When is your perineum not your perineum?

[yeahyeahitsallmyfault]

Sorry if this is in the wrong section, but really would like to understand the following:

When does my perineum become my vagina and VV?

I should perhaps explain that during the delivery of DD2 I suffered a second degree tear. My perineum was intact (as I understood it) and the injury was internal - in my vagina as I thought.

So, after a number of issues I have complained about my care and the hospitals response refers repeatedly to my perineum, perineal tear, care, suturing, inspection etc etc. So what I want to know is when does my vagina become my perineum and VV?

I want to respond to their letter as I believe they've not even managed to get the basic information about my injury correct, but before I fire off a letter I thought I'd better get my anatomy straight. My doctor is unavailable today and I have phoned the contact provided in the letter and they are not clinical and cannot help either.

Any clarification would be most welcome thanks!

[nomiddlename]

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perineum

[Flisspaps]

VV?

[yeahyeahitsallmyfault]

vice versa - sorry!

[Flisspaps]

I'm not sure in that case. I always thought the perineum was the external skin bit from the vagina to the anus, but according to that wikipedia link, there's all sorts of gubbins internally which classes as the perineum.

Have you seen your birth notes?

[yeahyeahitsallmyfault]

Flisspaps - well the hospitals response is based on my notes as the midwife that did the stitching is on maternity leave. I can only assume that the notes don't make it clear that my perineal skin was intact, i.e they didn't make good notes...

[cardamomginger]

If you are complaining and you want to respond, I'd get hold of a copy of your delivery notes. It sounds like you need to know exactly what they did or what they say they did and exactly what they decided the extent of your injuries were. Highly recommend doing this - my notes made for an extremely enlightening read as they showed that my muscle tears had been stitched with suturing material that is only appropriate for skin, so it's no wonder that the stitching failed and I now need extensive repair work. You can always write an interim response saying that you have requested a copy of your notes and will be responding to the issues they raise once you have received them and have had time to study them. Good luck.

[yeahyeahitsallmyfault]

Yes I think I will request my notes. Interestingly they had my 1st stage of labour as 15 hours which when I challenged (I wasn't even in the delivery suite 15 hours!) they revised this to 2.5 hours. Great record keeping!