Pregnancy All-in-One for Dummies by Consumer Dummies & Keith Eddleman MD & Catherine Cram MS & Tara Gidus Collingwood MS RDN CSSD & Rachel Gurevich & Matthew M.F. Miller & Sharon Perkins RN & Tere Stouffer & Carol Vannais RN

Author:Consumer Dummies & Keith Eddleman MD & Catherine Cram MS & Tara Gidus Collingwood MS, RDN, CSSD & Rachel Gurevich & Matthew M.F. Miller & Sharon Perkins RN & Tere Stouffer & Carol Vannais RN
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781119235514
Publisher: Wiley
Published: 2016-05-02T00:00:00+00:00

Dealing with post-op pain

The amount of pain or discomfort experienced after a cesarean delivery varies from woman to woman, depending on the circumstances of her delivery and on her tolerance for pain. Your practitioner can prescribe pain medication, but she probably will specify that the medication shouldn’t be given unless you ask for it. (Sometimes this is hospital policy.) So if you want the pain relief, ask for it — before your pain becomes excruciating.

Some hospitals offer a PCA (patient-controlled analgesia) pump, which is attached to your IV line. When you feel your pain increasing, you simply press a button on the pump to release a small amount of pain medication into your IV line. Because you receive the medication intravenously, you can feel its effects quickly, and by using the medication only when you feel you need it, you can often get by with much less medication in total. Don’t worry about overdosing, because the pump has special settings that prevent you from getting too much medication.