| Is there
any pain after the operation?
Pain from a surgical incision
on the abdomen can limit your ability to get out of bed and participate
in the active care of your newborn. For this reason, postoperative pain
control is necessary to maintain your comfort.
What is the approach
to pain control?
Pain medication can be
given by mouth, intravenously, or as part of the previously administered
regional anesthetic. Since your stomach won’t be able to tolerate much,
taking medications by mouth will not be feasible until several hours after
the surgery.
Your anesthesiologist will ensure your comfort after surgery.
The method of pain relief is based on the anesthetic that you received for
the Cesarean delivery. If you had a regional anesthetic, pain medicine
placed in the spinal or epidural area can last up to 18 hours after the
surgery without feeling drowsy. If you had a general anesthetic, pain
is usually controlled with self-administered intravenous pain medicine
(patient-controlled analgesia). Pain control after the first day is usually
managed with a pill taken by mouth.
Are there any side-effects?
The pain medicine is usually
some form of narcotic drug. The side effects associated with narcotic
administration are somnolence, itching, nausea, slower breathing, and
constipation. These side effects are usually minimal and self-limited.
If they are bothersome to any degree, there are medications to manage
this. There is not any appreciable accumulation of these drugs in breast
milk. You should not be concerned about becoming addicted to the narcotic
drug. It is far more important to be comfortable enough to get up and
out of bed after the surgery than to worry about any of the potential
side effects.
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