I was so clueless about cesareans. This post is to help those who may not know some of this information. It is not intended to scare anyone and I recognize that everyone’s experience with birth is different. I firmly believe that the more we share our stories and raise awareness on our birth experiences, the more we can support one another...

1. Anyone at any point in their labor may require a C-section (no matter how badly you want to deliver vaginally).

Your baby might go into fetal distress (heart rate starts to drop) and the safest way to deliver is emergency cesarean. Your baby might have meconium (poop) in their amniotic sac and the safest way to deliver is emergency cesarean to ensure they get out ASAP and are put on antibiotics incase they ingested any fecal matter.

These examples are both what happened to me and I was not at all informed about the chances of either happening.

2. You will need as much help as you can get when recovering from a C-Section.

Because my daughter was born in the midst of the pandemic and because I did not think that I was going to have a c-section, my husband and I did not ask for any help when the baby came home. Looking back, having a close friend or family member over to help during those first 2-weeks acclimating to life with a newborn and recovering from surgery would have made things less stressful. I needed more sleep for my own recovery, more help lifting the baby, more support nursing/pumping and more help around the house.

3. There is nothing that you can take to alleviate the gas pains post-surgery.

In lamens terms... Did you know that when you are cut open in surgery and sewn back up that a bunch of air gets sewn back in with you? Did you know how painful it is? I didn't!

The most painful part of my c-section recovery was not dealing with the oozing of my incision or the healing of my uterus. The most painful part was the indescribable "gas-pains" that took my body by storm for the 2 weeks after delivery.

The day that I was discharged from the hospital I did not want to leave. I could not stop crying because I was in so much pain. It was then that the nurse realized it wasn't that I needed more pain-killers, but that I was experiencing gas-pain. Sadly, pain-killers do not work for that kind of pain. The only option was gas-x and that did not stop the pain.

4. You will still bleed from your uterus for weeks.

Call me naive, but...didn't see that one coming. Just because you do not deliver vaginally, does not mean you will not need to wear a diaper/pad for weeks. You will also still need to use a peri-bottle any time you pee to flush out the blood (prevent a UTI) and to ease the stinging from the urine.

5. Despite all that you will go through, there are people who still believe that a C-Section is the easy way out.

This is your reminder that those people are morons. A Cesarean Section is still birth. There is nothing "easy" about getting cut-open, having all of your organs taken out, put back in and recovering from it.

Full Birth-Story is linked if you are interested in learning more. I am happy to answer any questions.

#csectionawareness #birthstory

Did you know the number ONE predictor of a child’s future happiness & success is their emotional intelligence?

👉🏼 The calming corner turns a time-out into time-in ❤️

The Time-In Toolkit from @generationmindful provides a step-by-step guide to teaching children about emotional regulation. Their kit includes everything you need to create your child's own, unique calming-corner.

My daughter is a bit too young to understand this now, but she sees the pictures and points to them. For now, I point to the photos with her and say each emotion out loud. Once she’s old enough to understand her emotions, this will be here to help her! Instead of shutting down in a timeout and being unable to express her emotions, she can go to the calming corner and use some of these strategies to calm down before we talk about it✨less correcting, more connecting✨

It is so important to teach kids about their emotions at a young age 🙌🏼 I’m a firm believer of if you knew better you’d do better & this is the new answer for time-outs.

Now go buy someone this for their baby shower or child’s birthday!

Generation Mindful Website

Which one do you find is the most challenging to resonate with? For me, it’s ✨it’s okay to be still ✨ I feel like I always have to be doing something. ~WhY aM I LiKe ThIs?~ I am constantly working on allowing myself to just take time remain in the present moment. Is there laundry that needs to be done? Yes. Can it wait? Also yes. 🙃

I find meditation really helps, but it takes practice. 🧘🏽‍♀️ I started doing yoga a few years ago to help manage my *Go! Go! Go!* mentality, but since having a child it is much more of a challenge to relax and make time for myself. There is an old saying “If you don’t think you have the time to meditate for 5 minutes, then you really need to meditate for 20 minutes”. I remind myself of this when I need to. 🤍