Cesarean birthing - the good, the bad, the myths - Chelsea Hargrave

Yes I picked to have a cesarean, and would I do it again? HELL YES!

Cesarean's are often met with fear, judgements, and a lot of myths, but let me tell you, my experience was the best birth I could have asked for! So now I'm going to share with you the good, the bad, and the myths about having a c-section...

Firstly the worst things:

The waiting, lord the waiting!! I arrived and was booked in around 9:30am, but didn’t actually go into theatre till 4pm.
The cannula, this is a tube they put in your hand to give you medication and fluids, and I’ll be honest it was the worst part of the whole thing, it knocked me for six and I started having hot flushes. That’s it, that’s all the I didn’t like.
In theatre I had the weird sensation of wanting a blanket to snuggle up (most probably because of the nudity). It definitely wasnt a worst bit, I just remember being a bit cold!

Now the best bits... so many:

I got to choose my own music to play in theatre, to create the atmosphere I wanted (my daughter was born to Beyoncé’s halo)
It was so quick! I went in the theatre at 16.00pm and by 16.14pm my daughter was out and in my arms, (most of that time is prep), it takes less then 1 minutes to actually get the baby out. In total, I was in theatre for under 45 minutes including prep, birth and stitch up.
It was painless! (thanks to the drugs) it feels like someone is using your stomach and a table to kneed bread (best way to describe it!)
The around the clock care, and my saviour; the button for a midwife! What’s better in your first 24 hours as a new parent that a team of professionals on call?
My scar is barely noticeable!

Myths:

You can’t have skin to skin - as soon as my daughter had her very quick, and normal, baby checks she’s was put on my chest and never left me.
Your partner and baby have to leave while your stitched up - not in my case, although hospitals may do things differently I can safely say my partner stayed right by my side, and my baby on my chest.
You can’t breastfed because your body takes a while to realise the baby is out - my little girl is a boobie monster and has been from day 1, you still get the opportunity to feed within the first hour.
It’s a long hard and painful recovery - I can honestly say I was never in any pain as you are on medication, and by day 5 I walked 25 minutes away to my local Sainsbury's perfectly fine.

I hope this insight helps for anyone considering a planned c-section - there are so many myths and horror story's out there, so I really wanted to share the positive experience I had in the hope that more people would consider having a cesarean birth!