Warning re c section stitches

[CakeandRoses]

Just had my second cs and have found this one far more painful to recover from purely because the blooming surgeon decided to use a different type of stitch.

Had dissolvable stitches with DS and healed really quickly, was off painkillers after a few days apart from days when I'd over-done it or clothes had rubbed on the scar.

With DD (born last week) I had Prolene, which has a line of stitches and then plastic/metal 'pegs' at either end and needs to removed after a week or so.

I'm now back on painkillers purely because as the week has worn on the stitches have got tighter and the pegs are digging into my skin and also getting caught on my knickers etc (seriously ouch!)

Have whinged to a couple of midwives about and they've said there doesn't seem to be any benefit of using prolene over dissolvables and they've also known lots of woman have the same problems with the pegs causing problems.

I'm also worried the scar won't be as neat as my skin is swollen around the pegs whereas the scar was barely visible after my first cs.

I feel so cross that women are having to have this extra unnecessary pain and wanted to tell you to try to request dissolvable stitches for your cs.

I'd also be interested to hear of anyone else's experiences with prolene as I'm planning to write to my hospital about it.

problems here too.

had dissolvable with ds and had no probs and a lovely neat scar.

had the line of stitches with beads at the end with dd and had my scar gaping, then it split after 9 days and bled and leaked fluid for a week, got an infection and the scar, now healed after 7 weeks, is a right mess.

if i had known they were going to use the bead method of stitches i would of asked for dissolvable, which i assumed they would use.

I was very lucky and ok with both types of stiches. Although those metal beads did get caught on my mesh post op knickers.

I didn't have the option to chose though, I was told it was the surgeons preference on the day.

I'm getting so cross about this!

Why would surgeons prefer to use stitches which can cause issues (even if it's just the beads getting caught on your knickers as in Meglet's case) - do they know the problems connected with this type of stitch, do you think?

Oh and meglet - did the prolene affect the look of your scar after it had healed?

Thanks so much for this warning - never would have occurred to me to ask what type they will use but will definitely see if I can make a request.

Really sorry you have had these problems and thanks again for sharing.

C&R It didn't actually (just checked ).

I had the same bead stitches after a hysterectomy last summer and it was fine after that.

But, I did prefer the dissovable stiches too. Maybe they aren't as strong so the surgeon has to decide how the wound / skin is on the day.

My friend had staples .

I requested Prolene as I do not do well with dissolvable stitches (they do not dissolve)

Agree about pain from beads, but this went the moment they were removed.

My scar is perfect now and I had no problems with infection or ongoing pain.

I had Prolene and my scar has healed fine, no infection or problems, the stitches did pinch until I had them out after five days.

I had a traumatic c section with dt2 because the epidural wore off half way through, it was agonizing and I was given a general. The next day the midwife told me, the surgeon had decided to be kind and give me dissolvable stiches because Ihad such a rough time, where normaly he refuses to use dissolvable. So if dissolvable stiches are kinder then why use anything else?

Thanks for the warning! I had dissolvable stiches with my first, but didn't know at the time there was any kind of choice. Had no problems whatsoever. Will remember to ask at next consultant app to confirm they will use them again.

That's really interesting whoingodsname, I'd really like to understand if there's a good reason to use prolene or if some surgeons just prefer to use it. So sorry to hear you had such an awful time.

mrspickles - had them out earlier today and I walked out of the surgery with a smile on my face! I called the midwife first thing this morning and pleaded with her to take them out (a day early). I feel sooo much better but it's annoyed me too as it proves how much pain was coming from the stitches alone!

The scar itself looks very neat and is healing well but I have two 'holes' surrounded by red, inflamed skin at either side where the pegs were digging in. Hopefully they'll heal as well as the rest of it now though.

Oh and for those of you that had them out on day 5 - that's only the case for cs1, I'm told that for subsequent ones it's day 7. Mine only started to really annoy me on day 5 so even though you were fine the first time round, you might find it worse if you have another cs with prolene.