Project: C-Section Recovery Deadline

EDIT: This Project has been completed. You can find the results HERE.

Ok Ladies,

I'm planning on putting my post on this together at the end of the summer.

So if you would like to participate with me, 

please fill out this survey and get it emailed to me by August 1st.

Original Photo Credit

I have heard back from some ladies on this

(And THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR YOUR RESPONSE! It means so much!)

but I haven't heard back from nearly as many as I had hoped.

So if you've thought about doing this, please do.

I think it will be a really helpful post.

My goal in this specific project is 

to help OTHERS (who've not had c-sections)

 to know how to help women who have had c-sections.

(Think husbands/partners, parents, siblings, friends, co-workers, even just random strangers.)

I think most people have no idea how to support women going through the recovery process and would genuinely appreciate some tips.

(In fact one response I got to my first post was just that -- someone emailed me who had not a c-section but who needed to support someone who just had one. This blessed my heart to pieces. And this is exactly what I hope my post will be able to allow for many.)

Therefore the questions I'm hoping you will answer for me are all geared towards helping me equip others in supporting women who've had c-sections (with both physical recovery as well as emotional recovery.) 

So I'm really hoping you will be willing to open up on the talking points listed and be as specific as you can. Because I want to give others very specific insight into what would be helpful.

Here's an example of what I mean, from my own experience, for the question:

What were some of the most painful statements you heard from others?

I have a few different things (and I don't wanna take your whole day with my post -- but feel free to take my whole day if you choose to email me!), 

but one specific that comes to mind right away is:

I came back into work to show my old co-workers my  new daughter, and a women asked me how much she weighed when she was born, and I told her "nine pounds" and she replied, "Oh then you should be GLAD you had a c-section... woo!"

Honestly, I really liked the lady who said that, and I didn't take that comment as hard as I could have because I knew where her heart was in it, but it has never stopped coming to mind at random moments for me. I was not glad I had a c-section, and it felt strange to think how pushing a nine pound baby out could have been worse than the incision that was still hurting me the day I came in. 

OR, for the question:

Is there anything you wish that your husband/partner/support had known about c-section recovery before leaving the hospital?

One big one we both wish he had known was that it hurts to be driven in a car after a surgery. My mom drove me home from the hospital (and she had had her own surgeries so she knew to drive very smoothly) but later when my husband went to drive me to the store, my panicking over hitting a bump shortly before we would take a sharp curve was a total surprise to him and he thought I was worried about waking up the baby. But I was actually desperately trying to get him to slow down before it started to hurt me even worse. We both ended up hurting each other's feelings in that moment of confusion, as well as in the rehashing of that event later.

So now, if I get the chance, I like to tell my friends's-who've-had-c-sections' husbands to make sure to drive smoothly, avoiding quick car movements as much as possible initially. 

So try and give me what you got memory wise.

And then I will try and combine it into something that may help other's understand better how to help.

Well see how it turns out! I may spilt it into different posts like: "cheat sheets for husbands"," lists for friends", "what to say to your co-worker" if I need to...who knows. (I doubt those will be the actual titles.) I'm just hoping to get some good stuff out there since its still kind of an untouched area.

So if you would like to participate with me, 

please fill out this survey {HERE} and get it emailed to me by August 1st, 2013.