During the bumpy ride home, I could feel pain at the incision area each time my hubby drove through uneven patches on the road. It was painful, really. But, I just ignored those feelings.

You see, with no painkiller taken, the wound was getting quite painful.

These are what I felt and went through after the operation,

• Getting up from bed was the toughest thing to do after Cesarean. I needed to turn my body to the right (mengiring) and used my right hand to support me to get up. This did not eliminate the pain, just making it more bearable.
• Passing urine was quite uncomfortable due to the catherer insertion. I felt as if the catherer was still there.
• Passing stool was taking a long time because I can felt my stomach expanding with gases every time I pushed it out. It was a actually a bit painful. I need to do it slowly and use the breathing techniques that I learnt from the HypnoBirthing classes.
• The uterus also contracted to it it’s pre-pregnancy shape and I can felt that too. Everytime it contracted, I would have some old blood (brownish red) discharge. I have the post-natal discharge (darah nifas) for 30 days.
• To make the wound heal faster (especially the internal wound), I ate Ikan Haruan (Black Fish) for lunch and dinner. And, drank pure sea cucumber water (air gamat asli) with each meal.
• I also hired a traditional Malay bidan to massage my body for three consecutive days. The massage helped to tone up my body, eliminated water retention and cured headache and backache.
• During the first two weeks post-operation, I only refresh myself by sponging my whole body, except for the incision area. I tried not to get the incision area wet. If it was wet, I used some facial tissue to dry it up.

The wound has completely dried and healed by the third week post-operation. So, I bathe/shower as usual. And, I also started to bind my stomach using the Firming Herbal Blend and Abdominal Binder (Bengkung) from Amyway Tropical Herbs Post Natal Care Set.

On second day, the staff nurse asked whether I still wanted the morphine. She noticed that I showed no sign of pain eventhough they didn’t injected the morphine after 4 hours has lapsed.

I said, no need as I don’t want to fall asleep unnecessarily.

You see, they have put my baby in a trolley bassinet beside my bed. So, I don’t want to miss the chance of getting to know my precious bundle of joy that I has been carrying in my tummy for 8 months!

It was hard for me to quickly get up to attend to my baby’s need. However, I put all the fear and pain aside and actually managed to take my baby out of her bassinet, cuddled and talked to her as well as trying to breastfeed her. I even changed her diapers on my bed!

I ignored all the pains and actively moving (sitting-up, walking, etc) without assistance because I want to go back home as fast as possible.

You see, if you show that you’re weak and can’t bear the pain, the doctor will not discharge you so easily.

I didn’t want to stay too long in the hospital. Why? Because I have enough of the three days filled with nurses’ shift changes.  The noises from their discussions as well as noises from various type of machines were so disturbing.

I wanted to be home and have peace. And, I got what I wanted.

Note: I gave birth in a government hospital and stayed in a 6-beds room, so there was not much privacy and peace.

Before starting the Cesarean, a surgeon asked me to extend both hands for administering blood, IV, general anasthesia, oxytoxin etc.

An oxygen mask was put on my mouth and I was asked to breath in and out. Another doctor gave the general anasthesia -  one big picagari of white fluid injected through blood vein of my right hand.

And, I passed out after just three seconds!

The operation lasted for 3 hours.

I could felt the pain at my incision (bikini line cut) seconds after I woke up. And, more pain when they moved me from the operation table to a trolley bed.

Before the operation, the doctor said general anasthesia could last for 24 hours. But, why I can still felt a little pain?

And, the catherer also made me feel so uncomfortable. I didn’t like the feeling of a tube been hooked to my urine tract.

I was immobilised for 8 hours. No food and liquid intake was allowed for 6 hours after operation. My throat felt so dry!

My stomach feel so bloated with gases and my head felt so heavy.

They gave me morphine injection pain-killer once in 4 hours. And, two tablets of paracetamol and a tablet of an orange colored pain-killer in between.

However, I could still feel the pain especially when I moved.

The morphine caused me to sleep so heavily.

Note: This a my real life story of having a Cesarean birth. It’s a rather long story, so I’ll post it bits by bits. Hope it will give an insight on how it is done and how does it feel during & after the operation.

 I gave a birth to my first baby through Cesarean section on 31st March 2008 at Hospital Sungai Buloh.

Due to low level of hemoglobin (red blood cell counts) and Placenta Previa Major Stage II (uri di bawah), I was scheduled to be warded after my 34th week of pregnancy. This is critical for monitoring me and my baby as I could have a premature labor or a major bleeding.

However, my water broke with traces of meconium a day before I was scheduled to be warded for the bed rest.

Further checking showed that my water bag ruptured on the left side with my baby lying in transverse position (melintang). Due to the heavy leaking of amniotic fluid and me having the Placenta Previa Major, an emergency cesarean section was scheduled within 10 hours after been admitted into Hospital Sungai Buloh emergency room.

I was given general anasthesia instead of epidural or spinal anasthesia due to the placenta previa major which may cause me a major bleeding (tumpah darah). 3 pints of blood were already reserved for my operation.

A nurse put me on a catherer so that I didn’t have to get up to pass urine. She also shaved some of my bikini line hairs. I was hooked on an IV drip and was changed to an operation room’s white gown.

I remember the operation room have lights that were so bright. And, it was extremely cold! My whole body was shaken violently due to the cold air-conditioned room.

There were so many people in the operation room (nurses and three specialist doctors). And, all of them were focusing on me laying on the operation table.

The operation room have lights that were so bright. And, it was extremely cold! My whole body was shaken violently due to the cold air-conditioned room.

There were so many people in the operation room (nurses and three specialist doctors). I remember one young Chinese lady doctor who was so bubbly and friendly. And, one young Malay guy surgeon who was rather handsome…ha ha ha!

They asked me to extend both hands for administering blood, IV, general anasthesia, oxytoxin etc.

The Chinese surgeon put on oxygen mask and asked me to breath in and out. The Malay doctor informed me that they want to start the operation and gave the general anasthesia (one big picagari of white fluid injected through blood vein of my right hand).

And, I passed out after just three seconds!

The operation lasted for 3 hours.

Around, 11.00am, I woke up when the Malay guy doctor said “Bangun, sudah siap!”

My head feel so giddy that I uncontrollably shaked my head violently. I felt the cold again but heard the Malay doctor asked the nurses to warm me up. They put a kind of pink heatable blanket on me.

The Chinese doctor have a look at my incision and said “Tengok, kerja siapa ni”. I saw her unstripped the plaster, sprayed something and put it on again.

I said “ouch!” and saw her smiled.

Then I heard one nurse said “Baby apa ye? Ooh, girl”. So, it is a girl!!

Seconds later, I saw an empty oxytoxin bag and second pint of blood. I could feel pain at my incision. I was then,

•  moved from operation room bed to trolley bed (felt pain at incision)
• moved from trolley bed to another trolley bed
•  moved from trolley bed to ward 6B bed (no 15 - in front of nurses counter)

My head still feel so giddy but I was so happy to see my hubby by my side!

They gave me morphine injection pain-killer once in 4 hours. No food and liquid intake was allowed for 6 hours after operation. My throat felt so dry!

My lil’ baby was born @ 9.21 am on 31st March 2008 at 34 weeks gestational age. Her apgar scor was 7/9 and weight 2.47 kg. She is such a strong, active, healthy and happy baby.

The doctor who performed the operation was Dr Khairul Safwati bt Muda of Hospital Sungai Buloh. Thanks doc!!

Throughout the birthing of my baby, I stayed calm and relax. This must be due to the HypnoBirthing breathing and relaxation techniques that I have been practising since 17 weeks of pregnancy.

Having taken HypnoBirthing The Mongan Method classes gave me a confidence to go through the birthing of my baby. Eventhough it was not a normal, drug-free birth, my baby is still a happy HypnoBirthing baby!!