How do c sections work

This can help prevent blood clots and constipation. Your doctor will give you recommendations for home care after the surgery, but you should generally expect to:. Recovering from a C-section can take six to eight weeks.

Cesarean deliveries C-sections are sometimes medically necessary, but the recovery time is slightly longer than a vaginal birth. For this reason…. A new study finds that epidurals do not affect child development in their later years.

A fetal arrhythmia is an irregular heart rate — too fast, too slow, or otherwise outside the norm. It's often benign. Postpartum diarrhea after a C-section is normal. Sharing our experiences of pregnancy and infant loss can help us heal. Health Conditions Discover Plan Connect. Medically reviewed by Debra Rose Wilson, Ph. Why a cesarean delivery is done. The risks of a cesarean delivery.

How to prepare for a cesarean delivery. How a cesarean delivery is performed. Following up after a cesarean delivery. Large baby. Problems with the position of your baby. Problems in the cervix, resulting in failure of labour to progress. Problems in the umbilical cord or placenta. Baby shows signs of distress, such as slowed heart rate. Post-Partum Care.

After a C-section, you will stay for 2 to 3 days in the hospital for monitoring. Your doctor will prescribe medications to keep you comfortable and relieve your pain. The surgical site may hurt when you sit up to nurse your baby. Try sitting up and moving around several times a day to promote healing.

After discharge from the hospital to home: You may feel tired and sleepy as your body is trying to heal. Risks and complications. As with any surgery, C-section may involve certain risks and complications, which include: Infection. Blood clots in your legs, lungs or pelvic organs. Blood loss. Bladder or bowel injury. That said, it does carry risks, like any surgery, such as infection, blood clots, or hemorrhage. However, serious complications are rare. When the doctor reaches the uterus, you may hear suctioning.

After cutting through the uterus, the amniotic fluid will be suctioned away to make a bit more room in the uterus for the doctor's hands or instruments, such as forceps or a vacuum extractor, which are sometimes used forceps less often than vacuum extractor but more often neither to facilitate the extraction of the baby. Your baby is often engaged in the pelvis, usually, head down, but perhaps rear first or breech. Whatever part has entered the pelvis will be lifted out by the doctors.

You may feel pressure, tugging, or pulling at this point and some women report feeling nauseated during this intense, but brief moment. Although you may feel pressure, you should not feel pain. The anesthesiologist is usually positioned right by your head in order to monitor your pain and general well-being.

Alert them if you feel any pain. They will also often keep you informed about everything that is happening during the procedure and can answer any of your questions. Once the head is out, your doctor will suction the baby's nose and mouth for fluids. In a vaginal birth, these are squeezed out by the constriction of labor. In a cesarean birth, the baby needs some extra help getting rid of these fluids.

If meconium the baby's first bowel movement is present there may be extra suctioning required. Once your baby has been well suctioned, the doctor will start to help the rest of the body be born.

The surgeon will need to maneuver the baby back and forth to help them emerge. You may feel this wiggling, but again, while you may experience sensations of tugging or pulling, this should not be painful. The doctor will check for umbilical cord entanglement or other complications as the body is born. You may also have the assistant surgeon pressing on the upper part of your abdomen to assist in the birth.

The moment you've been waiting for—your baby's birth! It's been about 5 to 10 minutes since your surgery started. Your baby will typically be briefly held over the drape to show you the baby, the umbilical cord will be cut, and then, the baby is taken away by a nursery nurse or neonatologist to a nearby warmer, depending on the setup of the operating room.

If your baby goes to the warmer, it is usually in the same room as the surgery. Here, your baby will be suctioned again to ensure that they have help clearing the amniotic fluid.

Your baby may also have some basic care like weighing, measuring, cleaning, and vitamin K. With some prior planning with participating practitioners and hospitals, assuming both you and the baby are doing well, you can request a "gentle" c-section, which is also called a natural cesarean. In a gentle c-section, the surgery remains the same, the difference is that efforts are made to personalize the experience and mimic a vaginal birth.

For example, lights may be dimmed, music may be played, the drape that normally obscures the mom's view of the operation may be clear, and once the baby's head is out of the abdomen, the rest of the body is brought out slower this can help to squeeze out fluid from the baby's lungs , and skin-to-skin contact with your baby immediately after the birth is prioritized.

The next steps are the delivery of the placenta, followed by the suturing of the uterus and all the layers that were cut during the surgery. Once the placenta has been removed, it will be examined by your doctor. During this time you can usually have your baby with you to breastfeed or hold.

However, don't feel pressure to begin breastfeeding immediately, you can start any time in the first hours after your baby is born—a small delay won't cause any harm. Simply enjoying your baby however works best for you is fine. It may also be possible for your support person to hold the baby close to your face if you are unable to hold your baby.

After everything is finished surgically, your surgeon will stitch your incision shut. There are advantages to both methods—staples are faster saving around seven minutes , while stitches decrease rates of wound separation and infection and usually yield a finer scar. In a planned procedure, you can discuss the options with your doctor. Once closed, the wound will be covered with a bandage. You will be watched in the post-op area for at least an hour to ensure that your vital signs are stable and that you aren't bleeding too heavily, though everyone will bleed vaginally for a few weeks from the healing uterus.

Usually, your baby and support person can be with you. There you will spend the remainder of your hospital stay, which is usually two to four days.

Stitches or staples come out in around 5 days to a week after surgery. Your doctor will let you know once it's safe for you to bathe. During the first few weeks of recovery, aim not to pick up anything heavier than your baby to avoid strain on your wound. However, walking and getting up out of bed is encouraged to promote healing. Many people are nervous, and some are disappointed, about having a c-section, but what matters most is the safe delivery of your baby. Once your bundle of joy is in your arms, that's all you'll be thinking about.

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