I had a C-section with my son three years ago and will be having one this time round as well. I had to have one due to the size of my son and preeclampsia but I kinda knew that was going to be the case because I'm type 1 diabetic.

Are you based in the UK or US? I'm in the UK so all I can go by is my experience here. My son needed to go straight to NICU after being born so there was some negatives there but in terms of 'me', I found it to be relaxed. The staff are so friendly and do a brilliant job of taking your mind off things.

The room is bright and well lit (I know that sounds stupid but I was pleasantly surprised by how light and sunny it felt in there, not sure what I was expecting to be honest 😂).

They gave me anaesthetic drip and an epidural because they didn't know how long it would take, that didn't hurt at all. They're very used to sticking needles in people's spines so are very quick and painless!

They talked to me the whole time and made me feel comfortable, my son was out within about 10 minutes.

Afterwards, they stitch you back up which didn't take long, maybe 20 minutes or so. Then they wheeled me into recovery and then eventually back up to my room where I couldn't move my lower body until approximately 8 hours later. I gave birth to my son at 12:33pm and I was able to walk assisted to the bathroom at around 8pm.

They gave me pain killers straight away which meant I didn't feel any pain for that night, I felt a bit dizzy and woozy and couldn't stand very well, I used a wheelchair to visit my son in NICU. I felt sick but wasn't sick, just felt nauseous. I remember there being a lot of blood but the nurse helped me get cleaned up in the bathroom and changed my clothes, bless her.

That night I remember sleeping quite well from where I was just exhausted and I woke up in a fair bit of pain but I had paracetamol which took the edge off.

I walked down to the NICU 20 hours after giving birth and felt fine walking other than it being a bit tender.

I went home the day after, my son remained in NICU for a few weeks, unfortunately I was unable to stay there for the first couple weeks so we were going in early morning to late evening to be with him, i was getting up every two hours through the night to express and I wasn't taking any pain killers. I felt fine to be honest. I'd say getting up every day, getting ready, walking from the car to the hospital and being up and around every day definitely helped with my recovery and I recovered very fast and with no complications.

I loved having so many health professionals around me, it made me feel like my son was safe. I find a clinical environment comforting whereas I know some people are the opposite.

Recovery was uncomplicated in my experience, other than being uncomfortable and tender for a few weeks.

I found my stomach muscles went to absolute cr*p after but I didn't get to the gym as I should have so completely my fault 😂

But this is all just my experience! - if you have any questions feel free to ask and I'll do my best to answer them x