‘Not everything down there is peace and quiet’

Patricia van Liemt is a radio host, writer and mother of Maria (12) and Phaedra (9). Every Friday she writes accurate, honest, funny and above all recognizable columns about her life and motherhood.

A caesarean section… Did you know that it is the only operation where seven (!) layers are cut and yet you are expected to be back next to your bed after six hours, where you also get the responsibility for an extra person in your life. pooh. I liked it a bit. And I haven’t even mentioned the contractions of your uterus, the struggles with breastfeeding that is difficult to start and the headache after an epidural.

More attention for caesarean section

I don’t want to scare you about a cesarean section, but I would like some more attention for mothers who brought their children into the world this way. Yes, I know, it could always be worse. When you say you’ve had a total rupture, the ooh’s and aah’s fall from everyone’s mouth (and rightly so), but if you’ve had a caesarean section, the normal seems to win over the major. And I think that’s crazy.

Are you crazy

I myself had two caesareans and I remember well that I had to get up after a few hours. On two feet, next to the bed. ‘Are you totally out of your mind!’ I thought. “Six buses full of babies just ran over me and you want me to live vertically?” I wanted to lie down in an incubator myself. Nice and warm, with an occasional pat on my head. No, I really had to get up and walk, because that would speed up the process. Which process? That of going home? Or the healing of that gash on my stomach?

Also read – Everything about getting pregnant after a previous caesarean section >

small scar

Okay, okay… I admit, they opened and closed me really neatly. How two children ever got through that small scar is still a mystery to me. But the pictures show that it actually happened. ew. And that can also be less attractive. Friends of mine are sealed with those scratches. Then you become, as it were, ‘enjoyed’. As a memento, they now have those dots above and below their scar.

Well, even though my scar is only one Bepanthen tube long, not all is well down there. Fortunately, I don’t suffer from incontinence – which can happen after a caesarean section, that’s not a myth – but I often have pain during sex because of the scar tissue.

Female-friendly caesarean section

Now I read last week that you can now have a female-friendly caesarean section. erm. Hello 2022. I think the doctors and nurses helped me in a very woman-friendly way at the time, but I am jealous of a few features. Apparently the atmosphere in the operating room is being adjusted. It is warmer, the light is softer and music can be played. Look, that’s nice. I think I would have chosen ‘Welcome to the Jungle’ by Guns ‘n Roses…

Maybe it’s a good thing it wasn’t there then…

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