Bed Mobility & Sleep Guides for C-Section Recovery

After a C-section, your abdominal muscles have been cut through and stitched back together, and every movement that engages your core — which is every movement in bed — reminds you of that fact. Turning over sends a pulling, burning sensation across your incision. Sitting up from lying down feels impossible without using your abs, and using your abs feels impossible without pain. Meanwhile, you have a newborn who needs feeding every few hours, so “just rest and don’t move” isn’t an option. You need to get in and out of bed repeatedly, and every trip is an ordeal.

The specific problem is that your rectus abdominis and transversus abdominis — the muscles that flex your trunk and stabilise your core during turns — are healing from a surgical incision. Any movement that shortens or stretches those muscles pulls on the wound. A standard sit-up to get out of bed is the worst possible movement: it contracts the rectus directly across the incision line. A bed turn that involves any twisting loads the obliques, which connect to the same fascial layer. The pain is your body’s alarm system telling you the tissue is being stressed before it’s ready.

The guides here teach you the log-roll method for turning without using your abdominals, a side-lying push-up technique for getting from lying to sitting that bypasses the core entirely, and a sequence for lowering yourself back into bed without that controlled-crash moment where your abs have to brake your descent. They’re designed for the first 6–8 weeks of recovery, when the incision is still healing and core engagement is painful. Every technique minimises abdominal involvement so you can stay mobile — and keep feeding, changing, and holding your baby — without setting back your recovery.