Avoiding Episiotomy

Is there anything we can do to help avoid this during L&D??

Any advice, medical or wives tales?

Is this just very wishful thinking...haha?

Re: Avoiding Episiotomy

I have heard that you can rub olive oil on the area for a few weeks before delivery. I didn't do this and tore badly- I still have issues down there!

Re: Avoiding Episiotomy

I did the self-massaging for weeks every single day in the shower with some vasaline. They had actually talked about it in my L&D class so I thought it was worth a try.

I also asked my nurse in the delivery room to help me with it and to try to help stretch it when the time came.

Despite all that, including the nurse AND my OB trying to gently stretch me during delivery, DD just got stuck coming out (and she was only 7 lbs 2 oz -- small!) and after 1 hr 10 minutes pushing, my OB said it looked like a cut was exactly what we needed and was that ok... I told him to ask DH because I was in no position to make that decision at the time (I was a bit uncomfortable from all that pushing).

He made a small cut, and then enlarged the cut. DD popped RIGHT OUT, but also tore me in a v-shape upward.

Honestly, the episiotomy was NOTHING compared to where I self tore. I was totally a "if my body needs to tear, it'll heal better" person before I gave birth. Boy, I was I wrong!!!!! If you have the choice between being cut and tearing, take the cut. The healing was ridiculously different. Where I was cut has healed up perfectly fine. I can feel it with my hand and it's really not all that different than it was beforehand (remember all the days in the shower? yeah... I can tell from feeling).

Where the stitches where I tore were, it hurt a few weeks longer PP and I still feel some pulling there today (7 weeks PP).

Inevitable? Maybe. But if you're in the moment and have a choice, let your OB cut you -- he can make it even and stitch you up so you heal nicely. If you tear, there's no telling what will happen.

If you have any specific questions, feel free to FM me. I obviously have no issue telling long, drawn-out, personal stories on this forum.

DD goes to sleep early and I post novels on the pregnancy board... sheesh.

Re: Avoiding Episiotomy

Make your wishes known to your delivering OB. Mine 'massaged' me while I was laboring and it helped but in the end I still needed one bc I was tearing in the wrong spot. It was only 2 stitches worth so I'd say the massage (& doing kegels) helped.

Re: Avoiding Episiotomy

I opened this thread... hoping I'd find some plan of action.

but now I'm having anxiety instead.

must leave this thread now.

Re: Avoiding Episiotomy

Re: Avoiding Episiotomy

There was no avoiding it for me. DS had and still does have a big head. He was stuck and once his pressure dropped, they had to use a vacuum so I was cut a lot. I didn't feel it. Thanks to DH's graphic description I cringe when I think about it. I can picture what the Dr did.

The recovery was far worse for me than a normal delivery. I could barely laugh, cough or sit up without being in pain. I refused to take meds especially since I was breast feeding so I dealt with the pain. Exactly a week after delivering, the pain subsided and it healed quickly. Va jay jay is completely back to normal. I must say though... SE$ is definitely much better.

Re: Avoiding Episiotomy

I didnt have an episiotlomy but I did tear during delivery. I was a little sore for about a week or so after but it wasnt bad. When my ob came to the hospital to discharge me she actually said to me "you are moving around like nothing ever happened!"

Re: Avoiding Episiotomy

I didn't get cut with DS#1. My midwife and the nurse kept stretching the area while I was in labor. I actually had DS vacuum extracted and there was some small tearing on the inside but none externally. It hardly hurt afterwards. Now the hemmeroids...that's a completely different sotry

Re: Avoiding Episiotomy

Re: Avoiding Episiotomy

I tore and it hurt like a bitchh. I used the boppy to sit on more than my kid did.

Re: Avoiding Episiotomy

This scares me as well! My doula suggested perineal massage as well so we are going to give that a whirl. Some more info and how to below. I found some video when I googled it but I figured I would spare you that visual.

http://www.pregnancy.org/article/perineal-massage

Re: Avoiding Episiotomy

I'm so scared of both!! After reading everyone's responses, I'm thinking the episiotomy may be better. I've read so many mixed opinions on different sites.

Re: Avoiding Episiotomy

Posted by MissJones

Posted by blustar214

Posted by MrsKS

I opened this thread... hoping I'd find some plan of action.

but now I'm having anxiety instead.

must leave this thread now.

Same here!

Same here. It scares me more than labor itself!

The words 'tearing' and 'vagina' just don't belong in the same sentence.

Message edited 2/26/2011 11:38:38 AM.

Re: Avoiding Episiotomy

Mine ripped a little bit. It really isnt bad at all. You dont feel it.

Re: Avoiding Episiotomy

I had an episiotomy while in labor with DD. I have to tell you that I didn't even know I had one until after she was born and I was being stitched up. I didn't feel a thing and my epidural didn't work, so it wasn't numb from that.

Don't be too nervous about it!

Re: Avoiding Episiotomy

Re: Avoiding Episiotomy

OK, I'm going to be brutally honest. Hopefully ya'll will "get" what i'm saying......

Having my babies effed up my bits- starting with my first. I have to have surgery to fix everything up. Tearing was one thing I had- 4th degree with my son- but was the least of my issues.

I didn't feel any of the tearing with any of my births. The pain of recovery was annoying, but so is the pain of BFing, the pain of sleep deprivation, etc. But you get through it.

Just so you know, I worried about the same things before I had my first baby. After 3 hours of pushing, she was vacuum extracted, I tore, and wound up with a prolapse of..... well, everything. You know what? It sounds awful, even me reading it right now I think, "YEEEEEEESH!!!!" But in all honesty- it is NOT as bad as you'd think. Hell, I went on to have 2 more- and i am so incredibly thankful for that.

The point of this is to tell you that regardless of tearing, episiotomy, c/section, etc. You will get through it and be FINE. Do what you can to help avoid tearing/being cut, but just know that if it DOES occur, the reality is nowhere near as bad as your own imagination.

In the grand scheme of things, you all know it is all worth it.

Re: Avoiding Episiotomy

Posted by DiamondGirl

Posted by MrsKS

I opened this thread... hoping I'd find some plan of action.

but now I'm having anxiety instead.

must leave this thread now.

me too.

Honestly sometimes I wonder IF a C-Section IS worse

Re: Avoiding Episiotomy

I didnt need an episiotomy and I didnt tear with DS but I have to say that is one of my biggest fears with this one!

Re: Avoiding Episiotomy

Posted by KimPetro

This scares me as well! My doula suggested perineal massage as well so we are going to give that a whirl. Some more info and how to below. I found some video when I googled it but I figured I would spare you that visual.

http://www.pregnancy.org/article/perineal-massage