Hello, welcome to episode four of C section support by OT in motherhood podcast. Thanks for being here today. We are going to talk about the potential restrictions that you'll have in place after your C section surgery.
There seems to be a lack of knowledge about what these restrictions might be. I do have some friends who have had a similar experience - they had a C section birth and weren't given very clear information from their hospital or their doctor about what these restrictions were, which can be really confusing when you've just given birth. You are tired, you don't have much energy, you've just gone through a surgery that you may or may not have been aware that you were going to have. So it's really important to know what you can and can't do. The reason for this is knowing your restrictions means you can have the best recovery possible. Those restrictions are in place so that your body can heal and to reduce the risk of further injuries. So things like infection, potential hernias, or just the wound not healing properly. I've jumped on Google and I've literally looked at what these restrictions are and the information out there is really confusing. Obviously we don't want to rely on Google for our health information, but there's so many websites that have conflicting information, which doesn't help the confusion and, you know, potentially people feeling anxious about the way that they birthed their baby already.
I want to note that restrictions might vary between hospitals, between surgeons, depending on the type of incision you had. So in episode one, I spoke about those - it could be vertical or horizontal. Of course, if you have any other medical issues, so always, always confirm your restrictions with your doctor. To ensure that you have this, things that you can do are ask for written information before you leave the hospital, check with the doctor who sees you before you're discharged and with your nurse as well. If you have a support person with you in the hospital, ask them to write notes during these discussions so that you have everything down. And if you're unsure of anything, then check - check with the doctor before the doctor discharges you.
Of course, if you know that you're having a C section in advance, then it's a good idea to educate yourself. Consult a trusted provider, but also confirm these with your doctor prior to giving birth. This gives you an idea of what you can and can't do, which does have implications on, of course, your own health and what you can and can't do, but also, things that might need to be done around the house to manage the normal activities of the house. So it could be looking after other children, it could just be the daily tasks like meal preparation, and shopping, and driving and things like that. So it is always best to consult with your doctor.
Some of these restrictions. One of them you might have heard of is we don't want you lifting anything heavier than your baby. I realize this is a little bit varied, because you know, some people bring home a six pound baby, some people bring home a 10 pound baby. But I think the reason they phrase it that way, is that it's easier to understand than saying, for example, don't lift anything more than two kilos or five kilos or 10 kilos. Because I, for example, wouldn't really know what in my household weighs that much. So no lifting heavier than your baby is something that's easy to grasp, I guess, and understand.
Now, this can be difficult, especially if you do have another child. But it's really important to try to adhere to this. So, think of other ways that you can do the activities that you need to do without lifting. Okay, so there are different ways. So if you do have a child that could be maybe changing their nappy on a different surface rather than lifting them onto the change table. It could be teaching them how to climb into the car seat themselves. It could be sitting down on the couch to give them a cuddle instead of lifting them up and giving them comfort. Um, there's different ways to do that. Other things that you might be doing during a normal day, lifting for example, like a heavy laundry basket. Ideally get someone else to do the laundry for you, but if you need to do that then, you know, you could be carrying just a smaller load, for example, just a few items.
The reason we don't want you lifting heavy loads is because it puts strain on your abdomen and on your wound site. And we really want that wound to heal properly and your muscles as well to heal. The muscles have been pulled apart for the surgery, but also have been stretched during pregnancy itself. You are also at higher risk of having an injury post birth because your joints and everything are more loose. So that's something to take into account too. Also, when you are lifting your baby, there's certain ways that you can lift in a healthier way. In a way that will help you prevent injury, but also help you prevent pain through your back or through your arms. Because a baby, even if they're, you know, 8 pound or whatever, is not really heavy. But if you're doing it many, many times during a day, there is also that risk of injury as well. So we want to do it in a way that's obviously safe for your baby, but safe for you as well.
Driving is another one. Now, when I had my children, I was told not to drive for six weeks. There is conflicting information out there, but generally after surgery in Australia, it's a six week restriction. It can sometimes be brought forward under the discretion of your doctor. So if you do need to drive before that, it is best to consult your doctor and have written clearance. A few reasons. One of them is that it can affect your insurance, so if you are in an accident prior to that 6 weeks and you didn't have doctor's clearance, you can be liable for covering the cost from the accident. So in the early days after your C section, the reasons we don't want you driving are that you're taking pain medication that can potentially impair your ability to drive. You have that wound site, so to be able to drive safely, you need to be able to do a head check. So turn and see what's behind you without pain. And we also want you to be able to put your foot on the brakes hard, like for example, in an accident without causing pain. So, the risk of that is that the seatbelt, of course, can injure your wound site. But again, check with your doctor about this. I understand, of course, some people have had a C section and their baby is in NICU so they need to be visiting their baby every day and it's difficult to rely on other people to take them to the hospital. Or, you know, especially if you've got other children and you're doing the school run and again you don't have much support, it's important that you're able to get to school. So consult with your doctor and you might be able to drive earlier than the six weeks. One thing to be aware of if you are driving earlier than that is that often when you're driving that also means you're lifting a pram or a car seat in and out of the car. Be aware of your lifting restrictions. So generally the post surgical restrictions after c section are a period of six weeks. So if you are driving before six weeks, we also don't want you to be lifting a heavy pram, which generally are at least five kilos. Um, so maybe you could baby wear your baby instead.
Okay. In terms of wound care, we don't want you soaking that wound. So that means no baths and no swimming. The wound of course can get wet, like in a shower, but that's just, you know, with water running over it and making sure that your wound is dry afterwards. Swimming and baths soak that wound, which can increase your risk of infection. Okay, so we really want that wound to be healed properly before doing those activities.
Another restriction is no sexual intercourse. This also means no using tampons, basically no inserting anything into the vagina at all. Um, again, the risk of this is infection. You have that external wound, the C section wound, but you also have that wound on your womb from where the placenta was attached. So you basically have two wounds that are healing and we want to optimize that healing, make sure you don't get an infection. Infections, you know, even if you're increasing that risk a small amount, infections are annoying. They're painful. They can further delay your healing. They could mean another hospital admission. There's something that you just really want to avoid at all costs and do everything that you can to avoid that from happening.
Okay. Another restriction as well as not lifting heavier than your baby. Uh, we also don't want you bending or reaching or twisting excessively. And the reason for that is that those movements do put strain on that wound. Activities in which you might do those movements are things like laundry; carrying the basket, but of course also reaching up to the washing line. Uh, meal preparation, so reaching up to your top cupboards. Twisting, bending, you're going to be bending a lot when you're looking after a small child. So we want you to be careful of that because, as I said previously, the muscles in your abdomen have also been affected from the C section birth as well as pregnancy, so we want those to heal properly as well. We also don't want extra stress on the wound site. So the wound itself takes six weeks for that initial healing phase to happen. The healing does go on longer than that, but that's when the initial healing happens. And I will talk about this more in another podcast episode. So, we want that wound to close properly and for that scar to be, to be strong, I guess. Those excessive movements; bending, stretching, twisting - can put strain on that site, potentially pull it, potentially open the wound, especially in the early days, so we don't want that happening. Again, that's a potential risk for infection, but also hernia and just poor healing as well.
Now, of course, as I mentioned previously, the ideal situation is for someone else to do those activities for you; the laundry, the meal prep, and helping you look after your kids as well as, um, of course there's other activities during a day, but there are things that you can do to still do those activities, but to minimize the strain on your body. So for example. In your kitchen one easy thing you can do is have someone move your commonly used items onto the bench or to a space that's easily reachable for you.
All right. Thanks so much for listening today. I really appreciate it. If you can think of any other restriction or it's something I might've missed, or maybe something that your doctor has told you as well, then feel free to reach out. Let me know. Um, you can reach me at OT and motherhood on Instagram.
So what I want you to do from this episode is go ahead and confirm with your doctor what your restrictions might be. Start thinking about how you can modify your home to prevent these movements, especially, like I said, the lifting, the bending, the twisting. Um, because there are ways that you can set up your home to avoid those things. And I will talk about this in another episode as well. Um, so look into that, make sure you're aware of what your restrictions are before birth, and that can help you prepare and to have the best recovery possible.
Alright, thanks for being here, see you next time.