Lessons Learned in the Hospital Part Three: Your Panties are Inadequate

I tend to wear bikini style panties rather than high rise. The trouble with bikini panties after a c-section is, of course, that your panty line irritates your incision.

Knowing the likelihood of a c-section, I considered buying some special c-section panties. I decided against them, however, because I couldn't justify buying something for a procedure I might not be having. I had hope that I could have these babies naturally.

I also already owned 3 pairs of maternity panties. Now the great thing about maternity panties is they come up pretty high on your belly. Unfortunately this is only true while you still have a giant pregnant belly. When I tried to wear them in the hospital, they rolled down and bothered my incision.

So what could I do? I didn't bring a single adequate pair of panties to the hospital!

What I did was wear my husband's boxer briefs. This was a lovely solution while I was in the hospital, because they just looked like little black shorts on me unless you were really looking closely at the crotch, so I wore them in front of visitors and even walked the halls in them.

Even my husband’s boxer briefs, though, were inadequate for the car ride home.

Now I had read about compression panties being helpful after c-sections, and it seemed to me that there were two basic claims in favor of compression panties. 1) They help you feel better about yourself. 2) They actually help you get back to your normal shape more quickly. I didn’t really believe that either claim would be true for me. I had worn compression panties to high school dances before and all they seemed to do was make me sweat more than normal, which definitely does not make me feel good about myself. And the second claim just seemed entirely bogus. Wearing compression panties is not the same as, say, corset training.

That said, I now realize that compression panties are not optional. They are a necessity. DO NOT LEAVE THE HOSPITAL without either compression panties or a compression belly band. Otherwise every bump in the road will make you feel like all your stitches are popping out. I only live 10 minutes from the hospital, but those 10 minutes were torture, especially the last little stretch of the bumpy, gravel alley wherein we park our car.

I love my compression panties. It’s not about looking good. It’s about survival.