Reply to Just looked at my perineal stitches (3 wks post partum) what a horrible mistake!

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Reply to "Just looked at my perineal stitches (3 wks post partum) what a horrible mistake!"

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]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).[/quote]

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.[/quote]

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