C-sec under general anesthesia
- Thread starter SS@HK
- Start date
Hi, I had a planned c-section under general anesthesia. Since I've never given birth naturally, I don't have anything else to compare it to. But overall the experience was fine. Within just a couple of minutes of them giving me the epidural, my lower body went numb but I was still completely alert. You really don't feel any pain at all - maybe just a slight pulling in the area. But definitely not pain. I was able to watch them clean off LO while the doctors sewed me back up. Immediately after he was clean, they brought him over. I couldn't hold him right away since the doctors were still working on me but he was right next to me so I could see him clearly and talk to him. My husband actually got special permission by the hospital and was allowed into the surgery room to be there with me when they took baby out.
Once I was sewed up, they pushed me back into the recovery room. After the doctors got baby's measurements and print, they bought him back out and put him immediately on my breast for him to start sucking. For me, I'd say that the anesthesia starting wearing off about 2 hours after the c-section. However, this is also where I went wrong. I was given the option of keeping the epidural in me for longer but opted not to cause I wasn't explained clearly by my doctor as to why this is an option. What they didn't tell me is that after the c-section, they actually put in extra drops of some medicine into your IV. What this is suppose to do is to start your contractions (assuming that you haven't had contractions yet). Apparently you uterus does actually still needs to go through this so that your body knows that you've given birth and jump into the next mode. So without the epidural, I started to feel strong contractions and of course any other pain killers that they gave me at this point was useless. In addition, I also started to feel a little of the pain from my wound. So the 10 hours after giving birth was actually quite painful for me. Therefore if you are opting to have a c-section, there are two things that I would recommend 1) keeping in the epidural in until after your contractions, and 2) make sure that you have a good and experienced anesthesiologist. I have heard horror stories of others with not so experienced doctors who had to poke them a couple of times before being able to get it in the right position.
In terms of breast feeding, my milk came in towards the end of the 2nd day after giving birth. However even before then, baby was put to my breast about every 3 hours. It is a little harder to breastfeed because of the wound still hurting but the midwives were able to teach me a couple of different feeding positions where it didn't bother me as much. Something else that you should know is that if you are put under general anesthesia, you won't be able to drink or eat anything until you've passed gas. So might be a little thirsty and hungry for a little while ...
Let me know if you have any other questions. Be more than happy to share my experience with you. But so you know, I didn't give birth in HK. I gave birth in Taiwan so what they do at the HK hospitals might be a little different.
Once I was sewed up, they pushed me back into the recovery room. After the doctors got baby's measurements and print, they bought him back out and put him immediately on my breast for him to start sucking. For me, I'd say that the anesthesia starting wearing off about 2 hours after the c-section. However, this is also where I went wrong. I was given the option of keeping the epidural in me for longer but opted not to cause I wasn't explained clearly by my doctor as to why this is an option. What they didn't tell me is that after the c-section, they actually put in extra drops of some medicine into your IV. What this is suppose to do is to start your contractions (assuming that you haven't had contractions yet). Apparently you uterus does actually still needs to go through this so that your body knows that you've given birth and jump into the next mode. So without the epidural, I started to feel strong contractions and of course any other pain killers that they gave me at this point was useless. In addition, I also started to feel a little of the pain from my wound. So the 10 hours after giving birth was actually quite painful for me. Therefore if you are opting to have a c-section, there are two things that I would recommend 1) keeping in the epidural in until after your contractions, and 2) make sure that you have a good and experienced anesthesiologist. I have heard horror stories of others with not so experienced doctors who had to poke them a couple of times before being able to get it in the right position.
In terms of breast feeding, my milk came in towards the end of the 2nd day after giving birth. However even before then, baby was put to my breast about every 3 hours. It is a little harder to breastfeed because of the wound still hurting but the midwives were able to teach me a couple of different feeding positions where it didn't bother me as much. Something else that you should know is that if you are put under general anesthesia, you won't be able to drink or eat anything until you've passed gas. So might be a little thirsty and hungry for a little while ...
Let me know if you have any other questions. Be more than happy to share my experience with you. But so you know, I didn't give birth in HK. I gave birth in Taiwan so what they do at the HK hospitals might be a little different.
carang
Registered User
epidural is NOT general anesthesia. GA is when you are completely out.
i had my first emergency c-section with an epidural. it was horrible. the epi didn't take properly. i was numb but i felt EVERYTHING. for me it felt like they were trying to touch the ceiling with my belly button. the whole experience was the MOST painful thing you could imagine. i realise that this is not the case for most people having an epi.
i had my second as a planned c-section at 36 weeks under GA. i would take this delivery over the first any day of the week.
i was very dozy when i came to. i had the baby at QMH and she was taken upstairs to the special baby unit as her responses were slightly delayed. as such, i didn't see her for almost 24 hours after she was born as i couldn't get myself upstairs.
however, i was so sleepy that it wasn't too bad. my girl started BF on the second day. she was given formula before that. from the second day, i exclusively BF her for 6 months. it didn't make BF any more difficult, it was just not nice being separated. my hubby was able to visit her and took photos for me.
if you have any questions, please feel free to PM me.
i had my first emergency c-section with an epidural. it was horrible. the epi didn't take properly. i was numb but i felt EVERYTHING. for me it felt like they were trying to touch the ceiling with my belly button. the whole experience was the MOST painful thing you could imagine. i realise that this is not the case for most people having an epi.
i had my second as a planned c-section at 36 weeks under GA. i would take this delivery over the first any day of the week.
i was very dozy when i came to. i had the baby at QMH and she was taken upstairs to the special baby unit as her responses were slightly delayed. as such, i didn't see her for almost 24 hours after she was born as i couldn't get myself upstairs.
however, i was so sleepy that it wasn't too bad. my girl started BF on the second day. she was given formula before that. from the second day, i exclusively BF her for 6 months. it didn't make BF any more difficult, it was just not nice being separated. my hubby was able to visit her and took photos for me.
if you have any questions, please feel free to PM me.
I had an emergency c section under general when I had my son. Of course you have no idea what is going on, and I think I was probably out to it for about an hour all up. I didn't see my son for 24 hours after which was the hard part. My son was cup fed on formula, but could not latch on when I tried to BF as he was premature. The experience was not the best, but probably not the worst either.
barbwong_130
Registered User
I have had four births, two cesareans and two virginal births. One of the cesareans was with a spinal and the other a GA. I didn?t find much difference between the two ? both times I felt very tired afterwards (I think that your body knows it has been through a lot when it has an operation and this is a natural reaction). And both times I felt in quite a bit of pain afterwards.
I?ve also had two virginal births, one with pethidine and the other natural (e.g. no drugs). These are very different as the pain comes before and afterwards any pain you have is nothing in comparison. But a virginal birth is not always possible.
If I was given the course I?d rather have a spinal than a GA because you miss the whole event when you are asleep. With the GA I remember waking up and seeing my baby, finding out he was a boy, the nurses helping to position him to breastfeed and falling back to sleep again. I continued feeding but dosing in and out of sleep. When the feed finished I went to sleep again and a few hours later woke up and was able to manage better then.
The recovery was, of course, much faster with the virginal births. It took at least six weeks to feel healthy again after the cesareans and maybe two weeks with the virginal births. I don?t remember much difference with the breastfeeding but you need more help for the first couple of days with the cesarean. The main problem is the lack of movement you have, rather than the pain, because all your tummy muscles have been cut.
Good luck with everything,
Barb
I?ve also had two virginal births, one with pethidine and the other natural (e.g. no drugs). These are very different as the pain comes before and afterwards any pain you have is nothing in comparison. But a virginal birth is not always possible.
If I was given the course I?d rather have a spinal than a GA because you miss the whole event when you are asleep. With the GA I remember waking up and seeing my baby, finding out he was a boy, the nurses helping to position him to breastfeed and falling back to sleep again. I continued feeding but dosing in and out of sleep. When the feed finished I went to sleep again and a few hours later woke up and was able to manage better then.
The recovery was, of course, much faster with the virginal births. It took at least six weeks to feel healthy again after the cesareans and maybe two weeks with the virginal births. I don?t remember much difference with the breastfeeding but you need more help for the first couple of days with the cesarean. The main problem is the lack of movement you have, rather than the pain, because all your tummy muscles have been cut.
Good luck with everything,
Barb