AbdoMend.com

Well, my birthing and labor experience was not what I was planning on, but are they ever?  After a healthy and relatively problem free pregnancy, at the age of 41, I prepared for the birth of my son.  Using a midwife, and attending conventional HMO care, I took advantage of both systems to ensure that I had a safe birth.   

The midwife offered education and information that was lacking in the HMO system, and the Hospital provided the ultrasounds, amnio, and emergency Cesarean birth that I ended up needing, I still have post stress shock and guilt over the decisions to do the vacuum more than once. I attended a birthing class, and snickered when she demonstrated what goes on in the operating room during a c-section. I thought that would never happen to me!  Boy, did I recall the whole discussion when I lay there with the blue sheet over my head, and they asked me if I wanted my hands tied down.  I declined the tie down, and kept my hands by my side.

 Here's what happened two years ago, which has brought me to the place where I have developed this C Section recovery kit, for other mom's.

  It was decided, not only by the doctor, but the midwife, that my baby was due, in fact one week post delivery date, which is common for first time moms. But I couldn't talk with the doctor about the midwife, because in Hawaii, they will let you go from the coverage, if they know you have a midwife.  This seemed rediculous, and detrimental to women but the system is what it is.

So the midwife and I induced my labor by drinking castor oil at 6am, and by 4pm, the water broke. In 5 hours I was completely dialated, and ready to push. It was the most intense experience in concentration I have ever undergone. I pushed, moved around, and tried every position known to womankind, and after 5 hours, it was determined, that I needed to go to the hospital. The whole way over when the contractions came, I was told not to push- that was so hard.

When we arrived at the hospital we got so much flack from the nurses who exclaimed that I never should have been allowed to stay at home. Conflict was present until the doctor came in and communicated with the midwife.  All I remember now is the vacuum and me not wanting one, and power struggles between midwifes, nurses and doctors, and me caught in the middle.  One two, do you really want the 3rd vacuum? No, what about the baby?  Ok, lets try it again and then we'll do a c-section. At this point, it was whatever it takes to save my baby, do it!  Avoid confusion and write down birth plans with different scenarios and procedures, so you can avoid consenting to what you may not want.

 
I was wheeled in, and happily leaned over when they came to me for the shot in the spine. Didn’t feel anything except when they were trying to pull my son's head out of my pelvis and I was rocking on the table. Our son was pale, swollen, and ended up with terrible bruising around the eyes for his first weeks of life. He was rushed off to the neonatal unit with his dad, and the midwife came in to be with me. The Nurse told her she wasn't allowed to look at the c section completion.  Later in post op,  I got a lecture on how an O+ should not be with an AB-,  because he was jaundice .

I rested and later woke up in the hospital room, where the nurse told me to get out of bed.  "What? um, how am I going to do that? I have been cut open!"  She murmured, "use your arms to push yourself up."

"My stomach will rip open", I cried.  "Use one hand to hold yourself, and the other to pull yourself up. I will give you some vicodin when you’re done"  she casually said, as she approached my roomate. 

 As I turned to my side, I felt my abdomen tear, panic raced through my body, but I was so exhausted. I held on hand over my incision and used other arm to push myself up- it was a painful joke, and no laughing matter.  I didn't want a bunch of drugs, but the pain was terrible.  Later, I went  into the wheelchair and got my baby as soon as I could, and kept him with me the whole time until I left the hospital. I allowed him to nurse as much as he wanted. My intuition guided me to touch my abdomen right away in the hospital, just as a general connection and feeling the changes, the lumps and stuff.

When I got home, I had my partner wrap me in an ace bandage, and was amazed at how much better I felt. But I had to be careful getting in and out of bed, and I would unwrap the belt while I was lying down. That ace bandage helped me so much, but it wasn't easy to put on.

I was doing alright until I got a kidney infection. Had I  known that the aches and pains I felt in my back were not just post labor pain and holding baby. The pain would run into my neck and head and it hurt so much.  I got a terrible fever for 3 days and had chills during the night. So I had to get an intravenous dose of antibiotics after I passed out in the bathroom, and my sick mother who was there at the time, found me on the floor. I had a breast pump, so they could feed baby while I went to the hospital.

 A couple of months passed, and I healed. Strength and joy were present and I continued to work on my scar and my stomach.  My abdomen felt like another entity! Lumps, and bulges were what I felt. So I did what felt good. After 20 years of massage and other education, I was doing whatever I knew to help myself out.  I felt numb, sore and sensitive areas, but I continued to touch my abdomen and scar daily.

 Then I had to go to Florida to  tend to my dying mother. She had been misdiagnosed with ulcerated colitis, but she had advanced ovarian cancer.  I  continued to massage my lumpy scar while caring for baby and my mom. My stomach felt very different for several months, then it went down. I took note of how gently I had to work the tissue, and how it was turning into a longer process than I thought to have a soft, and flat scar. My 20 years of massage therapy practice, myofascial work, cranial sacral and energy work, was not only applied to myself but to my mother and baby. I did a lot of gentle work on his head and spine to help him release the trauma of the vacuum and being stuck in my pelvis, I massaged my mom, and I would work on myself in bed.

Two years later, I have a healthy boy, wrote this little book and developed the kit to help other women.  The  initial pain was unbelievable, and the lack of information was incomprehensible.  Health and well being for the mom and child are of the utmost importance. That is why I created this C Section Recovery kit. My mother and I spoke during her last days, and she supported me to follow my heart and follow through with a product, and not just talk about doing it.

So please, enjoy the information offered to you here, and take it day by day, breathing and being gentle with yourself in your recovery. This information is meant to be complementary to your Doctor's advice, so please use it within your own health and specific needs. It is not meant to substitute for your Doctor's advice.

Aloha Christina