is this normal? i had my 1st baby new year's eve and had a 2nd degree laceration on the bottom and a 1st degree on the top. my dr didn't suture the top but put several on the bottom. the first day home, my husband did something funny and i was laughing really hard...until i felt a tearing sensation down there. i went to the bathroom and there was alot of bright red blood and it stung like hell.
the bright blood stopped the next day but i was still really swollen for the next two weeks. now that all the bleeding has stopped, i was brave enough to feel down there to see if breaking my stitches made me, uh, different. it did. big time.
we are all nurses here, so here i go- my pelvic floor muscles are very noticeable and where i used to have to cram a tampon in i can feel the soft tissue of my lady parts. dear God, i am afraid i have turned into the grand canyon!!
so is this just a normal result of childbirth or did breaking the stitches deform me for good???
p.s. i didn't call my dr. when the stitches broke because i am stubborn and figured everything would be fine. i have my 6 week appt. in about a week or two
I would definitely go get checked out. I had a 4th degree (thanks to a 7 minute brady and forceps) and when I got home I dared to feel and look with a mirror. I had a nice straight suture line and it didn't look anything like I feared it might. I could feel my stitches along my perineum and up the back wall of my lady parts (ok--I had to know the damage!! :imbar I didn't have any probs with healing. It sounds to me like if you had bright red bleeding, and felt something give away, and it's feeling and looking odd to you, you might need some more fixing! Good luck :)
Well........Did you call yet??? Not meaning to badger you, but yah better. I remember my VBAC 2 years ago and am not looking forward to my delivery in March... oddly enough, I remember the episotomy pain more than labor.
hey guys! thank you for all the advise... i went to the dr. today. i tore all my stitches that nite. she fixed it, i guess. it took almost an hour and here i sit on my donut again:) well, at least that buys me another 4 weeks of pelvic rest:roll again, thank you!
:) I'm glad you went to the doc and got stiched up again. 18 yrs ago I had a severe lady partsl laceration, very large episiotomy. I lost alot of blood. Within a week-when the sutures disolved, the entire episiotomy opened up. I went back to the doc. She said I had a lot of damage "down there" and that it will have to heal on its own. I was to never "touch" my perineum. I was to use a peri-bottle and warm water to "wash off after using the toilet". 4 weeks went by. This visit the doc said my perineum was healing slowly-but well and to continue the no touch routine. At 8 weeks I decided I wanted to look in a mirror and see myself how I was healing. As I spread my labia to look, I felt a sharp pain, and sure enough it split open again. It finally healed well enough by 6 months to have sex again-and no-it wasn't the "grand canyon" that I feared it would be. The moral of this story is. DO What the doc tells you........at least in this case! :roll
p.s. I was a young mother......not a nurse at the time.
I am so glad you went to see your doctor. "Bright red blood" is nothing to sit on (no pun intended.) I remember 4th degree lacerations that required extensive repair in the delivery room--actually, the doctors called them "episioproctotomies--" they were really good at doing these complicated repairs--back then (70's) we did a lot of mid and high forceps deliveries under spinal--no epidurals then--that probably would be done by C-section today (and maybe should have been, then.)
I have also seen undetected rectal arterial bleeders that weren't picked up on right away--the red blood would be confused with lochia by the patient, or they would be too embarrased to mention it, or think it was normal--until, 24 or 48 hours post-parum, their H&H indicated severe bleeding, SOMEWHERE--and off they went to the OR for repair and were transfused--it was that serious.
Sounds like you may have a cystocele---be sure to bring it up at your 6 week check-up or even sooner--ask them (now) if it is OK to start doing Kegels, esp. if you are noticing any stress incontinence--
I mention this because I developed a severe cystourethrocele after the birth of my first child--many, many hours of pushing--and I was horrified and soooo embarrassed that I could not seem to make it to the bathroom quickly enough-even though I had worked in L&D as a miltiary corpsman, I did not know about this not-so-nice complication--wish someone had told me it wasn't all that uncommon--but I was not brave enough or smart enough to seek help from my peers, like you were--
MommyLauraRN
39 Posts
I would definitely go get checked out. I had a 4th degree (thanks to a 7 minute brady and forceps) and when I got home I dared to feel and look with a mirror. I had a nice straight suture line and it didn't look anything like I feared it might. I could feel my stitches along my perineum and up the back wall of my lady parts (ok--I had to know the damage!! :imbar I didn't have any probs with healing. It sounds to me like if you had bright red bleeding, and felt something give away, and it's feeling and looking odd to you, you might need some more fixing! Good luck :)