Lessons Leart Part II -- Birth

I had a caesarean section and yes I chose to have a caesarean section. I read many books, about all sorts of birthing options, home birth, water birth, assisted birth with forceps/vacumme, episotomy, c-section. I had thought long and hard over the my choices and I can truly say it was an informed decision and I had absolutely no regrets. To any other women who chose or may choose to have a c-section and had been made (unfortunately mostly by other women) to feel guilty about not giving their babies "THE birthing experience", or to feel guilty about losing out on an experience for themselves... well, follow your heart, your intuition and learn as much about all birthing options as you can. You are the only one who knows your body the best, you are the one who will have to live with whatever birthing choice you may make, with whatever scar/s you may get and wherever you may get them. If people don't like your decision, tell them to get some legos and build a bridge to get over it. Oh and if like me, a man tells you that from personal experience, natural is better. Ask him this: "What personal experience? Have you had an umbrella stuck up your penis and then opened? No? Well, maybe you should try that first before offering advice to a woman on whether to push out a baby." I have read many wonderful natural birthing stories, but I also heard too many horrible tales of babies in distress because the mothers just insisting on "all natural"...


I believe there's no RIGHT way of giving birth. There's no ONE way that is superior than any other way. A woman carried a baby from a single cell to full term of over 9000 billion cells, that's accomplishment enough. Being a mother is not JUST about the birth, as after the birth. the real task of parenting is only beginning. Personally, I did not need to have pushed out a 7 1/2 pound baby to prove I am more of a woman or more of a mother. Personally, I didn't NEED to experience the hours of pain and torture to feel more bonded to my child. But then, as I said it's just my personal opinion. I have total admirations and respect for women who do push out their babies and lived the tell the tale. /hats off to you.


* what to bring to the hospital

I overpacked. I always seem to overpack. So, here's a list of what I do find useful and stuff i didn't use


Useful stuff:

• personal toiletries: shampoo, conditioner, shower gel, facial cleanser, moisturiser, face cream, toner, LIP BALM, hair brush, SHOWER CAP
• slippers, next time I would bring a warm fluffy pair
• tops that buttons at the front if you plan to breastfeed
• warm socks
• outfits that you'd wear when you were around 6 months pregnant
• BRING YOUR OWN DOUBLE ELECTRIC BREASTPUMP. Learn from my mistake, invest in a good double electric pump (I love the Avent ISIS IQ DUO) before you give birth. The first few days of your baby's life, she/he will sleep a lot. Pump every couple of hours from the FIRST DAY so your milk will come in earlier and in more abundance. You really don't want your baby to be screaming in the middle of the night after 3 days because your milk still has not come in...
• disposable underwear in LARGE size. You don't want to ruin your good underwear, also, most of your panties won't fit anyways.
• Remember your camera/video camera and spare batteries
• pen and notepad to write down your thoughts and birth story

Useless things that took up space in my bag:

• books (you will be tired, overwhelmed with emotions/hormones, and busy feeding/settling your new born, seriously, you think you'd still have time to read?)
• snacks (the hospital fed me really well

* Recovery from c-section/birth

My recovery was relatively painfree and easy. I was off all pain meds by the end of the first week, and was able to walk around the hospital on the second day postpartum.

• Be on a semi-liquid diet from the day before the operation
• Stay on a liquid diet till you've passed gas and had bowl movements
• Get the cathetor AFTER you had your spinal block during the operation. My Obstetrician doesn't believe in putting in cathetors as he wants us to get off the bed and move around as soon as possible... well, I could move around without a problem, but having not had any water for hours and hours, peeing wasn't a simple task... They will take out the cathetor after 24 hours anyways.
• Get moving! Move your toes, legs, arms etc. as soon as you can out of the operation, and within hours hopefully you should be sitting up and eventually getting out of your hospital bed by end of the day of the operation. Then after a good night rest (hopefully), try to walk around a bit the next day. Slowly increase the walking during your hospital stay. Yes, it hurts to begin with, but the sooner you get moving, the sooner you will feel a world better.
  
• Pillows! Use the pillow to hold onto your incision site when you need to laugh, cry, cough, sneeze etc. And use the pillows for breastfeeding, it will help to make sure baby doesn't kick your incision site and will save your back and arms
• The only thing I got annoyed with in the hospital was they didn't remove my IV needles for 36 hours... by then, my arm was all bruised and itchy. So make sure you get the nurses to check our IV thingie regularly and remove it when you no longer need it
• Do NOT overdo anything. Basically for the first 6 weeks, your top priority is YOUR BABY. Don't worry about housework etc. You are to feed and care for your baby and nothing else
• Keep warm. For some reason, I was cold and sweating buckets all at the same time for weeks after the birth. If I am as much as catch a bit of breeze, I sneeze and have a runny nose for the whole day, which was very annoying. The postpartum sweating, wow, that's something that no one have told me before, and I have never ever ever sweated so much in my entire life. I would wake up after every sleep/nap covered in sweat, even my hair was wet. The sweating eased up after about 8 weeks for me
• Drink LOTS OF WATER, seriously, LOTS, especially if you are breastfeeding.