Just looked at my perineal stitches (3 wks post partum) what a horrible mistake!
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Anonymous
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I thought I had torn mine after a second degree tear. It was just some of the swelling starting to abate.
Looking is disturbing. I looked after delivering the first, but decided to avoid it after the 2nd and 3rd. It goes back to normal after a while, but that postpartum period is just bad. |
Anonymous
Yeah, but I'd rather have my stitches in my lower abdomen than my hooha. |
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Anonymous
+ 1000 |
Anonymous
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But you would have more stitches in your lower abdomen than you have in your perineum. What's the ratio of stitches in your lower abdomen vs. in your perineum that would make it worthwhile for you?
I had one stitch in my perineum, for my vaginal delivery -- and I can't see or feel a scar. I probably had 15 staples in my lower abdomen, for my C-section -- and I can still see and feel a scar (though it's very faint). |
Anonymous
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I was still in massive amounts of pain at 6 weeks, and some of my stitches fell out too. I went to my OB, and she said it was better to let it heal naturally than restitch.
I was too scared to look, but I have in the 3 years since, and it looks normal again (well it did before I got pregnant again). I am not sure how many stitches I had, but she had to use two suture kits and it took at least 30 mins. So I'm thinking it was a substantial amount. |
Anonymous
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Man, i had a second degree tear and my OB was basically acting like it was no big deal (I was in a very bad pushing position, on my tailbone - awful). Anyway, I never did look. I had a TON of pain though. I thought birth itself was really easy and the tearing didn't even really hurt, but the actual recovery was awful. I hear you often tear along the same fault lines but I'd like to avoid that if I can this time. I had some granulation tissue develop, which was really hard.
If you can, OP, take a bath (in a very clean tub rinsed very well of any of the cleaners). When my OB okay'd baths was when my recovery really turned around. It made a big difference. Good luck! Due in a few weeks and not looking forward to this again. And btw, I never looked! |
Anonymous
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I'm going under the who "NEVER LOOK" situation.
I don't want to look when he's coming out, or after at what his head has done to me. Just like in Knocked Up. DONT LOOK lol good luck on your recovery, OP - and congrats on your little one |
Anonymous
| This thread makes me even more grateful for my c section. |
Anonymous
| I had a third degree year with my first and had to go to the OR for repair. Took over an hour. BUT, I had no lasting effects, now looks normal down there, and I went on to have two more kids with no tearing - they just have to keep an eye in the scar during your pushing. No problem at all. I don't have any discomfort, I don't pee in my pants, sex is good. So odds are, you won't need surgery or anything. You'll be fine in a couple of weeks! |
Anonymous
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With #1, repair took an hour and I never did look...for years. With #2 repair took about 7 minutes. i popped a stitch which hurt like hell, after one week. I thought I only had one but after a lot of itching and pulling during nursing, I decided to look...I found 3 other stitches! so basically I had a stitch at noon, 3, 6, and 9. I"m 4 weeks pP and not great yet.
I haven't had a c-section but do have a belly to breast bone scar that's not cute. I remember that pain even though I was young. Both suck. Different kind of sucking though. The thing about the vag is that most of us want to use ours again....for fun times. My Dh had a vas while I was doing my 6 week wait. I feel like the first time we get together. we will both be new a virginal... |
Anonymous
| It could be worse. The one time I looked at my perineal stitches to find out why I was so uncomfortable, I found a huge chunk of retained placenta hanging out. I seriously screamed and fainted. Never ever looked again. |
Anonymous
Holy f%%. I'd faint too. |
Anonymous
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I never looked, but I had pain during sex for a year. Boy that was fun.
I asked the midwife what I have to do to avoid stitches with #2 and she said to not push the head all at once, but as gradually as humanly possible. |
Anonymous
+1 |
Anonymous
I think the location of the stitches is more important than the number. The doctor wouldn't tell me how many stitches I needed, but I think it was about 6 or 7. In my opinion, the biggest advantage of a C-section is that you are numb for the procedure (be it epidural or spinal nerve block). I had a 2nd degree tear with no epidural, no nothing, and felt the whole thing. The doc did numb me locally (either novacaine or lidocaine) while she was stitching me back up which was a small consolation. I also lost 1.5 pints of blood during delivery. I didn't look down there until weeks later, after the stitches were mostly gone. My husband saw the whole thing in the delivery room though and told me about it later (I was pretty out of it from shock). I still have a visible scar and occasionally have problems with bladder leakage, since my pelvic floor muscles were cut in half. The worst part is the dilemma of whether to tell anyone what you went through. Everyone's telling you how lucky you are you didn't have a C-section, and those women who did are given extra help and sympathy and recovery time. Do you stay quiet to avoid embarrassment? Or do you tell people that your vagina looks like Frankenstein's monster and you need extra help and recovery time too? What will people think? There is one silver lining in all this. After what my husband witnessed, I thought he would never want to have sex with me again. But the opposite is true, our sex life is much better now than before we had a kid (who is now almost 4). If I have another child, I will be begging for a C-section. I was only in labor for 6 hours, which I've been told is one reason for the tear: my skin didn't have time to stretch. The fact that the second childbirth is usually shorter than the first (even less time for the skin to stretch), and the fact that scar tissue doesn't stretch as well as normal skin, leads me to believe that the same thing would happen next time. |