Cesarean Prep
Whether you’re planning to have a cesarean birth or want to prepare for one even though your hope is to birth vaginally, there are a couple of things that I think all families should know.
First is, everyone’s cesarean healing experience is different and it absolutely does not have to be terrible. I’ve actually worked with quite a few birthers who feel great after the cesarean, even though it was a surprise, because they took their recovery seriously and were glad they didn’t believe that their experience had to be terrible. And how did they do this? They respected the one, two, three, four rule. This rule is essentially about adding the sum between going outdoors and going upstairs: on day one, you can either do the stairs once or go outside once. On day two you can either do the stairs twice, go outside twice, or do the stairs once and go outside once. Etc etc. This is essentially to slow people down because families are so eager to go for walks and rock around the house so it definitely helps. Also, mandatory trips out of the house count so to leave the house for a pediatrician check-up or OB appointment or lactation consultant assessment, whatever, it all counts towards the count. And just to clarify the stairs, that means someone should be staying upstairs or staying downstairs for the majority of the night which means lots of laying on the couch and laying in bed and just taking it easy.
Second, do some urban planning. Forget the change table and use puppy pads or wipeable change pads, make sure you have boxes of protein bars next to the bed, in a variety of flavours, try to really make it impossible to need to go to the second floor or need to go to the first floor however and whenever possible. If it’s a planned cesarean then also think about what it means to bend over and stand up with a baby and a fresh incision so consider getting a Snuggle Me or a Dock-a-Tot to really minimize those bending and lifting and straightening up movements.
The third thing is to build your cesarean recovery team before you give birth. This is really important whether it’s a vaginal or belly birth, but it is so often overlooked. A pelvic-floor physio is really important to see six weeks after delivery for scar massage and to check the integrity of the pelvic muscles, an osteopath is sooo important for the baby to see because they were pulled out of the body by their head so they truly really benefit from getting treated, a lactation consultant on-call who you’ve previously spoken to and connected with, a physiotherapist to help with getting back to movement and strengthening when you’ve gotten the OK from your care provider, a naturopath who can help your body work through all the antibiotics and rugs you were given during labour, a chiropractor who can also help your body readjust post carrying a baby for 9 months and giving birth -- it’s a long list, but future you will thank you if you’ve put all the notifications in your phone of who to call and when to call. It absolutely makes the difference between a smoother and easier recovery to one that is longer, more arduous, more stressful and less enjoyable. Regardless of how the birth happened, thriving in the fourth trimester is absolutely possible.
Check below for other resources and as always, let me know if you have any questions or concerns.
Whether you’re planning to have a cesarean birth or want to prepare for one even though your hope is to birth vaginally, there are a couple of things that I think all families should know.
First is, everyone’s cesarean healing experience is different and it absolutely does not have to be terrible. I’ve actually worked with quite a few birthers who feel great after the cesarean, even though it was a surprise, because they took their recovery seriously and were glad they didn’t believe that their experience had to be terrible. And how did they do this? They respected the one, two, three, four rule. This rule is essentially about adding the sum between going outdoors and going upstairs: on day one, you can either do the stairs once or go outside once. On day two you can either do the stairs twice, go outside twice, or do the stairs once and go outside once. Etc etc. This is essentially to slow people down because families are so eager to go for walks and rock around the house so it definitely helps. Also, mandatory trips out of the house count so to leave the house for a pediatrician check-up or OB appointment or lactation consultant assessment, whatever, it all counts towards the count. And just to clarify the stairs, that means someone should be staying upstairs or staying downstairs for the majority of the night which means lots of laying on the couch and laying in bed and just taking it easy.
Second, do some urban planning. Forget the change table and use puppy pads or wipeable change pads, make sure you have boxes of protein bars next to the bed, in a variety of flavours, try to really make it impossible to need to go to the second floor or need to go to the first floor however and whenever possible. If it’s a planned cesarean then also think about what it means to bend over and stand up with a baby and a fresh incision so consider getting a Snuggle Me or a Dock-a-Tot to really minimize those bending and lifting and straightening up movements.
The third thing is to build your cesarean recovery team before you give birth. This is really important whether it’s a vaginal or belly birth, but it is so often overlooked. A pelvic-floor physio is really important to see six weeks after delivery for scar massage and to check the integrity of the pelvic muscles, an osteopath is sooo important for the baby to see because they were pulled out of the body by their head so they truly really benefit from getting treated, a lactation consultant on-call who you’ve previously spoken to and connected with, a physiotherapist to help with getting back to movement and strengthening when you’ve gotten the OK from your care provider, a naturopath who can help your body work through all the antibiotics and rugs you were given during labour, a chiropractor who can also help your body readjust post carrying a baby for 9 months and giving birth -- it’s a long list, but future you will thank you if you’ve put all the notifications in your phone of who to call and when to call. It absolutely makes the difference between a smoother and easier recovery to one that is longer, more arduous, more stressful and less enjoyable. Regardless of how the birth happened, thriving in the fourth trimester is absolutely possible.
Check below for other resources and as always, let me know if you have any questions or concerns.