The essentials
A safe, very common surgery that delivers your baby through a cut in your lower tummy. You are usually awake, with a spinal injection that numbs you from the waist down, so you can meet your baby right away. A tube (catheter) drains your bladder and stays in for a while.
Sometimes planned, sometimes decided in labour — for reasons like a breech baby, a low-lying placenta, the baby not coming down, or signs the baby should be born quickly. It is a decision made for safety, never a failure on your part.
Recovering well: the must-knows
- It is major surgery. Full healing takes about 6 weeks — be patient with yourself.
- Start gentle movement early — it helps prevent clots and speeds healing.
- Support your stitches with a hand or pillow when you cough, laugh or get up.
- Take pain relief as prescribed — you do not need to suffer.
- Avoid heavy lifting — nothing heavier than your baby at first.
- Feed in positions that keep the baby's weight off your wound.
After a caesarean, get help if you notice:
- Fever or chills
- Redness, pus, swelling or a gap in the wound
- Heavy bleeding, or foul-smelling discharge
- Severe or increasing tummy pain
- Pain, redness or swelling in your calf
- Breathlessness or chest pain
A caesarean is a real birth, and a brave one. If you feel any sadness that it did not go as planned, that feeling is valid and it passes. Your bond with your baby and your feeding are exactly the same.
Read more in the app
Helpful guides inside MiGynae:
Recover with confidence — with the app
Wound care, feeding, recovery exercises and warning signs, step by step.