With my first section, which was an emergency section, I didn't know that they were going to tilt the bed a little bit to the left before they started, so when I felt that I thought that I was going to slide off and I was a bit worried by that, but they explained what was happening. But the second time round with the elective section, because I'd had one before anyway I knew exactly what would happen, and plus with an elective compared to an emergency, the elective was much more calm. You're sitting there waiting around really, rather then being rushed in and everyone panicking, it's all very slow paced and if I was worried there was plenty of opportunity to ask whoever any questions.
The procedures themselves, I'm sure, are technically the same, however the experience of them - an emergency section, you've probably already been in labour for quite some time, so you're probably already in a lot of pain and you're probably already exhausted and the baby is often also showing signs of exhaustion or distress of some kind. So you're going into it in a tired and worried frame of mind and your body also is, is exhausted. You have less opportunity to prepare your own thoughts about the section because you weren't intending to have one and so you haven't asked any questions about how you'll cope afterwards, how the procedure itself takes place, what sort of anaesthetic's going to be used, how things are going to take place. So you're less mentally prepared, you're less physically prepared. So I think that actually also affects your recovery. Physically, you're exhausted beforehand and so it takes longer to recover because you, you've run a marathon and then had major surgery Rather then being rested up in bed and feeling quite calm and then having surgery. Emotionally, you don't have time to come to terms with it if you've having an emergency section because whilst it, the whole thing probably takes an hour to organise and, and get all the staff in place, but that however, isn't long enough for you to get your head round it, if you thought you were just going to go in and have a baby and go out again. |
