A friend of mine recently gave birth to her third baby; however, this time she had a c-section instead of delivering naturally. Hearing about her unplanned experience at Winnie Palmer Hospital brought back a few painful memories! In a previous post, I mentioned how my birth experience was not at all as I thought it would be. My excitement quickly turned into a stressful ordeal once the decision was made for an emergency c-section.
In my opinion, the worst part was when I was taken to the recovery room. My nurse was the size of a tooth pick; however, she was as strong as an ox! While I was lying there trying to comprehend what just happened and wondering what was going on with my newborn son, my nurse began performing a fundal massage (kneading and pushing down on my tender abdomen with all her might)! Even though my epidural was still intact and working, this brought tears to my eyes and made me groan! She had to repeat the massage (more like punches) several times and would warn me before performing it so I could brace myself. I was white knuckling and gritting my teeth so hard that I thought they’d break. This was far more painful than any contraction I felt prior to my epidural! Didn’t she realize I had 16 staples across my stomach and internal stitches as well?
Upon further research, I have realized a fundal massage is an important step for helping a woman’s uterus contract and shrink back to normal size after a c-section. I’m not going into further details since I’m sure the thought is grossing out some readers. Like I mentioned, this is extremely painful and many sites recommend that a pregnant mom learn how to perform this function on her own since she can be less vigorous and get the exact same results!
If you had a c-section, did you experience a fundal massage? Was it extremely uncomfortable for you? If you are pregnant, make sure to ask your doctor about this so you know what to expect.
Thanks for visiting The Unemployed Mom!