2nd labours after 3rd degree tears, HELP so scared

[sam1983]

Hi just wanted to know other peoples experiences. My 1st labour ended up with an epi and a 3rd degree tear. it took about 5 months for the pain to go and bout 3 months for my boweld to return to normal. I am now 34 weeks with number 2. I have seen my consultant and he said to go for a natural birth which i was happy with at the time, as i was only 12 weeks at that point, labour seemed a long way off!!!the scar has never been looked at since 2 weeks post birth. I am now so scared to give birth incase this happens again. Has anyone else gone throught this?? how do u feel about giving birth again, did u have a section of natural birth and what were the outomes???

I'm sorry I don't have the answer but we are TTC # 2 and I also had an epi and 3rd degree tear (although not the subsequent problems you had).

I think I would personally go for vaginal birth again but maybe it's a gamble. I would hate to end up with long term problems because of it.

Will wait with interest and see what others with experience say.

PS: congratulations on your nearly-here baby!

Hi just wanted to say that my friend had a horrific first labour and 3rd degree tear which also took months to recover from, her second birth was natural and had better support from the midwifes and didn't have a stich! Good luck hope it all goes well x

You have a 5% chance of another third degree tear, which means a 95% chance of not having one. Does it feel 'normal' now? You could always ask for a dr to look at it and see how well it healed, if it looks ok then you would have a good chance of it all being ok, if there is a lot of scar tissue you might be more prone to having problems again.

Hope it all goes well for you

I have the same concern as you. I had a 3rd degree tear with my DC1 (water birth) expecting DC2 in 2.5 weeks and im scared. Baby currently back to back so that is not helping my confidence that all will be ok this time. Seeing the consultant again on Friday.

Have you booked in to see the consultant again?

I had a 3rd degree tear with my first. With my second the midwives were brilliant. I had two using their hands to compress the area as I pushed dd out. Had just a few stitches, nothing major. I was elated!

Hello,
I had my second baby 6 days ago following a first delivery with third degree tear and months of recovery. I was so worried about it happening again. My consultant told me it wouldn't happen again which i didn't believe. Well good news she was right. Technically I had a 2nd degree tear but this only needed 3 stitches. I am not in any pain so different from last time. I can really say it was a great experience. I hope this helps as I really understand the fear.

Hello, I'm going to go against the trend here but I had 3rd degree tear with my first child 4 years ago and have gone on to have elective c-sections for my next 2 children. Baby 3 is now 3 weeks old. After the first birth I had complete bowel incontinance and still have problems. TMI I'm sorry I dont have leaking problems but when I have to have a bowel movement I have to find a toilet or I will have an accident. Hopefully you dont have these problems but for me I'm glad I opted for c-sections. I remember having my first shower after c-section one and thinking yay I'm still in one piece down there!

Yep. My second was minute for minute identical to the hell that was the first and ended up in ventouse. Again. Because i fell for the
Each Baby is Different she wasn't
Second Birth is a Lot Quicker it wasn't
Your Body now knows what it's doing it didn't
lines.
Should hell freeze over and i end up with a third - oh hang on, i haven't had sex since so not likely is it - i will insist on an elective c-section or am just going to shut my legs and refuse to give birth ever again you just watch me.
And breathe.

Sorry OP that wasn't a very helpful reply was it?
Helpful reply - if you weigh up the risks (feeling of hands in your stomach like a washing machine apparently/ scar tissue/ ability to feed lift etc/ risks to baby and you increased/ post op afterpain/ major abdominal surgery...)
and you are still of the opinion c-sec would be preferable then Go For It.
I cannot compare as I didn't. Huge mistake. Huge.
Electives v.different to emergencies so I am told.
My pain threshold is nil.
If I had my time again though I would have trusted my instincts/inner voice/fears and asked for a c-section. In advance. If that is what you want then fight for it if you have to my love. Good luck God bless Congrats x

mybrainsthinkingfuckyousanta I'm so sorry to hear about your experience, I'm in a similar position to OP & have decided to have an ELCS this time. Midwives have encouraged me to try again for a natural birth but the obs & gynae docs have been supportive of my right to choose an ELCS if I'm unhappy about doing that.

It's true there's a good chance of having a better experience 2nd time round, but your experience goes to show it can happen again and I don't want to risk it. It would be great to have crystal ball to know which way things would turn out, as obviously some other women do have good 2nd labours after a 3rd degree tear. I'm sorry things didn't turn out so well for you, that's exactly what I'm scared of!

Thanks everyone for the replys. They have all helped a great deal.
I really do want a natural birth as I feel the whole planned c section might take away the magic from giving birth. There seems to be a lot of postivie stories out there on 2nd time births following 3rd degree tears, But I am still unsure as in the back of my mind I keep thinking what if i suffer incontience problems and thats what is holding me back from going for the vaginal birth. Think I need a good long chat with my midwife and consultant!

Hi there, I'm another one who had 3rd degree tear and episiotomy in first birth and has gone on to have a straightforward second without so much as a graze (despite it being an induction and baby with a VERY large head).

I know all too well the fear you are feeling. I saw a consultant twice during my second pregnancy. The first one reviewed the scans I had had post first birth to assess the damage (I had a 3b tear, which healed well apart from a small section of unhealed tissue deep inside). He was happy for me to go ahead with vaginal delivery. The second consultant I saw was much later in my pregnancy who basically said that since I had suffered no adverse symptoms during second pregnancy (pain in scar tissue area, constipation, loss of control of gas or faeces etc) and the scans looked reasonably good, my risk of tearing again was the same as anyone elses.

Did you have rectal scans as a follow up from your 3rd degree tear? Did you see a colo-rectal specialist at all? Some hospital offer this and some don't, but you could ask to be seen by one to chat it through.

Hi I did not have any scans following my tear, and am thinking I need some1 to look at the scar to assess the situation better. Just feel time is ticking away now have my midwife next weeks and consultant at 36 weeks , my 1st baby was born at 35 weeks so lets hope i dont go early again and miss the consultant!!
I just feel that everyone is ignoring the situation apart from me.

My 3rd degree tear will be twenty next week . Whatever way your birth happens, good luck! My second and third births were really straightforward, couple of stitches - so I'd be in the 'you should be fine' camp, but I was fairly obsessed with 'what if..' too.

will pop later but have a good outcome

I suffered a very bad tears with my first birth. Took ages to heal and generally made me feel shit.

When I fell pregnant again, I asked for an elcs from the beginning but was declined. I tore again, worse than before and through the old tears too.

I'm waiting to go for an operation to remove scar tissue and put everything back. My babies weren't large at all, ds2 was 1lb bigger than ds1.

They changed the rules just after my last baby was born so if you dig your heels in you should be taken more seriously than I was.
Good luck op.

I had a third degree tear with DS. However i had no problems with continence once I had recovered (I did start pelvic floors hours after birth) and it healed well.

I had DD three weeks ago and tore again but to a much lesser extent (border 1/2nd) and I can honestly say a few days post birth I could feel a thing. It's all healed up now. DD did have a big head too - wasn't the head that made me tear but her hand coming out with her shoulder. The MW was great - good instructions during pushing whereas with DS he shot out too quickly.

I was very active during labour - bounced through every contraction and lent forward to make sure DD was in the best position. The labour itself was faster too.

I have to admit when the MW said I'd tore again I was gutted but given how easy the recovery has been I'd take it over a c- section!

I has a 2nd degree tear with DS, was extremely painful to sit for weeks and had problems with incontinence / sudden urgent need to poo. 3 years later I had DD and this was a 3rd degree tear. However, although it took over 3 hours to sew me back together again, it was amazingly much less painful, healed up quickly and the incontinence is gone, plus much improvement with pooing, I can wait for a while now. God bless the kind consultant who stitched me back together so well. Well what I mean by all this is that a 3rd degree tear need not be that bad, mine was so much better than the 2nd degree one!

I had a third degree tear with DD and was given the choice of a CS or VB with heavy emphasis that they thought VB was the way to go. Since I had stress incontinence and gas control issues I was pretty worried. However the area I have moved to is great.

The initial registrar was rather cold and did nothing to convince me that all my problems would be solved with good physio support. When I asked could I speak to the physio's to answer my questions, he simply asked me 'why, I'm the Dr' the arrogant fucker. DH was there, I cried but refused to go until I had been satisified. I then spoke to a consultant who was lovely and set up a meeting with the VBAC consultant MW to go what could be done in labour to help. They have a very active program to prevent 3rd degree tears.

I had the VB with a small episiometry done at the very last minute (sp?). I am now seeing the gynae physio, who is great. Although I've got a few months of graduated exercises ahead of me I am confident that my symptoms will pass.

If this wasn't available I would have gone for the CS as there would have been no system in place (i.e. where I gave birth last time) to fix damage. They all took my concerns seriously and I didn't feel like I was told 'well, some continence issue is to be expected after childbirth'. They have the complete opposite stance of no matter how small symptons are, you shouldn't have them. I was referred to the physio straight away after birth, in fact was the only reason I stayed overnight so I could get the system straight away.

It was stressful as I moved at 34 weeks so felt under pressure to get everything sorted in a short space of time.

hope this helps in some way

It's a shame you haven't had any sort of follow up post-tear.

I had a third degree tear 15 weeks ago, and shortly after leaving hospital I received a referral for a gynae consultant. I had to have an ultrasound to check the healing of the sphincter muscle, and then the consultant, er, checked how well I could squeeze the muscle...

Apparently it wasn't functioning great, although I've had no continence problems, so I have to go back in April. He said that I would also be referred during a future pregnancy, if I'm still living in the area. Chances are I won't be, so I'm not sure whether I'll get such good care from a different hospital.

Maybe you could ask to see a gynae for a thorough check?

I had an emergency forceps birth that left a lot of tearing internally and externally. Second degree but tore from the episiotomy too and a lot of vaginal lacerations and scarring.

My bladder stopped working when they removed the catheter post natally (forceps were done in theatre in last ditch attempt to avoid an emcs as DD was stuck and crashing) and I had months of no control, then a little control, then urge incontinence. 10 months of physio and 2 consultants later I was 'ok'. I still need the smallest tena pads to function daily.

I read up a lot and chose an elcs for DC2. I didn't want any more children further on; I already had incontinence problems that will worsen during menopause; I didn't want to risk DS getting wedged like DD - I think I have a weird pelvis tilt; I was less than reassured after bad labour and post natal care first time round; I wanted DS out safely; I wanted scars somewhere new that would heal well; I wanted to preserve the remaining strength in my pelvic floor from the big head stretch.

I really wanted to be someone who had a healing second time with no issues. But my gut said DS would get stuck and I would be further damaged. So I chose elcs. It was healing.

If I had had no symptoms maybe I would have gone for the vb, but I weighed the risks and for me the planned surgical route was safer than the possible emcs or forceps outcomes.

I had a third degree tear after a very long labour and forceps were used with my first. My son was 10lb 4oz! I then had my second and so worried about the labour that I kept searching Internet in hope some people had a good labour. My 2nd labour was 4 hours in total and had natural amazing birth. I had an excellent midwife who was present at both births and we agreed to avoid another tear I would not have epidural but have a water bath then get put at final labour bit. The birth was so different and I am so glad I didn't have epidural as this time I knew when to push and labour easier- good luck