeding. #6 Get granny panties that are so high waisted they touch your ribcage! #7 Avoid stairs for a while.
Skip the belly binders. Also āc-section shelvesā are a thing that may or may not ever go away or look any better.
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I startĆØd walking the next day, the pain went away within a week, also doctors told me ādonāt feel sorry for yourself, start walking and try to sleep on your stomachā, I know, it doesnāt sound good. In my case, it worked
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Get up and walk as much as possible. Donāt over exert yourself, though.
it took about 2 weeks or so to heal from mine.
I had my first csection in January 2021. It was hard for me. It hurt so bad to walk, and I couldnāt even tend to my other 2 kiddos for the 1st week. Omg when you cough or sneeze get ready to feel some pain!! Thatās what I dreaded the most lol Then it got better.
You cannot rush recovery. Your body needs time and grace.
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Rest is the most important thing. If you get plenty of rest everything else will come easily but if you do not, it will set you back terribly. I have had 3 c-sections in 6 years and I can honestly say it is not terrible, but you have to give your body time to do itās thing and get back to where it needs to be. Then you can work on fitness and health. I do recommend to still take prenatal vitamins just because I believe they help so well, as well as eating good and smoothies will definitely help 
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4 c sectionsā¦ like some ladies say. Everyone is different and each time for me was different but each were painful. Just had one my son is 12 days old. Iām feeling better but some slight soreness itll take weeks to healā¦
Just rest and stay on top of your meds and donāt overdo it. Listen to your body.
Takes time. C-sections are no joke. Youāll get there.
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Timeā¦ to heal, rest,adjust to a whole new lifeā¦not quick tricksā¦ everyone heals diffrentlyā¦
Paracetamol and a positive mental attitude. Iām currently 9 days post emergency c section and Iām walking my son to nursery and doing all sorts of things. According to the midwifes ive seen Iām somewhat of a rare case however as I was discharged from hospital less than 24 hours post op and back home in time for tea with my 2 year old
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Ask for a silver nitrate bandage too. Helped me not to get an infection (Im prone to them) but it was also tighter then the regular ones. That help with a lot of the pain first couple times getting up.
As soon as they will let you up to walk, get up and walk around. The longer you stay in bed the harder recovery is.
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Just move around as much as possible. And wear the waist band.
Proper rest, diet, hydration, light exercise. Do what your body needs
They gave me a binder. Breastfeeding helped some.
Massage your scar as often as possible. Moffit Cancer Center has a large article on why massaging scars is good for healing and helps your recovery.
Like others said, walking helps a lot! I was pain free at a week. My stomach was back to normal,
once the swelling went down.
Walking and moving as much as you can. Donāt lift unless you absolutely have no choice. But walking and moving helped me a lot
If you are breastfeeding you can rub the breastmilk all over any stretch marks daily and let air dry and it will help to lighten the appearance of the scarring. You really donāt want to rush your recovery. I was still in pain a week after surgery, everyoneās journey to healing is different than the last persons. It takes your body 9 months to stretch and get that big so allow your body at least that much time to heal up and recover. Walk as much as possible, helps with the healing but donāt push it too far.
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Nothing worked for me, everything hurt, couldnāt stand up unassisted, cried for weeks, thought I was dying when the fever set in a few days later cause your hormones are such a mess. Worst experience of my life, had nightmares for months from the whole labor and delivery. Nothing like seeing your guts sitting on a table next to you in the reflection of a light above you. I was not prepared in any way as my other two were easy vaginal births, this last baby was a whole other ball gameā¦ pushed to 9 1/2 centimeters and baby was too bigā¦ to get that far to be.told emergency c section, devastating.
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Breast feeding is the best way
Be careful about pushing too hard too soon with exercise as it can actually cause issues and make ābouncing backā more difficult.
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About 6 weeks, keep a pillow handy for bottom of stomach, they should give you a device to bring home so you can suck in air to be sure not to get pneumonia, walk much as you can but take it easy, Iāve had 3 will have #4 soon, if you canāt see your cut get someone to keep eye on it for you be sure keep sanitary. Donāt pick up heavy objectsā¦far as vitamins just prenatals if breastfeedingā¦idk about any smootheysā¦.I had a lot of pain after mine
I swear by the stomach binder and getting uo and walking as soon as they remove your cather they wouldnt let me with my almost 8 month old because of covid and felt like crap and my recovery took longer
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Best advice I can give you is sleep on the couch with a kitchen chair against with the back facing you it helps so much when trying to get up you can use your arms rather than stomach for a week or so
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I had a bigger tummy overlap my c-section incision which led to infection and emergency surgery to get rid of it. My baby was at another hospital and I was at another on the wound floor. I was there for 5 days while waiting for wound vac equipment so they could start packing me up. I was able to get home care due to having a nicu baby. It took me almost 2 and half months to get better due to twice a week dumping my vac and repacking. Eventually around late October they were able to put some sulfur on the incision to close the gap internally as well externally. Almost 5 years later no problems and it has gotten smaller as well. Still got a belly but its less puffy and it took about 4 years until I felt the numbing go away.
Walk as much and as soon as possible. My hospital didnāt give me any binder thing. All I got was a home made cough pillow (small town). Told to squeeze the pillow on my tummy when needed to cough or pass gas.
Breast feeding helps the uterus contract back to normal size
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For me the worst part about c-sections was always the gas pains. As others said walk as soon as youāre able to, that will help with recovery as well as the gas pains. The abdominal binder they give you at the hospital helps. Keep your incision clean and dry to prevent infection. Iāve had 3 c-sections and was mostly pain free after a few days. Good luck!
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Donāt rush it enjoy your time with your new baby. An remember that scar represents the home that grre your baby thereās no rush
I found it best to take each day as it comes, donāt try to rush it like I did and ended up with an infection! My section was 11yrs ago, but definitely take it slow and steady for a while
About 2 weeks until I was driving and hoovering. But should be 6 weeks.
Thereās no magic fix Iām sorry to say. Iām 8 weeks post c sectionā¦ Thought I was okayā¦ Have pulled myself off doing too much. The shelf as I call it takes alot of work to get rid of mine is going down but to be honest Iām holding no hope of it being gone under a year lol. X
It takes time Iām 10 weeks post c-sections and you just got to take it easy, learn your limits and donāt push yourself to far x
I had an awesome experience with my csection. I had an awesome doctor and minimal pain from delivering twins. My suggestion would be to walk as much as possible. I was able to throw my pain meds away when I got home from the hospital. I wasnāt going to take them but the discharging doctor told
me I would need them. I didnāt. Everyone is different.
You just had a major abdominal surgery. We need to quit thinking that women just need to ābounce backā after having a baby. No. Just no. Youāll likely never have your body back the same it was prebaby and thatās OKAY.
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Depends on your body on how long youāll recover I was ok 2 days later and hoovering on day 10
I started walking as soon as I could feel my feet. Also hold a pillow close when getting up it helps not feel everything fall back in to place. Also poise adult briefs because heck of alot easier than pads. Keep taking prenatals up to a year post partum thatās what I was told by my Dr. So whatever youāre ob/gyno suggests( not a Dr ). Really listen to what your body needs. Relax when you can. Ask for help.
I had 3 C-sections the best thing to do is get up and walk as soon as u can. I did as soon as I could get my feeling back in legs n body. Doctor said wait a little longer I couldnāt so he gave in and let me walk around in room n next day I was walking in hallway
And also a pillow is ur best friend especially if u need a cough
Walk, keep walking. It helps so much
If you wear a belly band you wonāt need the pillow. Belly bands are awesome. Some hospitals offer them.
rest , eat healthy, feet up sometimes, keep area extremely dry. No heavy lifting, breastfeed if possible. Just take it easy which is hard but try .
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TMI but donāt forget to take your stool softener. You can easily become dehydrated after a c section which can cause constipation. Abdominal surgery + pushing to poop = horrible, awful pain. I used the Walmart brand pill and only needed it for about 2 weeks.
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It took 6-1yr to feel āhumanā my c section was very brutal.
Know your physical limits and rest as much as possible
walk as much as you can, dont skip on ur tylenol and ibuprofen doses, if u dont take narcotics it will allow u to poop easier.
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lol rest rest and more rest. also a belly band.
Compression garment. Get one! A good one!
Use your binder! Walk as much as you can, donāt be scared of the pain meds in the hospital and most importantly STOOL SOFTENER.
My first c-section was horrible I couldnāt walk. I couldnāt even stand up straight. I was in so much pain. I was sleeping on the couch because sleeping in the bed hurt so much. My second c-section was a breeze. I was walking the next day. No pain nothing. I used a heating pad and thats pretty much it.
Depends on if u let urself heal properly u can be up n about after a week or 2 but if u do all ur normal day to day chores after a csec u dont heal properly and can be painful for awhile thats just my experience with my 2babies
Unfortunately everybody has a unique situation for their recovery. I unfortunately wasnāt able to recover like I shouldāve and I was driving/doing heavy lifting 1.5-2 weeks after my c-section. Sometimes Iād over-do it and it would feel like I ripped it open. Sneezing sucked. Laughing sucked. Coughing was awful. I avoided the shower. But I kept my belly band on for about 1.5 months after because the compression felt so nice. I still have a āshelfā somewhat but itās gone done. My stretch marks are sensitive and my incision is somewhat numb. But itās healed 100% and Iām back serving tables again. I had my daughter March 20. My belly isnāt horrible but itās a little squishy. Iām just taking it day by day and trying not to focus on my belly but this beautiful baby I brought into the world. 200% would do it all over again.