So, I am not sure if I’ve told you about my first experience with labour? It was back in 2018 when my first son was born. We had to induce. Well I don’t know if we had to but it was recommended as I had reported slow movements several times during the pregnancy. And apparently when reporting slow movements of the baby twice or more during the pregnancy it’s standard to induce the labour. I was full term. It was just a few days before due date. No biggie. Right?

Wow. Not doing that again. I won’t go into details here as this post isn’t about that but let’s just say I had a very severe tear, lost blood and had to go into surgery for an hour. Just after giving birth to my first child. And having been awake for almost 24 hours with contractions for the most part of those 20 something hours.

At the time I was on a lot of drugs, adrenaline from the labour and just the immense sensation of having a beautiful baby boy. This made me totally oblivious to the trauma I had experienced. Both physically and mentally.

It started to hit me a few days later when at home and the healing started(and drugs wore off).

Now, to the actual meaning of this post – the above is the reason I am now going for an elective cesarian or c-section (or kejsarsnitt in Swedish).

I recently listened into an Instagram live by HLP Therapy and Mummy MOT. It was specifically on cesarians as April is cesarian awareness month. A very dear friend of mine made me aware of this live happening and I’m soooo glad she did.

It was aimed at people either having had a cesarian or planning to have one. It was really good. And judging by the comments I wasn’t the only one who thought so.

For some, having a cesarian as the end of the labour, not planned, can be traumatic. I understand from reading other Instagram posts as well as this live that some people think it’s not an actual birth/labour. Some people who have had to have a cesarian feel like their bodies let them down. I feel for anyone feeling like that.

This live, I hope, helped ease people’s own self doubts and helped people realise – giving birth is giving birth. No matter through your vagina or through your tummy. AND you’ve grown a human inside of your body! You should be damn proud of yourself! Also, just the word cesarian is believed by some to come from the Roman time and Julius Caesar made it legal to cut babies out of their mothers bodies in order to save the child. I do not know if this is true or not. But to have an emperor behind the name for this type of surgery makes it feel more powerful!

Anyhow. I keep digressing. I always do this.

This time around I’m having a planned/elective cesarian. We have a date booked in which is so exciting! I won’t share it here at this time. People who need to know knows or will know in good time.

Personally I’m very excited about it. Unless little man wants to pop out early, we know the day he will be with us all. I am literally counting down the days and am getting more excited as the time goes by.

I like the fact that I can mentally prepare and process it. I know when it will happen. I know what will happen. I can already start to prepare for the recovery. And after talking to an obstetrician about it I believe that as long as it all goes well the revive will be a lot easier than from my first labour. I’m also looking forward to have the experience and being able to compare the two deliveries and recoveries.

One thing I hadn’t thought about that was mentioned on the insta live was that the breast milk might be(doesn’t have to be) delayed a bit. What do I do while I wait for it to come in? Should I start to pump to help it along? Should I feed the baby formula while we wait for the milk to come in? I’m a fan of formula. We had Alfie on 50/50 milk/formula when he was a baby. But yeah, that was an unanswered question for me. So if you know – let me know please 🙂

I’m excited about seeing our baby. I’m very positive to the planned surgery. And I can not wait for the days to move a little bit faster so we get there already! I am also interested in seeing how the scar will turn out, how the recovery will be and I can’t wait for Alfie to meet his baby brother!

Enjoy your day and hopefully you’ll get to sleep well, even if it’s only five minutes at a time. X