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My twins were delivered by C-section. I had an epidural and like others here I felt pressure and tugging during the surgery but nothing I'd describe as pain.
I've never had a vaginal delivery but I'm pretty sure there's more pain involved in those.
I’ve only had vaginal births... 5 non medicated and while labor is painful, the pain ceases once the baby is born. Are you sore? Yes, but not in pain.
I had a neighbor that had a 40 hour labor and vaginal birth for the first child. Due to medical issues, she had a planned c-section with her second child (so no labor at all) and she swore up and down that she would much rather do 40 hours of labor than ever go through a c-section again. The recovery is immensely different. It basically boils down to labor time vs. weeks of recovery in terms of discomfort and pain.
I've only had vaginal births, completely unmedicated. Honestly, it felt so empowering to me and it really changed my confidence level in myself. I actually like labor, it's a 7 hour job (average time of my labors) of hard work... pregnancy is just 9 months of pure misery. I'd be open to having more children if I didn't have to do the pregnancy part!
I think because c-sections are so common, people forget that it's a MAJOR SURGERY. Your body has gone under the same stress as somebody having a gallbladder or heart surgery. You've been cut open, altered, stitched back together... and here you go! A brand new helpless baby to take care of while other surgery patients can just lay in bed taking it "easy."
Something else to remember is that one person's problem/complication that led to c-section doesn't have to be YOUR problem or complication. My firstborn had the cord wrapped around his neck 3 times, his torso 3 times, and his foot 3 times. But his heartbeats never went into distress levels, so it's possible to birth in tricky conditions.
I bet it hurts less than 15 hours of labor without an epidural or pain meds and a vaginal delivery. I asked for a c-section, but my doctor laughed and said “we’d” do it the natural way, and then she wasn’t there, it was Christmas. She showed up afterwards with a cup of coffee in her hand and said: “So it seems like everything went ok?”
Complications and pain associated last a lifetime with a C-section. This is why Doctors prefer their patients not to have it. Why sacrifice your skin and have a nasty scar when you can have it naturally if you could.
When my wife was giving birth, she said the pain from birth was so much that the epidural pain was not even felt. At that point, any other pain other than giving birth is not being felt anymore.
Oh c'mon. Pain for a lifetime? Absolutely not true. My kids are teenagers, and last time I checked the last pain I felt from their birth was...hmmm...let me think....about a week after each of them was born (both by c-section).
As for scarring, it's very minimal and not visible even when women wear bikinis.
The internal scarring is what may be a life long concern.
My c section was twilight zone bizarre. I could only sense from my shoulders up! I remember telling them I was a talking head and nothing else!
Absolutely loved the morphine drip. Then the doc said....no more! Once stopped I had a true migraine. Black out type. Turns out I had lost fluid in my spine. So as my doc said....let's juice ya up!! Had to have fluid put back in my spine which meant laying on my stomach. It was excruciating for about two minutes..once the fluid was in...the migraine ceased! I could then deal with the muscle pain in the lower ab.
I still debate that a c section was necessary ...back in the 80s the doc seemed to encourage it so as not to subject the baby to trauma thru the canal. ... his selling point was : no pointy head...and c sec babies tended to score higher on iq test later. Both were later proved untrue....
But yes it's the after care that is discomforting.... ( physically).
It basically boils down to labor time vs. weeks of recovery in terms of discomfort and pain.
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In my case it boiled down to literally life and death, for my baby and for me. So yeah, not much of a choice.
The OP's question was very simple, "do c-sections hurt?" Not - "tell me your stories where you won the crunchy mommy martyr challenge and proved how superior you are to those who have had c-sections".
The muscles are not typically cut with a Cesarean. There are two muscles side by side that touch vertically in the lower abdomen. They are just separated from one another.
I had a really hard time sitting up to get out of bed after my first c-section and they told me it was because the incision went into muscle. The skin incision was wide, from hipbone to hipbone, and I had a ridge of scar tissue inside that was about 12" long.
I was pleasantly surprised when I had my second c-section and the incision was only about 5" and there was very little pain.
I had a neighbor that had a 40 hour labor and vaginal birth for the first child. Due to medical issues, she had a planned c-section with her second child (so no labor at all) and she swore up and down that she would much rather do 40 hours of labor than ever go through a c-section again. The recovery is immensely different. It basically boils down to labor time vs. weeks of recovery in terms of discomfort and pain.
Sure, it’s all about perspective. My scheduled c-section was delightfully peaceful and the recovery relatively quick. My second VBAC, by contrast, was an agonizing 28 hour ****storm, followed by surgery after the birth, and several months of recovery. The c-section was a breeze, by comparison.
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