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C Section Recovery Tips: 3 Things to Know About Your Scar When You’re Back at Home
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You’re not alone

If you gave birth via Cesarean section, then chances are that you have been through the process of C section recovery – or you’re going through it!

After a C section, you will experience intense abdominal pain and discomfort for a good few weeks. It is critical to treat this area with care; therefore make sure you follow your medical practitioner’s tips around e.g. bending walking, driving etc when attempting to return home after your surgery. But, here are some things you may not know about your scar.

Charlie Botha ITEC

Your ITEC qualified pregnancy massage therapist

C Section recovery

Questions & Answers

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Pregnancy Scar: The Most Common Scar in C Section Recovery

When your surgeon is delivering your baby, they’re not thinking about the cosmetic appearance of your scar. They’re more concerned with making sure yours and your child’s health and wellness is protected.

So, it’s common for new mothers to have a painful incision that needs a little help to heal as fast as possible. Whilst your attentions and priorities may be on your newborn, it’s still important for you to minimise your complications and thus your c section recovery time.

If not, you could end up with hard flesh around your wound, which stays for months, if not years. Infection is another common issue, especially if you’re doing more than your body can cope with. And also, a pouch which overhands your incision, or puckering.

And you thought the pregnancy was the hard part, hey!

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Scar Tissue Swollen

For many women undergoing a c section, your body has had substantial trauma in the run up to you actually receiving the incision. This creates its own issues as your body doesn’t have the same level of reserves to heal as it would if this were a normal wound.

Think about it, we heal when we sleep. But your sleep in the run up to your cesarean section, and after is limited at best.

Dehydration and hot temperatures can also exacerbate any discomfort experienced from the surgical procedure as this as well as a lack of sleep means your lymphatic system runs slower. As your lymph fluid takes away, the waste left over from your body trying to heal, this can lead to swelling in the area. Often a lot of swelling!

So, make sure you’re drinking plenty of water and taking frequent naps to help ease any post-surgical discomfort.

 

Lymphatic massage helps you recover from C Section and if you’d like to book the red light therapy, then you can do this at each session (London). 

It’s always useful to have lymphatic drainage massages to help your lymphatic system cope with all the debris that your body doesn’t have the energy to expel. 

Lymphatic massage is an effective and natural form of therapy that can help to improve overall health and wellbeing. It works by stimulating the lymphatic system, which is part of the body’s immune system. Lymphatic massage can help to reduce inflammation, boost immunity, and improve circulation. It also helps to reduce stress and tension, as well as improve digestion and eliminate toxins. The massage also helps to release toxins from the lymphatic system, promoting better health overall.

To get the most benefit from lymphatic massage, we should do regularly it, ideally at least once a week. During a session, smooth, gentle strokes are used to stimulate the lymph nodes in the neck, underarms, and groin. This helps to encourage lymph fluid circulation and removal of toxins from the body. Lymphatic massage can also provide relief from chronic pain, such as headaches and backaches, as well as reducing the appearance of cellulite and fluid retention. If you’re looking for an effective way to reduce stress and promote a healthier lifestyle, lymphatic massage is a great option.

This will also help you not become infected — think about how easy it is to pop a stitch or incision glue if your flesh is swollen against your wound which is trying to close together under tough circumstances. And as it takes around a month give or take, for stitches or glue to have done its job, that’s plenty of time for issues to occur when you’re not prioritising yourself due to your new baby.

Compression garment helps C Section Recovery

A compression garment is worn to help reduce swelling and support the wound.

This garment is generally made from a cotton or polyester material and it is usually worn daytime and overnight. It helps to reduce the amount of fluids that build up around your wound so helps minimise swelling.

The garment must be fitted to ensure that it fits snugly around the body, and it can also be altered as your swelling changes. We have a measuring service which you can do on WhatsApp, please text us to arrange. Once we have your measurements and see your wound, we’ll recommend the best garment for you and get this sent direct to your door so you have minimal effort. You’re already juggling enough balls!

Wearing a compression garment can help to improve your comfort, reduce pain, and speed up how you heal from a c section quickly. Good ones, that fit properly are invaluable to your recovery.

 

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Scar Tip — What to do if it Goes Hard

If your incision does, in fact, go hard following your delivery, there are a few things you can do to remedy this. First up: don’t panic!

We’re used to coping with this and have a variety of techniques at our disposal to get rid of this for you.

Your body will process this itself if we don’t do anything, but it’s not unusual for this process to take around four years. And the area is tender, which isn’t great when you have young kids jumping all over you, before we start with how often you’ll need to bend over.

Top tip — don’t leave it too long. The sooner we catch this the faster and easier we can deal with it.

Scar looks rough after you thought you were done with C Section Recovery

For those who find their scar is developing an unruly edge because of excessive blood clotting or separation of tissues, a physician may recommend using medication such as heparin or epinephrine to facilitate circulation until the wound naturally resolves itself. We don’t get involved with the medication side of things, but we can provide you with some things to help your scar heal with minimal visible deformities.

However, we can help once your scar has properly joined in taking down the ridge and puckering that forms. To counter this effect, it is helpful to employ gentle scar massage to aid in its reduction and ultimately smoothness over time, and when we combine this with our specialist scar gel and healing lotions, you’ll be amazed at how quickly we see results.

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Scar Skin Elasticity - Will it tighten?

Your skin will stretch while you’re pregnant so what the surgeon sews together doesn’t always stay that way. Hopefully, your skin will start to tighten. This can lead to a puckering of your scar as we discussed above. We can help smooth this out for you. Book your sking tightening treatment today.

However, if after a year or so your skin is still sagging then that will need us to do some skin tightening with our state-of-the-art radiofrequency machine which has awesome results.

C section recovery

Conclusion

Whether you opted for a C section or not, it’s crucial to maintain a healthy weight during pregnancy to help avoid some of these Cesarean Recovery issues. By adhering to these tips, your postpartum healing will be swift and successful!

If you’re just looking for a general post partum massage as opposed to a c section recovery massage, we obviously do a wonderful one of these too.

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Couple hoping to get pregnant with man's arms wrapped around her stomach
Essential Feeling C section Recovery

Quickfire Q&A

What to eat after c-section for fast recovery

Your body need nutrients. There’s a bunch of stuff we can give you, an ingredient list packed with inflammation reducing produce. But, you’re going to be in a state of flux, your priorities will be on being a new mum and you’ll struggle to find the time and/ or energy to think about what to eat after c section delivery for fast recovery when it actually happens.

Take the time, bond with your child and instead do these tips above which take minimal effort whilst also providing you much needed ‘time out’.

First shower after c-section

It’s easy to want a c-section recovery week by week list. But the best advice is to follow what your surgeon and midwife have told you based on your unique set of circumstances. Then layer on the above post c section tips for your optimal position.

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