If you tore during your first labour, are you more or less likely to tear in subsequent labours?

[sarahscot]

Or equally as likely I suppose?

Not sure, but marking my place as I would also like to find out....

It makes no difference.

You have just as much chance of tearing as someone who never has. I had a bad 3rd degree tear with DS. The surgery went well and they are letting me choose whether I want a natural birth or a c section this time, if the surgery hadn't gone as well as it did and I hadn't healed as well as I did, they would recommend a c section. The registrar did say that I had no more chance of tearing than any other woman giving birth, which I felt was quite reassuring really.

HTH.

Don't actually know, but I had a 2nd degree tear with ds1 and was cut (forcep delivery)
then with ds2 (natural delivery) I tore all along my original tear and cut scars

First labour was fast (5 hours) with a big baby (7 pounds 5 ounces 5 weeks early) and I did tear - a lot.

Second later was slightly longer (5 hours) with an even bigger baby (8 pounds 13 ounces) and I only had one tiny tear in a different place. The older tears that were stitched the first time round held fast.

Not sure if that helps, but the general gist is that I had less tears with a bigger baby.

Im not sure,i didnt tear but was cut and stitched,and the same with no2,but he was a lot bigger,wheras no3 was smaller,so i didnt need any stitches,and no4 was bigger so again i was cut and stitched.

I suppose as long as you dont push too quickly during the head coming out,you might just get away with it,as everything has already stretched 1st time round.But i dont really know sorry.

it is all individual but for what is worth in my first labour I tore. I just escaped going to theatre as a Dr came to my labour room and did the stitches.

I worried about for the birth of my second child because the stitches really hurt the first time and I thought for the second it would be certain theatre.

I did need stitches the second time. Not as many though, not as deep. And they let me have some gas and air for the few they did. It didn't hurt as much weeing/walking etc.

So don't worry about it... You will hopefully have little needlework to be done.

I'm not sure but I was cut for DS1 and then had a slight tear along the scar of the cut - nothing awful though, just a scratch and no stitches.

My ds1 was 9lbs 10oz and ds2 was only 7lbs 13oz.
Both times it tgook over an hour for them to stitch me up.

I was told by my mw the second time that whoever had stitched me the first time had done a very good job.
ds2 was induced and I do remember the mw yelling at me to not push, maybe that's why I tore.

MIdwife told me you did have more chance of tearing if you had tore/been cut before because the scar tissue isn't as strong.

DS1: 7lbs 9oz, 3rd degree tear after epis. and ventouse, 12 stitches both internal and external repaired in theatre with a spinal block

DS2: 7lbs 7oz, 1 stitch at the original wound to tidy up the mess left by his brother according to my MW who spent ages humming and haaing about whether to stitch or not and in the end had to get a second opinion. He actually did the damage with his shoulder rather then his head and the MW was really cross as she was sure we'd manage to avoid a tear totally

DS2 was a fabulous birth - too fast to get into the water - but virtually unassisted by the mw who just let me get on with it.

I had second degree tears with all three births, as did my sister with her three DCs - we were told that it's not the size of the baby (all our babies were small, the largest was 7lb 3) but the speed of the birth (they were all fast) and your 'shape', whatever that means! I can imagine the speed of the birth makes a difference - for DC3 in particular, I did everything to try not to tear, didn't push, mw supported me etc but he shot out and I had no chance to control it.At least it meant that the birth itself wasn't that painful.

Best of luck - I always dreaded the tearing and stitches but it was never as bad as I imagined.

Constance I was told the exact opposite by the registrar, not a MW so I would be more inclined to go on their advice. I also ran it by my MW and she agreed.

Starlight I think it depends on the degree of tear. I don't think having a 3rd or 4th degree tear stitched in theatre would be the best part of any birth . I certainly found it more traumatic than the difficult birth and that was with the epidural still working.

I didn't

dc1, 8lb, 2nd degree tear
dc2, 6lb 15oz no tear, just a bruised feeling
dc3, 9lb, was told by midwive that I had a slight graze, I wouldn't have known if she hadn't told me

So from my experience, I would say that the answer to your question is "not necessarily" and size of the baby doesn't seem to matter either.

My experience was

1st labour, was in labour for 22 hours, dd weighed 7lb 2oz and I had a tear.

2nd labour, was in labour for 11 hours, ds weighed 9lb 3oz and no tear.

I was told by my midwife that it depends on why you tore the first time. If you have a particularly friable perenium (not sure what that means) then you are likely to tear again as it's the way you're made, but if you had an instrumental birth then you may be less likely to tear as that's just due to the situation and as long as you have a good birth the next time round you should be fine.

My MW also said its down to how stretchy a persons skin is, some are more than others (maybe thats what friable perenium means). I'm hoping as my first birth was an instumental one, it means that I won't necessarily tear again.

Starlight, yes, I'm worried about it. Had 2nd degree tears last time which took 12 weeks to heal and caused me a lot of pain for much of that time. I think you were lucky that they didn't bother you afterwards, most people aren't that lucky.