Most mothers have heard again and again that they need to take extra care of themselves after undergoing a C-section. But no one ever tells you how you're supposed to care for yourself and your newborn. How do you take it easy and heal while handling the demands of a baby who needs to be fed, changed and entertained?

"No one explained to me that, 'Hey, it's going to be really hard to take care of your baby when you just had major surgery,'" says Christine Decker Stone, a Portland mom who had an unplanned C-section some 16 years ago. Stone found it difficult even to sit up, much less walk around holding her son. "I wish I had prepared more."

"Caring for a newborn is a physical and emotional challenge – no matter how uncomplicated the birth process – but when a new mom is recovering from birth via an incision in her abdomen, the challenges are magnified," says Patricia Jaggie, a nurse at Shore Memorial Hospital in Somers Point, N.J. "A Cesarean birth, like other abdominal surgeries, takes weeks to heal. Not only the skin, which is visible and is usually closed with either staples or sutures, but underlying layers and the uterine wall itself are sutured. All layers require time and rest and proper nutrition to heal."

Mothers recuperating from this type of surgery are advised to do no heavy lifting or heavy exercise for several weeks," Jaggie says. "The flipside of the equation is the newborn who requires feeding probably between eight and 12 times in a 24-hour period, in addition to other care and comfort," she says.

"The obvious solution to this 'inequality' is to have help," Jaggie says. "Especially in the early weeks, moms benefit most from having another set of hands to help with the up-and-down activity of caring for a newborn, such as bringing that infant to Mom to feed and cuddle."

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