A midwife is encouraging new mothers who have recently undergone a caesarean section to adopt one simple habit in the early days following their operation to aid their recovery. In the UK and Ireland, the national C-section rate has climbed to almost half of all births, more than half of which are planned by the mother and their healthcare professionals.
Some mothers are advised to have a C-section due to their baby being breech, carrying two or more children, or having pre-existing health conditions that make a vaginal birth too dangerous. However, many mothers opt for a C-section after having one previously, or simply out of personal preference.
A C-section is a major surgical procedure in which a surgeon cuts through six layers of tissue to deliver a baby. While the skin on the surface can heal within a few weeks, internal wounds can take up to two years to fully repair. Mothers often feel pressure to recover quickly following a C-section due to the demands of caring for a newborn, but it is perfectly normal to not feel back to 'normal' for several weeks.
Midwife Victoria Holyoak, who regularly shares videos on TikTok to support new mothers, has urged women who have recently had a C-section to carry out one simple action every day to improve their recovery. She said: "Okay, I am a midwife and I've just come back from home visits seeing my patients today and if you are a C-section mum, I just need you to take this one piece of advice and run with it. I know this is hard, but I promise you standing up straight in those early weeks after your C-section recovery, after your C-section birth, when you are in C-section recovery, is going to help you."
"Because you will slowly be shortening all of the tissues, all of those fibres, if you are constantly hunched over and you'll be tightening your lower back, try and straighten up as much as you can, even if you need to hold on to something and breathe as you're doing it. The more you can straighten up, the more flexibility and movability we have in that lower tummy segment where your C-section scar is and the more movability we get of those adhesions, being more flexible, lengthening so that you can be more mobile. If you scooch over, if you hunch over, this area here is going to become tighter and tighter."
Mothers flocked to the comments section to echo Victoria's guidance, with one mum urging her to "say it louder". She said: "Yes yes yes, shout it louder!! I'm a physio so luckily I knew what to do but I've had friends who have had a lot of problems because of this. There should be a much bigger element in antenatal classes about C-section considering what a high percentage of births it is."
Another commenter added: "Totally agree! The best thing I did was get up, walk and potter about from day one. I healed so quickly! Round two in 2 days." A third commented: "I work on a postnatal ward and I feel bad for telling them to stand up as much as they can but I know its one of them being 'cruel to be kind'."
