How long before I can exercise after a c-section? Most people are cleared for exercise at 6-8 weeks after delivery by their obstetrician provided there have been no complications. While you may be feeling more like yourself around week four remember to stick to your post-op guidelines. This is to ensure proper healing.
Returning to Physical Activities After a C-Section
It's important to get out of bed and walk around within 24 hours after surgery. This can help ease gas pains, help you have a bowel movement, and prevent blood clots.
It is important to start with light exercises like walking, as soon as your doctor gives you the go-ahead after your c-section. A study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition shows that moderate physical activity can lead to a reduction in body fat, including belly fat.
Doctors, traditionally, have advised women to avoid stairs after a C-section. But Kathryn Houston, a clinical instructor of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of California, San Francisco, shrugs off that recommendation. “Stairs are fine as long as you take them slowly,” she says.
When Can I Drive After a C-Section? You should wait until you're healed—which is typically around two weeks. We understand that you may feel fine.
Just make sure not to push yourself too much, as overexertion after C-section delivery can have serious consequences, including wound infection or injury.
During the first six weeks after having your baby, you can gradually increase activity at a pace that suits you. You could start with a five-minute walk, and gradually extend this time when you feel able. Ask your midwife or health visitor if you're unsure about what's best to do.
Walking after the C-section is important to speed recovery and pain medication may be supplied too as recovery takes place. Most mothers and infants do well after a C-section, and often, a woman who has a C-section may have a vaginal delivery if she gets pregnant again.
Remember, that first 6 weeks you are still dealing with uterus and fluid. For up to 12 weeks, muscles are naturally accommodating and shortening. C-moms can also have mild swelling up to 12 weeks.
Most women shed around 13 pounds after giving birth, whether they delivered vaginally or via C-section. The majority of that comes, of course, from your baby — since most new bundles weigh between 5 ½ and 8 ¾ pounds.
Core strength exercises, such as Pilates, yoga, and barre, can help tighten and tone muscles in the stomach, which may help improve the appearance of loose skin. Cardio exercise, such as brisk walking, running, cycling, or aerobics, may help with toning muscle.
Walking after c-section is encouraged and should be your go to for the first few weeks. You'll start to notice day to day movement getting easier and less discomfort lifting baby or moving around.
After a c-section, you should sleep on your back or side. This shouldn't put too much strain on your c-section wound. You can also try sleeping on your back with your head elevated. Use pillows to keep your spine aligned and take pressure off your joints.
The actual operation usually takes between 30 and 60 minutes. It will involve: The doctor will make a cut in your abdomen and your uterus (both about 10 cm long). Your baby will be lifted out through the cut.
Wait on going back to work: Typically, it takes six to eight weeks or more for moms to be ready to return to work after a C-section. If you have maternity leave, take full advantage of it. Give yourself time to physically and emotionally heal.
Gentle exercise, such as walking, will help you recover from your c-section. But avoid anything more active until you have no pain and you feel ready. For example, avoid driving, carrying anything heavy, having sex or doing heavy housework, such as vacuuming, until you feel able to.
Women should walk for about 20 minutes at a moderate pace to increase circulation and speed up healing. Fit mothers recover quickly and can be back on their feet in a matter of weeks. Walking after a cesarean delivery is regarded as an important part of recovery exercise.
Recovering from surgery
But all c-sections are major surgery. You will need help to lift your baby and get out of bed for at least the first day but possibly for much longer. You will need to stay in bed until the anaesthetic wears off. If you had a spinal or epidural anaesthetic, this usually takes a few hours.
As your body heals and the pain decreases when you move around, you can slowly try bending (between weeks 4 and 6). First, bend slowly up to a few inches and stand back up. When you straighten up, you will Stretch yourself to get up.
Increased bleeding after your lochia starts to decrease can be a sign you're overdoing it and need more rest. Seeing ongoing clots could mean your uterus is having trouble getting back to its pre-pregnancy size. In either case, it's always best to call.
Usually, it is safe to begin exercising a few days after giving birth—or as soon as you feel ready. If you had a cesarean birth or complications, ask your ob-gyn when it is safe to begin exercising again.
Trouble breathing or shortness of breath after having a caesarean section can be a sign of fluid in the lungs or a pulmonary embolism (a blockage in the arteries of the lungs caused by a blood clot), Dr. Liriano explains. When you're pregnant, you're more likely to form blood clots for various reasons.
For some women, this scar tissue can't be removed with exercise or diet changes alone (which may mean surgery is the only way to completely eliminate a postpartum pouch). For others, following an exercise program and focusing on core exercises can be enough to flatten the appearance of this pouch.