Recovering From a Cesarean Section

Before I got pregnant with my daughter, I had been teaching pre/post-natal yoga at several locations for several months. Yes, at first, I felt like a phony, never having the experience of pregnancy and childbirth, but I did a great deal of research and picking apart the memories of my mom friends. I also simply talked to my participants to find out what worked for them. That gave me the confidence to lead a class in something I had no first-hand experience in. When I did get pregnant, I was elated; I had wanted to be a mom for a few years. I’ll admit, when I first learned I was pregnant I freaked out for about 30 seconds, then I decided to sit and meditate. Everything in my world was much better after that.

I meditated consistently throughout the entire pregnancy and I believe that’s one reason it was a good event for me. I had done deep reading about the chakra systems; one of the key points was when, in age, the chakras develop. If you’re not familiar with the chakra system, it is a bundle of nerve-endings throughout the body. There are seven major chakras that run up the path of the spine, starting at the tailbone and ending on top of the skull. There are many minor chakras throughout the limbs and so forth. The placement of the nerve-endings relates to differing areas of the body. By the time I was pregnant I knew that I needed to focus on the first chakra, which is located at the base of the spine and develops in the womb and during the first year of the child’s life. What I specifically meditated on was sitting in a field on a naked patch of Earth, the feeling of being grounded to the Earth, while repeating to myself general thoughts of me deserving and having the right to be here, feeling supported, knowing I was exactly where I needed to be, and the color red. Then I passed all of these feelings and visualizations on to my growing baby. Many times, I chanted OM while sitting in meditation and that was all I needed to fill my spiritual cup. I believe deeply in my heart all of these actions are why my daughter has always been so calm, happy, and able to adjust to change (being a military family, we’ve moved three times before she was 4 years old).

This is also how I stayed calm during the pregnancy. After all, I did the first six months by myself (my husband was deployed to Iraq) and the pregnancy was considered high risk because of my rare bone marrow condition. There was a lot of fetal monitoring going on (I had to go to the hospital twice a week to have the baby’s heart monitored) and I was still seeing a hematologist (who told me I was the healthiest pregnant woman he had seen). It didn’t really help that my maternal-fetal specialist had the personality of a stale Trisket and a heart like the Tin Man, but I digress. I knew how to take good care of myself and my baby. At the 6 months mark I moved to Texas (get this, all by myself, with two cats) and this meant I was no longer teaching any classes. So, I dived into teaching myself how to breastfeed (I highly recommend any literature by Ina May Gaskin) and how to have a natural childbirth (again Ina May was my source). I already knew about breathing techniques (Ujjayi breath) and that pelvic circles or belly dancing is a great way to relieve the pain of labor and speed it along. Yes, in my pre-natal yoga class we did belly dancing, it’s quite fun!

I did everything possible to get myself ready for this natural childbirth; I was confident and dare I say excited about going through this experience. Then I went in for one of my final ultrasounds and that baby girl was as breach as she could get. My next step was to have external version performed; when a doctor attempts to turn the baby, manually, outside of the womb. Let me break this down for you: the doctor finds the baby’s butt with one hand and the head with the other and guides the baby into the head down position, through the mom’s belly. When I showed up for the procedure another doctor asked if I wanted anesthesia, when I asked him why he laughed at me. Then I laughed at him and told him to join us to find out why I didn’t need anesthesia. I did Ujjayi breathing through the process and mentally was not there to feel anything, so I don’t remember how it felt or anything that happened. As you can tell by the title of this article, however, the attempt to turn my baby didn’t work. I would like to add that after the attempted turn the nurse closest to me told me she had no doubt I could have delivered naturally. My husband later told me that during the procedure the same nurse said to him, “This is usually when the mom starts screaming, I can’t believe she’s so calm.”

If you were to ask me if I was bummed about the outcome of the trial, I’d say no. I was devastated! It took every bit of my strength to not burst into tears in front of the doctor and all the staff that was present. When they left, nothing could hold me back. I cried for almost two weeks; I grieved for almost two weeks. I grieved at the loss I felt of not being able to have a natural childbirth; after all, I had invested months into training myself for it. After I grieved, I decided to train myself for plan B. I did tedious research into what a cesarean section entails and how to best recover from it. So, I present to you my strategy to heal the body after this major surgery. It’s best to keep an open mind about your procedure and how your body will cope from it. Every mom will respond differently, be patient and kind to yourself.

A week from my scheduled surgery I bought a whole chicken and put it in a big pot then covered it with water. I chopped up some celery, onion, carrots and garlic cloves then threw those in the pot along with a sprinkle of black pepper and whatever herbs I had on hand. Herbs that pair nicely with this are rosemary, oregano, sage, bay leaves or parsley. To keep sodium in check do not add salt, the boiling of the chicken will allow its natural sodium to be released. Bring the water to a boil then cover and lower heat to around low to allow to simmer for two to three hours. You want the chicken to be cooked through, meat falling off the bones. If you can easily move a drumstick around in the socket, then you’re done. The gold here is the broth. Drain the broth into a bowl and allow to cool. Next, pick apart that juicy chicken, save the veggies too. With the meat my mom and I made a chicken pot pie, you can dice up the veggies and add them to the pie as well. You could always put the pot pie together and freeze it for later, instead of baking it that day. After the broth cooled, we measured out 1 to 2 cups and placed the broth in mason jars. I put about half of the jars in the freezer and kept out two to three jars to take to the hospital.

Here’s why I did that:

  1. Before your c-section you’ll be given lots of drugs. One of those drugs is going to cease movement of your digestive track for the surgery. After the procedure your nurses are going to want you to produce so much urine that your catheter bag will fill up, so they can remove the catheter. Sounds pretty sexy so far. This is to flush out those drugs and activate your insides to working normally again. You’re never going to be so excited to pee on the toilet like this.
  2. The vitamins and minerals in the broth are so healing to the body. You want to do everything you can to naturally and gently heal the body. One cup of broth yields approximately 86 calories. The nutrients that help the body are protein (which repair and rebuild cells with the amino acids) and niacin and riboflavin (B vitamins that aid in normal digestion function). There are trace amounts of iron, potassium and zinc.

When I was brought back to my hospital room after recovery, I asked the nurses to heat up a jar of broth and I sipped on it often. I also brought several bottles of coconut water to sip throughout my time there. Coconut water contains several enzymes that also aid in the digestion process. It contains iron, calcium, zinc, magnesium, manganese and is a good source of the B-complex vitamins. Let’s not forget about the electrolytes. This would be sodium and potassium. These two minerals work together to guide water to stay in the body and move to cells that are low in water. Next, I sipped ginger tea sweetened with raw honey. Ginger tea has a plethora of health benefits, such as aiding in digestion and quelling nausea. Check out my other blog that goes in depth with this info. If you’re not a fan of ginger tea try peppermint tea, it has many of the same benefits as ginger tea. Drinking warm liquids is going to be most beneficial to your recovery, and since you’re not allowed to have any solid food for several hours (or even a day) after the surgery, this is the best option. I also brought a few servings of protein shakes and alternated between warm liquid and protein shakes to support my recovery.

Unless you are allergic to honey, I would invest in Manuka honey. It is a bit pricey, especially for the small size of jars most readily found, but I mean it when I say it’s an investment; and investing in our body and health is cheaper than the alternative. Manuka honey is very different from regular honey. This honey is produced by bees that feed on flowers from the tea tree bush found in New Zealand and Australia. Not only does this honey contain antioxidants, it’s also a fantastic antibacterial aid, even against antibiotic-resistant bacteria, and it’s also an antimicrobial and antiviral. Its healing properties are not compromised by heat or light, meaning you can add it to hot tea and you’ll still get all the benefits available. It’s best to take about one tablespoon daily. You can use it to help heal wounds as well, just rub a small amount on the affected area. I suggest waiting to do that after your stitches have come out. Because I did all of this, I was allowed to eat dinner the night of my surgery and had my catheter removed the next morning. I also got up and walked around the nurse’s station every few hours.

I’m not going to lie, this medical procedure was the toughest one I have been through, and I’ve had about a dozen bone marrow biopsies in my lifetime and several blood transfusions as a child. My advice is this: stay on top of taking your pain management medication, rest a lot (more than you than might be used to), and be patient with your recovery and the state of your body. Everything is temporary; the pain, sleeplessness, fatigue, fear, anything else you’ll be feeling that make you uncomfortable, it’s all temporary. Talk to the people in your life, never be afraid to state what is making you uncomfortable and ask for help. We are all part of this human experience and don’t have to go through the good and bad parts alone. I hope your reading this will bring a joyous outcome to your experience. Love yourself first and everything else will fall into place. Namaste.

 

 

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