There is a lot to referred pain. Think about when someone has a heart
attack, or a tubal pregnancy. A common place for referred pain is the
shoulder. When I had a laproscopy, I had referred pain to my shoulders for a
number of weeks. 

If you've had the opportunity to watch a cesarean, you will know that it is
not a gentle, nor an easy procedure. There is a lot of tugging, pulling,
pushing. Frequently the bowels get bruised (which is part of why they listen
for bowel sounds/passing gas before you are allowed to eat "real food"),
there is shoving of other abdominal organs, the uterus is taken out of the
pelvis, flipped onto the belly for inspection and repair. 

And, sometimes it's trapped gas in the abdomen, pushing against the
diaphragm. If this is the case, getting on hands and knees, with head down
to the floor (suggest to the mom that this is a great resting position! It
can be relaxing!) the gas will be encouraged to move down from the hard
tissue of the diaphragm to the softer tissues around the rectum. The gas can
be more easily gotten rid of this way.

And, certainly there are some breastfeeding-friendly analgesics...

Best wishes,
Sam Doak


<<2) Sometimes there is some referred pain from the Epidural or Spinal which
is given during the C Section. I never had this pain with my first two
babies, in which I was given an epidural, but had it with the third, when I
was given a Spinal. In fact, the anesthesiologist said I might get some back
pain "for a while" after the regional. Although I was told this with both
Epidurals and Spinals. 

I am not sure if the two presented here are the only reasons for the pain. I
am sure much of the tissues, muscles, connective tissue etc which were
stretched during pregnancy and maybe damaged if the Mom wasn't careful about
everything from lifting to walking has anything to do with this, but I am
pretty sure this does too. 

Mary Jozwiak IBCLC, RLC, LLLL
Private Practice >>

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