Caring For Your C-section Scar
Incision scars can be a sensitive topic for women who have C-sections. It might cause pain or discomfort — or you might just not love how it looks.
Many women aren’t given the tools they need to help their scar heal properly. Yes, your doctor will do everything they can to prevent infection, but there’s more to it than that.
Luckily, there are a bunch of ways you can help your scar heal. It’s never too late to start, either.
Here’s everything you need to know about caring for your C-section scar, from immediate care to more advanced postpartum care.
Here are the 3 best ways to take care of your C-section scar:
1. Reduce inflammation and scar tissue build-up
The best way to prevent scar tissue from building up is to focus on controlling the inflammation around the scar. This includes regularly icing your incision.
When to do it? We recommend icing every 2-3 hours for fifteen minutes at a time for the first five weeks after a C-section.
Prep an ice pack and place it over your incision, making sure there’s some sort of barrier between the ice and your skin. If you have tape covering your incision, you can apply an ice pack directly to your incision. If you don’t, consider wrapping an ice pack in a (clean!) towel first.
Compression garments can be super helpful for this stage. You can put your ice pack right inside of your underwear or pants to keep it in place. Compression is also amazing for reducing pain and swelling and protecting your incision area.
You can also use silicone scar removal sheets to facilitate wound healing and prevent hypertrophic or keloid (aka thick, raised scars). Research shows that they’re actually pretty effective at reducing abnormal scarring.
Check out some of our favorite compression garments and silicone scar removal sheets in our Amazon Storefront.
Another important note: This is also the point where you should be keeping an eye out for infection. Most postoperative infections are discovered 4 to 7 days after surgery, so call your doctor immediately if you notice any of the following:
Fever
Tenderness
Redness
Discharge (white, green, brown, or yellow fluid)
Hardening of tissues
2. C-section scar tissue desensitization
Many women experience sensitive or numb skin around their surgical area, which can be really uncomfortable. Scar tissue desensitization can help reduce sensitivity and bring back sensation to this area.
All you’ll need are fabrics from around your house that have varying textures ranging from soft to rough. For example, you could use cotton, silk, felt and something rougher like a paper towel or sandpaper.
When to do it? We recommend doing it once or twice a day starting one week after your C-section. Continue daily until normal sensation returns.
How to do it? Start with any fabric (softer might be easier at first) and rub the skin around your incision area for about one minute, repeating with all the different fabrics. After 4 weeks postpartum, you can move over the scar itself with the textures, repeating the process.
This is the perfect thing to do as you nurse or feed your baby. Build a little basket of fabrics to keep near your nursing supplies for easy access.
It might feel a bit odd at first and that’s okay! That just means you’re irritating the nerve, which is what we want to happen to encourage healing.
3. C-section scar mobilization
Scar tissue is like the roots of a tree — it grows in all directions and reaches down into your connective tissue.
The buildup of scar tissue can cause pain and future pregnancy complications. The scar can bind to the uterus, fallopian tubes, and ovaries, making subsequent pregnancies trickier. Also, reducing scar tissue improves your scar’s appearance.
So our goal is to get the tissue moving in all directions — that’s where scar mobilization comes in. In our experience, most women aren’t taught how to do this, but it has so many benefits.
When to do it? We recommend working on your scar for 3-5 minutes every day starting at 4 weeks postpartum. You can continue doing it until at least 12 weeks — or if you’re further out already, it’s truly never too late to start!
We’ve created a cheat sheet for you to get that scar mobilized below:
You can also find further details and instructions (and a ready-made desensitization kit) in our C-section Recovery Box.
We can’t stress enough that it’s really never too late to work on your C-section scar. Whether your C-section was six weeks, six months, or six years ago, you can benefit from putting in the time and effort on properly healing your scar.
Best of luck ladies! Hope this helps in your recovery and healing!
-Krystle
Sources:
Ito Y, Konishi A, Okubo M, et al. Safety assessment of the prophylactic use of silicone gel sheets (Lady Care®) for the prevention of hypertrophic scars following caesarean section. J Obstet Gynaecol. 2021;41(3):380-384. doi:10.1080/01443615.2020.1852540
Stupak A, Kondracka A, Fronczek A, Kwaśniewska A. Scar Tissue after a Cesarean Section-The Management of Different Complications in Pregnant Women. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2021;18(22):11998. Published 2021 Nov 15. doi:10.3390/ijerph182211998
Zuarez-Easton S, Zafran N, Garmi G, Salim R. Postcesarean wound infection: prevalence, impact, prevention, and management challenges. Int J Womens Health. 2017;9:81-88. Published 2017 Feb 17. doi:10.2147/IJWH.S98876
