Not-So-Glamorous Childbirth

Almost all Caesarean deliveries are safe. But not all. One mom reflects on her traumatic post- surgery experiences.

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I knew we were truly blessed. My husband, Jeff, and I have a sweet 2-year-old son named Davis. After a textbook pregnancy, sudden preeclampsia 38 weeks into my 40-week gestational journey, and 19 hours of not-so-bad labor, I delivered Davis via Caesarean section and recovered just fine. Davis was an easy baby, so Jeff and I decided to go for it again. When Davis was 5 months old, we conceived Baby Brown No. 2.

Toward the end of this pregnancy, I was put on bed rest. Sentenced was more like it. At the time, I thought bed rest was the worst thing in the world. But I had no idea how bad it was all about to get.

I made it to my scheduled C-section delivery date, and not a moment too soon. The C-section was routine, and I gave birth to my second beautiful, healthy baby boy. Little Leo completed our family. But as I recovered for the next five days in the hospital, something along my C-section incision was not quite right. The nurses and doctors paid special attention to it, my own doctor squeezing it a few times to see what would come out. It felt hard and sore. I asked if it was infected, if there was pus coming out. Everyone I dealt with told me it was just healing slower than normal. I believed them.

Jeff and I brought Leo home, and life went on as normal for a few days. My soreness seemed like typical healing, but that incision was still hard. At my follow-up appointment a week after Leo’s birth, my OB/GYN took extra time with the incision. He squeezed it and I felt something very warm run down my hip and heard it splat on the floor, right by Jeff’s shoes. Just the warm feeling made me think it was blood, but the splat made me think it was Leo’s forgotten twin or an alien or something. Jeff said it was pink, like watery blood. I couldn’t look. The doctor quickly got a bunch of those paper dressing gowns, shoved them next to me and continued to squeeze warm liquid from me. While I felt better with less pressure on the incision site, the whole episode scared the crap out of me. This didn't happen after Davis was born, and not one of my friends who delivered via C-section ever mentioned anything like this.