Tips for Preventing Ileus Following C-Section

Hey no one replied to you!? I'm trying to calculate if you are still pregnant lol. I don't think the actual surgery should contribute to a blockage. I know people get ileus from it but I had zero problems and I had terrible problems with my other abdominal surgeries. I think the only way to prevent it, is to be as gentle as possible and not piss of the small intestines. If you do get it, they should use an NG tube until your intestines start working again and then you can slowly add liquids and then solids. I just went through this because of a perforation from a dilation  

Hi, I know it’s a while later but wondering how you went post birth of your second baby?
I had this after my first born (c-section) and was in excruciating pain for the first 5 days. They wouldn’t let me out of bed that first day which I think kind of started the blockage.
Really want to get some kind of plan in place to stop it happening again so would be very grateful for any tips and learnings you can share!
thanks 😊

How are you doing?   I just saw your post.  When I had my daughter 10 years ago I got an ileus.   It almost killed me.  

Hi all!

It’s been a while since I’ve been on here!

A lot has happened since I last posted. My second C section delivery went well (healthy, beautiful son!), but I did end up having issues with my BP again post-delivery and dealt with gestational diabetes and hypertension during pregnancy. I did not end up developing an ileus! I went with just taking IV toradol post-surgery along with around-the-clock Tylenol and was able to avoid opioids. I made sure to get up as soon as I could to walk around, and took it slow eating.

Sadly, about 5 months later I very suddenly developed a closed loop small bowel obstruction and quite frankly could have died had we not brought me to the ED immediately and my surgeon acted quickly. My bowel was necrotic in that spot by the time they opened me up. So close to perforating. I was the sickest I have ever been. Thankfully I recovered fine, but it was traumatizing. I have to believe that my pregnancies had something to do with these obstructions happening. Not sure if it was the growth of my uterus and subsequent shoving of my insides around that resulted in my bowel twisting in scar tissue, but that’s what apparently happened. It twisted and got stuck in a scar tissue defect.

To top it all off, around December of 2020 I was diagnosed with Crohn’s Disease. They found granulomas in my J pouch. After all that….my major surgery to rid myself of UC symptoms for good…here I am on Humira and taking meds that I was so happy to be rid of when I said goodbye to my colon. I have severe disease as I have a fistula as well. It hasn’t been fun, but it’s manageable.

All of that being said, I am grateful to be alive and grateful for modern medicine. First and foremost, however, I give thanks to God and am so thankful for those I love who have supported me through it all.

I hope you all are doing well!

I'm so sorry that you developed such a severe obstruction and new diagnosis. I hope you continue to feel better!

I wanted to echo your experience and plan for the 2nd pregnancy in case anyone else was dealing with this. I developed a blockage with my first and it was so scary and painful. And quite honestly the ob department did a great job of taking care of baby, but had no real idea about taking care of me and delayed calling in a gi consult.

For my second pregnancy, I decided to be as proactive as I could and work with my GI doc to develop a good post c-section plan. The second time went smoothly with no blockages. The plan was similar to yours:

- I did a clear liquid diet 24hrs prior to surgery.

- No opiods, only epidural and then alternating tylenol and ibuprofen. You have to be really good though at keeping up on these or else the pain bleeds through.

- Slooow progression of diet. Clear liquids day 1, and then regular liquids until I started passing stool. Then soft foods for about a week.

- Took a stool softner and reglan for the first week.