Emma’s Diary Feature: 18 Months After My C-Section, The Nerve Damage Has Finally Gone

Partnering with Emma’s Diary has helped me reach so many prospective parents, newborn mums and toddler handlers. Working with this platform is one of my proudest writing achievements and I love having the opportunity to tackle controversial subjects. This blog post covers an update on my own C-Section recovery now that we’re 18 months after the date.

The birth of my little boy, Jack, feels as if it happened both a hundred years ago and last week. Fellow mums will know exactly what I mean. Day to day life is full on but sometimes I feel like I’ve blinked and my newborn has turned into a toddler. Sometimes our birth feels like forever ago and I barely think about it.

But I think it’s important to talk and process our feelings around birth even so long as 18 months later.

It’s well documented that I had a traumatic birth with Jack. 25 hours back-to-back leading to an emergency C-section. Naively, I thought that when I’d recovered physically, I would be back to normal.

Today I’m exploring how I’m doing 18 month post C-section!

Nerve Damage

During a C-section, your tummy is cut to allow the birth of your baby. Because of the incision, you will experience nerve damage which can lead to numbness of the area.

I certainly experienced nerve damage and numbness following the operation. It didn’t massively bother me because it was fairly painless. Once I had my six weeks check and was given the all clear, I sort of assumed the numbness would subside sooner rather than later.

However, now 18 months post-birth, I am only now regaining feeling at the bottom of my tummy and top of my pubic bone. Funnily enough, I didn’t quite register that the numbness had gone. Suddenly I could feel my toddler resting on my tummy. It wasn’t painful or tingly, just all of a sudden, there!

Even though I did NCT classes and had follow-ups with the hospital, I didn’t know that the numbness could last this long. Since becoming a mum, I’ve chatted to lots of fellow mums and discovered that the numbness is unique to each person.

Core Strength

When you have your C-section, your baby is removed from your body via your tummy. To do this, the muscles in your tummy area are cut. You leave theatre with a brand-new baby and zero stomach muscles!

My core strength has been basically non-existent since having Jack. My legs and arms feel strong, I can walk for miles pushing the heavy pushchair. We can dance for ages and play on the floor. But when it comes to dragging myself out of bed or getting up quickly from the floor, my stomach muscles are still very weak.

Slowly I am starting to gain more strength with gentle exercises like yoga and jogs.

Pelvic Floor Muscles

I carried my baby for a long ten months and even though I didn’t birth him the conventional way, my pelvic floor muscles have suffered.

Since his birth, my pelvic floor has weakened – not to an extreme rate but I’m much more aware of it now than I was pre-pregnancy.

I try and do my pelvic floor exercises at least once a day and I am now starting to feel like they’re making a positive difference.

Memories

Traumatised is the word I’d have used to describe my birth experience in the immediate time that followed it.

READ THE FULL ARTICLE ON THE EMMA’S DIARY BLOG HERE

Did you have a C section?
What was your recovery like post-birth?

LoveRosiee
xxxx

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People Also Ask…

How long does it take to recover from a cesarean?

Many guides suggest that full recovery from a C-section takes 4 to 6 weeks. Yet every person is different, and much research suggests a significantly longer recovery time. Some studies , for example, have found that 60 percent of women have some pain in the incision 24 weeks after delivery.

When can you walk after C-section?

It’s important to get out of bed and walk around within 24 hours after surgery. This can help ease gas pains, help you have a bowel movement, and prevent blood clots. You can try gentle exercises a few days after the C-section: Deep breathing: Take 2 or 3 slow, deep breaths every half-hour.

How long does it take for numbness to go away after C-section?

You may still have some tingling and numbness around your incision. This can take months to years to go away, as the little nerves in the skin take a long time to heal. There’s nothing to do to expedite the process, but it’s perfectly normal.

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