Who experienced a caesarean section? Surviving a caesarean section: a mother's honest story about the operation. Get ready for a difficult recovery period

Before you deny in advance the very possibility of a cesarean section or condemn those who decide on it, read this text. Perhaps your opinion will change.

1. Stop talking about a C-section like it's something as minor as a paper cut.

Before I found myself on an icy operating table, I always had some disdain for the procedure. “If necessary, I’ll just have a caesarean section,” I usually said, as if discussing the purchase of another pair of shoes. If I had a time machine that could take me back to 2010, during my first pregnancy, I would scream, “Girl, no, it’s not like that!” It's not like removing the seeds from an apple with a kitchen knife. This is abdominal surgery to remove the baby from your belly! I was wheeled out of the operating room with staples in my stomach, a catheter, and weird “booties” on my legs to prevent blood clots. The first day after the operation I could not eat solid food, pee or poop on my own. And, as if that wasn't enough, I started having headaches after the spinal anesthesia.

Oh, and did I mention that at the same time as all this, I became the mother of a newborn?

2. Recovery may take longer than you think.

“Don’t walk more than four blocks,” the doctor said when she discharged me from the hospital. “Four blocks? Doesn’t she know that we are in New York?” I thought when my husband put me in a wheelchair and drove me to the car. To get into the house, I had to walk 10 minutes from my car.

It was painful. Some operations are carried out as planned, in other cases a cesarean section is performed after several hours of contractions and pushing. I returned home with a fresh wound on my stomach and a baby on my chest. Even after the scar healed, it continued to burn for 4-6 months. As soon as I touched it, I felt as if I was being beaten by millions of tiny fists. Then he was numb for almost a year. My second child was born naturally. Just two hours after giving birth, I was walking along the hospital corridor and eating a bagel.

3. Your internal organs will shift.

Do you know what doctors do to get to your uterus? They move the internal organs apart and then return them to their place. As much as possible.

Since I had an emergency c-section, I have no idea how the procedure went. Imagine my surprise when I started reading on women’s forums women complaining that their organs “feel weird.” During most C-sections, the surgeon moves the bladder and bowels aside to reach the uterus, which is then removed. Since the fallopian tubes are attached to the top of the uterus, they can also follow the uterus. Feel free to communicate this to people who think a C-section is a cakewalk.

4. Caesarean section can be considered a “natural birth”

Any birth is natural. There is no good or bad way to give birth to a child. Instead of judging the method, try simply naming it: vaginal, drug-free, cesarean section. Or just remain silent.

5. Don't assume a woman is upset about having a C-section.

6. Caesarean section can be a magical experience too.

We've already heard stories of some women meditating or having orgasms during natural childbirth. But during a caesarean section, you can also indulge in small pleasures: for example, ask to play certain music.

7. You can still give birth on your own after a cesarean section.

Believe me, I did it. Oh, how people get embarrassed when I tell them about this. Many doctors still refuse to allow vaginal birth after cesarean, but there are studies according to which uterine rupture (the main contraindication) occurs in one in 100 cases.

It all depends on individual characteristics: the condition of the suture on the uterus and your personal medical history.

If you are planning a natural birth, find a doctor and midwife you trust. But if something goes wrong and you have a cesarean section, don’t worry. You'll just have a baby. You deserve it.

Caesarean section is a serious test for any woman. How to cope with worries and what to prepare for in advance so that the operation and recovery period are as easy as possible?

For all 9 months, my husband and I were preparing for a partner birth. During the courses, we were told how to breathe correctly and do pain-relieving massage, about the benefits. In the end, I learned not to be afraid of hypothetical pain, my husband - women giving birth. Everything was going well, but towards the end of pregnancy, by some miracle, I fell into those 3-5% of women whose children take the wrong position. In this situation, natural childbirth posed a serious threat to the child’s health and was therefore not discussed at all. There was no turning back (as you know, no one has ever left the maternity hospital pregnant), I had to gather my courage and endure the operation. Here are top tips for those who are also going through a planned caesarean section.

Discuss the surgery with your doctor and loved one

Think of surgery as a long-awaited meeting with your child.

Yes, a caesarean section is an abdominal operation. Yes, it sounds terrible, especially for those who have been afraid of injections all their lives. But remember: doctors have managed to accumulate sufficient experience to carry out surgical births at the highest level (according to the World Health Organization, in the modern world, caesarean section has become one of the most common surgical interventions). Before the operation, try to concentrate on the fact that very soon you will have a long-awaited meeting with your baby, this will help you cope with anxiety and abstract yourself from the operating room environment.

In my case, the operation began at 9:00, and at 9:05 little Maria was born. I didn’t feel pain, I heard her first cry, I had the opportunity to kiss her and put her to my chest. When remembering these moments, tears of happiness still well up in my eyes.

Ask your child's father to support you

Perhaps you also dreamed of, and the need for a planned cesarean section confused all your cards. Most maternity hospitals prohibit outsiders from entering operating rooms, but the husband can be present in the antenatal department, and during the operation he can be in the next room (although he will need to take tests in advance that meet the requirements of the maternity hospital). The advantage of such a “partnership” cesarean is not only that you receive additional psychological support, but also that the father will be able to get to know the baby in the first minutes of his life.

Get ready for a difficult recovery period

Over the next few days, you will need to relearn how to sit, walk and, most difficult of all, laugh, cough and sneeze. Every movement will result in severe pain in the lower abdomen; a postoperative bandage helps better than pills at this point. From the 3rd day of my daughter's life, I managed to do without any medications. Yes, it was painful (not only in the first days, but also in the first couple of months after giving birth), but it was tolerable.

How to avoid depression?

Many expectant mothers literally scour the Internet in search of sites that provide information about how childbirth goes, how long it lasts, who is present at the birth and how a woman should behave in general, and they are tormented by the question of whether giving birth is painful or can be endured, but this is only a matter of physical pain.

And there is a separate category of women who are studying new information with the hope that they will be able to give birth themselves, without resorting to a cesarean section - these are women who are undergoing planned surgery, and women who want to give birth naturally after undergoing a 2nd cesarean section, 3rd or even 4th baby. Having experienced 2 CS for various reasons, I would like to, in a sense, support a woman who is about to have a cesarean section, or one who has already given birth to her baby using a CS, but still cannot accept this fact and is tormented by various questions that simply, in general, they interfere with happy motherhood.

So, your doctor decided that you need to have a CS and prescribed planned surgery. Do not rush to get upset, because in many cases doctors play it safe, and as you know, fear has big eyes. It must be remembered that there are absolute indications for CS, and there are relative ones, that is, those in the presence of which a woman can give birth herself, but under certain conditions. You can talk about these indications, for example, with a doctor independent of your situation, read on specialized websites, or read specialized literature and, armed with information, again discuss the issue of the possibility of EP with your doctor.
If you understand for yourself that surgery cannot be avoided, since it will allow you to give birth to a healthy baby and at the same time not suffer yourself, then there is definitely no point in being upset. Try to compare the risks, and you will understand that a caesarean section is not a death sentence, but the only chance that you will take in the name of love for your baby, in the name of the whole family and, if you want, in the name of your entire family. Yes, this is a chance, and in the 21st century we have it, and we have it with minimal risks to the general health of mother and child. It's like in school math class - you need to solve a problem and there are two ways to solve it. You try to solve it in the 1st way, but it doesn’t work out, then you go along the second way, choose method No. 2, and solve it. You have another task before you - now think about where you will give birth. This, of course, should be a maternity hospital or perinatal center equipped with all the necessary equipment. Remember that when a new life is born, the whole universe rejoices at the new star!

If a woman in labor the caesarean section was an emergency(unforeseen for her initially, during pregnancy), a woman perceives the outcome of her birth more painfully and torments herself more with questions, although, of course, there are women who felt the act of saving their baby and leave the maternity hospital with deep gratitude to the doctors, which in itself prevents a woman from thinking about something bad. Well, if after an operation a woman has a difficult and long recovery, or the child’s condition is unsatisfactory and requires the intervention of doctors, then the mother’s emotional shock is deeper. It will not be possible to answer all the questions right away, it takes time, time to accept the situation, analyze what was right and what was wrong (a woman has the right to this too) and, in the end, part with the chapter of your life called “childbirth” "and start a new chapter - "happy motherhood."

In this case, I advise you to go postpartum swaddling procedure, for “caesarean” women it is precisely relevant in that thanks to many moments in swaddling, a woman sheds the skin of a pregnant woman/woman in labor and acquires new skin, a mother is born. Difficult childbirth is a huge stress, and a woman needs to recuperate. The body remembers a caesarean section as the suppression of an important program: for nine months the body changes, develops in a certain direction and waits for climax, but it does not happen. And swaddling, at least a little, compensates and completes this process.
More information about swaddling can be found online.

We often hear from doctors that if a woman has had her first cesarean section, she will no longer be able to give birth naturally. But statistics on the number of women who give birth naturally after CS, is growing and growing every year. In general, more than 80% of women are able to have a natural birth after a cesarean section. No one can stop a woman from wanting to give birth herself! Today, women successfully give birth vaginally after the first cesarean section, after the 2nd and even after the 3rd.

And yet, let’s talk about how to cope with the persistent feeling of guilt, how to dispel doubts and force yourself to think differently (but we won’t dwell on this for long).
Why does a woman feel guilty, to whom is she guilty? In front of? Before doctors? In front of the child?
In general, a person always feels guilty if he feels that he has done something wrong. And if you are one of those women for whom the experience of natural childbirth was very important, then you will most likely feel deceived. It’s as if your experience, from which you expected something special and important to you, was stolen from you.
What to do? The surest thing would be to first find women who will understand you, these are just all those women who have gone through a CS. For example, I always thought that no one had ever had a more terrible birth than my own, but when I read a dozen women’s stories about childbirth using CS, I realized that someone had it worse than me. And in general, in communication, we get answers to many questions in the process of dialogue.
If you feel bad, take the first step. Notice to yourself that you are disappointed and write it down on paper. Write down all the moments of childbirth in the past tense that did not suit you, and write down in the present tense everything that makes you happy. Think about what experience you have gained and how it has changed you, what you will never do now or, conversely, what you will always do under certain circumstances. Remember: “what does not kill us makes us stronger” (Shakespeare). Now there is not only “I”, there is “Me and my baby” and now his interests, this and your interests, and your experiences are his experiences. An unhappy woman cannot have happy children, but a happy mother has a happy baby!

Many expectant mothers literally scour the Internet in search of sites that provide information about how childbirth goes, how long it lasts, who is present at the birth and how a woman should behave in general, and they are tormented by the question of whether giving birth is painful or can be endured, but this is only a matter of physical pain.

And there is a separate category of women who are studying new information with the hope that they will be able to give birth themselves, without resorting to surgery - these are women who are undergoing planned surgery, and women who want to give birth naturally after undergoing a CS operation on the 2nd, 3rd or even 4th baby. Having experienced 2 CS for various reasons, I would like to, in a sense, support a woman who is about to have a cesarean section, or one who has already given birth to her baby using a CS, but still cannot accept this fact and is tormented by various questions that simply, in general, they interfere with happy motherhood.

So, your doctor decided that you need to have a CS and prescribed planned surgery. Do not rush to get upset, because in many cases doctors play it safe, and as you know, fear has big eyes. It must be remembered that there are absolute indications for CS, and there are relative ones, that is, those in the presence of which a woman can give birth herself, but under certain conditions. You can talk about these indications, for example, with a doctor independent of your situation, read on specialized websites, or read specialized literature and, armed with information, again discuss the issue of the possibility of EP with your doctor.
If you understand for yourself that surgery cannot be avoided, since it will allow you to give birth to a healthy baby and at the same time not suffer yourself, then there is definitely no point in being upset. Try to compare the risks, and you will understand that a caesarean section is not a death sentence, but the only chance that you will take in the name of love for your baby, in the name of the whole family and, if you want, in the name of your entire family. Yes, this is a chance, and in the 21st century we have it, and we have it with minimal risks to the general health of mother and child. It's like in school math class - you need to solve a problem and there are two ways to solve it. You try to solve it in the 1st way, but it doesn’t work out, then you go along the second way, choose method No. 2, and solve it. You have another task before you - now think about where you will give birth. This, of course, should be a maternity hospital or perinatal center equipped with all the necessary equipment. Remember that when a new life is born, the whole universe rejoices at the new star!

If a woman in labor the caesarean section was an emergency(unforeseen for her initially, during pregnancy), a woman perceives the outcome of her birth more painfully and torments herself more with questions, although, of course, there are women who felt the act of saving their baby and leave the maternity hospital with deep gratitude to the doctors, which in itself prevents a woman from thinking about something bad. Well, if after an operation a woman has a difficult and long recovery, or the child’s condition is unsatisfactory and requires the intervention of doctors, then the mother’s emotional shock is deeper. It will not be possible to answer all the questions right away, it takes time, time to accept the situation, analyze what was right and what was wrong (a woman has the right to this too) and, in the end, part with the chapter of your life called “childbirth” "and start a new chapter - "happy motherhood."

We often hear from doctors that if a woman has had her first cesarean section, she will no longer be able to give birth naturally. But statistics on the number of women who give birth naturally after CS, is growing and growing every year. In general, more than 80% of women are able to have a natural birth after a cesarean section. No one can stop a woman from wanting to give birth herself! Today, women successfully give birth vaginally after the first cesarean section, after the 2nd and even after the 3rd.

And yet, let’s talk about how to cope with the persistent feeling of guilt, how to dispel doubts and force yourself to think differently (but we won’t dwell on this for long).
Why does a woman feel guilty, to whom is she guilty? In front of? Before doctors? In front of the child?
In general, a person always feels guilty if he feels that he has done something wrong. And if you are one of those women for whom the experience of natural childbirth was very important, then you will most likely feel deceived. It’s as if your experience, from which you expected something special and important to you, was stolen from you.
What to do? The surest thing would be to first find women who will understand you, these are just all those women who have gone through a CS. For example, I always thought that no one had ever had a more terrible birth than my own, but when I read a dozen women’s stories about childbirth using CS, I realized that someone had it worse than me. And in general, in communication, we get answers to many questions in the process of dialogue.
If you feel bad, take the first step. Notice to yourself that you are disappointed and write it down on paper. Write down all the moments of childbirth in the past tense that did not suit you, and write down in the present tense everything that makes you happy. Think about what experience you have gained and how it has changed you, what you will never do now or, conversely, what you will always do under certain circumstances. Remember: “what does not kill us makes us stronger” (Shakespeare). Now there is not only “I”, there is “Me and my baby” and now his interests, this and your interests, and your experiences are his experiences. An unhappy woman cannot have happy children, but a happy mother has a happy baby!

A month ago I gave birth to my third child. More precisely, it was skillfully removed from me by an excellent operating team of five people. As a result of a caesarean section, all my children were born: a son and two daughters. I will never know what childbirth is, but I know, if not everything, then a lot about cesarean. I give my experience to everyone who is facing this option of the birth of a long-awaited child.

When is a caesarean section performed?

Personally, I have very poor vision (-12), and there are tears in the retina. Ophthalmologists said ten years ago that it was contraindicated for me to give birth on my own - I would go blind. My sister has -7 vision, but her retina is in good condition, she was allowed to give birth naturally.

Does it exist at all? list of absolute indications for the operation:

1. Narrow pelvis.
2. Cicatricial narrowing of the vagina.
3. Tumors of the bone pelvis, cervical fibroids, ovarian tumors localized in the pelvis, preventing the birth or extraction of a fetus even in reduced sizes, cervical cancer.
4. Complete placenta previa.
5. Defective scar on the uterus after a cesarean section or a sutured uterine incision.
6. Threatening uterine rupture.
7. Progressive premature placental abruption with unprepared birth canal.
8. Death of the mother while the fetus is still alive.
9. Transverse position of the fetus during prenatal rupture of amniotic fluid

Relative indications for a cesarean section include bleeding during pregnancy and childbirth, gestosis, uterine scar, weakness of labor, and extragenital diseases. The decision to end the pregnancy surgically is also made in cases where the child suffers from hypoxia (lack of oxygen) in utero, the umbilical cord prolapses, and the gestation period is after 40 weeks.

Such an operation is planned if it is established already during pregnancy that the woman will not be able to conceive otherwise. Emergency when emergency situations occur during normal childbirth. My third caesarean section is unique in this regard.

The date for the operation was set, but the child decided to choose his own birthday. The day before the operation, at dawn, my water broke. On this day I was exactly 38 weeks pregnant. Having undergone planned cesarean sections twice, I did not expect such a turn of events. Horror gripped me, and my doctor’s voice on the phone, kind and cheerful for 5 a.m., brought me back to life: “Everything will be fine. I’m leaving, I’ll be there soon.” God, it’s so good that I went to the maternity hospital a few weeks before my due date.

My case is illustrative, but cannot serve as an unconditional example. You should always listen to yourself, your intuition and trust the results of tests and examinations of the fetus. Nagging pain in the lower abdomen at night. My legs, back, and stomach were aching. After this, I didn’t go - I ran to the clinic to get a referral to the maternity hospital. But my middle daughter was born exactly two weeks before the expected due date. I came to the obstetricians strictly on the day of the operation, I felt good, and I didn’t even think about lying with a book for two weeks in pathology.

Mostly first-time mothers (for very serious reasons) and women who already have children are admitted to the hospital in advance (many never manage to rest before giving birth; they have to so categorically interrupt the endless cycle of responsibilities of mother and wife). Usually they are placed in one to two weeks. If your inner voice even just barely audibly tells you: “Let’s go to bed,” you need to listen to it, and not to a sense of duty to other family members!

Pros of being in a hospital:

If labor begins, you will not have to frighten your household with your condition and think about whether to go yourself, whether to call an ambulance, and where to put the children during this time.

Additional examinations of the mother and fetus (tests, cardiotocography, ultrasound, etc.)

No worries about cleaning the “entrusted territory”, as well as preparing food. They will wash the floors without you, and feed you within the limits of government funding. Gastronomic delicacies will be brought by relatives.

Your absence will finally mark the full power of your role in the family. My husband will never leave his mouth again: “Why are you tired? Are you sitting at home?” The growing up of the head of the family and children must sometimes happen in such a painful way.

Feeling like a “pioneer camp”. I will definitely remember the summer shift during school time.

It’s a good day to dedicate to cleanliness: mental and physical. You can pray, meditate, or just relax. No matter how cheerful you are, you still won’t drive away fear. Accept it. Everything that does not kill us makes us stronger. Friedrich Nietzsche is absolutely right.

Take a shower and carry out all the necessary hygiene procedures required before the operation. Before performing a caesarean section, your doctor will give you an information letter of consent to the operation to sign. It says, in particular, that in an emergency (threat to the life of the mother and/or child), doctors have the right to even remove the uterus. It rarely comes to this in practice. For example, in the obstetric ward of the Vladimir Regional Clinical Hospital, for every 2,500 births per year, there are only 2-3 cases of hysterectomy.

The day before surgery, it is best to eat at 17:00. At night, you can ask your midwife to give you a light sedative to help you get a good night's sleep.

First, you will receive a cleansing enema. You will then be transferred to the operating room. There you will be given a sterile shirt, a scarf or cap for your head, and special long shoe covers for your feet. For the last three years, in order to avoid postoperative complications, doctors have recommended wearing special stockings before surgery. It would be good if these were not knee socks, but stockings. They cost about a thousand rubles. You may only need them once in your life. Therefore, before going to the hospital, look for advertisements for the sale of used stockings. They will cost much less.

Before surgery, a catheter will be inserted into your bladder. This is not a very pleasant procedure. But this too will have to be overcome. The anesthesiologist will definitely ask what types of medications you are allergic to, whether you have had anesthesia before, and what kind of anesthesia. Doctors usually now suggest epidural anesthesia. An injection is given at a specific location in the spine, which only numbs the lower part of the body.

After epidural you can get up after 6-12 hours (anesthesia acts more slowly, the operation after anesthesia can begin in 15-20 minutes - not earlier). With this type of pain relief, women can give birth naturally. You can do prolonged anesthesia and pain relief for another 1 day after cesarean section.

And here spinal(which was done specifically to me) works quickly, since the medicine goes directly into the spinal canal, and not around it, as with an epidural. This type of local anesthesia is more effective - pain relief during surgery is better. The only negative is that after it you need to lie down for a day; you cannot get up or roll over.

Of course, you will not see the progress of the operation. They will put a barrier in front of you. You can talk to the doctors during the operation. This is not forbidden. If something bothers you, you should definitely say so.

Now doctors use synthetic suture material, it does not cause inflammation, the threads dissolve after 2 months. An incision is made in the lower segment with a transverse dissection of the uterus. Even in low-waisted underwear, the seam is not visible later. Previously, doctors made a corporal (longitudinal) incision - the stomach was cut from the navel to the pubis down. The uterus burst and opened like a rose. The suture material (kegut) was of animal origin, caused inflammation, and the wounds took a long time to heal.

First, doctors will open the abdominal cavity, then the uterus and remove the baby. Caesarean section is the only operation in the world that gives such happiness. Thanks to the fact that you are conscious, you will finally see your baby! And while I’m stitching you up, the child will be weighed and his height measured. And as is customary in Russian maternity hospitals, your name, date and time of birth, gender of the child, his height and weight will be written on a brown piece of oilcloth. Many mothers carefully keep the metric even after their babies become parents themselves.

After you get stitches, you will be transferred to a ward and immediately put on IVs. Medicines are administered intravenously for the first three days after surgery. The baby is usually brought only once a day - so that you can look at him. You cannot feed your baby, as you are being given antibiotics that are incompatible with breastfeeding. In principle, you will not have time to feed at this time - and the milk will remain at the end of the third or fourth day after the operation. The main thing is to endure the pain.

It’s also very difficult to survive a day while lying on your back. You will be allowed to get up the next day. By the way, I have repeatedly come across information on the Internet that you need to get up after 6 hours. So, in reality this is not practiced in maternity hospitals, at least with epidural anesthesia. The site where the spinal anesthesia needle was inserted should be healed. This process takes 24 hours. For the entire first day, you can drink only still mineral water or regular water with lemon juice. If the operation was done in the morning, in the evening you will be asked to try to go to the toilet on a duck. Try to do it yourself as much as possible. If that doesn’t work, a catheter will be inserted, and this, as I already wrote, is not a very pleasant procedure.

By the end of the second day, the most persistent ones; on the third day, those with a weaker will will begin to roll over to their left and right sides. It hurts, but it's necessary. The more you toss and turn, the less likely it is that adhesions will form and the intestines will stagnate. Aerobatics - lie on your stomach!

On the second day you will be offered low-fat broth, porridge with water, and boiled meat. By the third knock, you can already eat almost everything that will not harm your baby and that does not form gases. The baby will be brought to you for feeding on this day. From now on, you will learn to move around the department quite quickly and your outlook on life will again become more optimistic. Congratulations, you have survived the most difficult period! An even more difficult one is coming. I mean the beginning of breastfeeding - many mothers experience severe engorgement of the mammary glands. Doctors say to express, but not everyone can do it. However, this is a topic for another discussion.

As soon as the doctor allows you to get up, get up. Ask your relatives to bring you a post-operative bandage in advance. It will make your life much easier in the first two weeks after surgery. Instead of a bandage, in the maternity hospital they will show you how to tie up your stomach with a diaper so as not to injure the seam. But - I repeat once again - it is better to use a bandage.

To begin with, you just need to sit on the bed. After a day of continuous lying down, it will seem to you that your lungs begin to hurt, it’s difficult to breathe - everything is so stagnant. It's okay, soon everything will be over. It is convenient to place your feet not immediately on the floor, but on a bench. Then slowly stand up completely. Do not hurry. Your main achievement now is to get to the washbasin and look at yourself, beauty. And then return to the bed. Rest and repeat your feats. The main thing is to try to keep your back straight, although at first it is very difficult to do this.

In addition to injections, IVs and other procedures, you need to put ice on your stomach at least three times a day. Cold promotes contraction of the uterus; during surgical delivery, it decreases to its normal size more slowly. Let me touch on an intimate topic - ordinary panties are not allowed in maternity hospitals, but disposable ones are allowed. Very convenient - wear it, get it dirty, throw it away!

The seam at home must be treated with hydrogen peroxide, then dried with alcohol (vodka). The hot liquid can be replaced with brilliant green or potassium permanganate. 2 weeks after the operation, you can start smearing the seam with preparations for scar resorption, contratubex, for example.

Intimate relationships with your husband can be resumed 6 weeks after the operation. You must first visit a doctor and make sure everything is in order. Be sure to discuss with your doctor the contraceptive option that is acceptable to you. 8 weeks after a cesarean section, you can begin physical activity, including abdominal exercises. But don’t be too zealous, everything is within reason.

In order to regain your previous figure, the main thing in the first year of a child’s life is not to eat baked goods made from premium flour (there is no benefit for the baby) and not to overuse dishes from the “carbohydrate + protein” series. Eat more raw vegetables and fruits, drink kefir - this is very good for peristalsis. Women often have problems with bowel movements after surgery.

Olga Sakharova, obstetrician-gynecologist, worked for six years as the head of the maternity department, currently heads the postpartum department of the obstetric building of the Vladimir Regional Clinical Hospital. She believes that the maximum number of caesarean sections that a woman can endure without harm to herself is three:

“Many serious complications can arise later during pregnancy. Each scar disrupts the normal blood supply to the uterus. There is always a threat of uterine rupture, and there is a high probability of bleeding. There are cases when the placenta is attached not at the top, but at the bottom, in the area of ​​the scar. This is fraught with consequences for both mother and child.

Surely, after 4-5 caesarean sections, adhesions will form, which means that the woman will continue to suffer from chronic pain in the abdominal area. Repeated operations are also difficult for obstetricians and gynecologists because by opening the abdominal cavity, one can accidentally injure the intestines or bladder. Therefore, it is best to perform repeated operations in multifunctional medical centers, for example, regional hospitals, where doctors of other specialties are located in neighboring departments or buildings - a five-minute walk, and not on the other side of the city.

If the mother already has two healthy, living children and is over 35 years old, we always recommend tying the fallopian tubes (sterilization) after the second and third caesarean section - this is, of course, a last resort, but sometimes it is necessary. - This is all so that the woman maintains her health, so that she has the strength to raise the children she already has. But we do not have the right to decide this issue ourselves, without a woman. Before the procedure, the patient must sign a consent form. In our maternity hospital, of course, there are fourth caesarean sections. But this is a very rare occurrence."

Ideally, there will be a gap of at least two years between pregnancies. During this time, the body is restored and the woman is ready both mentally and physically for a new operation. I am now talking about those women whose indications for caesarean section are lifelong.

Giving birth without surgery is the dream of many women who had to undergo surgery once due to emergency circumstances. And not according to absolute medical testimony.

This is really possible, says obstetrician-gynecologist Olga Sakharova:

“In order to give birth after a previous caesarean section, at least 4 conditions must be met. Firstly, the child should not be large. Secondly, the baby should be in a normal position - head down. Thirdly, the maturity of the birth canal is important. Fourthly, a woman must be in the mood for childbirth, so that some time after the start of labor she will not scream: “Cut me!”

Childbirth after cesarean section has many nuances. One of the main points is that a woman should not be given pain relief. She must feel what is happening to her, where exactly it hurts. Doctors can determine the thickness of the scar from the ultrasound results, but this does not indicate its consistency. At any moment, a seemingly completely reliable scar can separate, that is, the uterus will open. And if at this moment a woman is under the influence of drugs that relieve pain, she simply will not feel it. The consequences can be the most dire.

Based on the practice of the obstetric corps of the Vladimir Regional Clinical Hospital, only 1% of women who were previously operated on are ready and able to give birth without the help of surgeons.”