Cesarean Incision Hurts Months Later
I have had two cesarean. My youngest baby is 10 months old and I still have had some severe pain along my incision line. It feels almost as bad as when I was first recovering. Is this normal?
Question:Peg Plumbo CNM
Peg Plumbo has been a certified nurse-midwife (CNM) since 1976. She has assisted at over 1,000 births and currently teaches in the... Read more
If you were my client, I would want to see you. It very well could be abdominal muscle strain. Still, I would recommend that you have the incision checked. At 10 months, it is unlikely to be a wound separation or infection but better to be safe.
You could check the separation of the abdominal muscles. Do a mini sit up while lying down and feel for the gap between the two sides of the muscle -- right above your umbilical area. By now, this separation should be within one fingerbreadth. If it is more, the muscles are weaker than they could be and you should start doing bent knee mini sit ups or scrunches.
Elizabeth Nobel is the author of a great book called "Essential Exercises for the Childbearing Year"(1995). Follow her guidelines for lifting and exercising.
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