episiotomy unraveled - anyone experienced this?

[YBR]

My DD was a forceps delivery almost 6 weeks ago. After about 5 days we discovered the episiotomy stitches had unraveled (I think within 2 days - I had been trying to tell them), they decided not to re-suture. Although it is healing, I still have an open wound down there and plenty of discomfort.

Anyone else had this? Any advise or experiences of how long it'll take and if it'll ever heal completely?

I font have experience of that, I had a bad 1nd degree with dd and a second with ds and if I were you I would be getting done help now. When is your six week check?

I had this, you have my sympathies, it's v.painful. Make sure you get adequate pain meds and keep taking them, I was on diclofenac and paracetamol for about 2 months. Mine had started to heal at 6 weeks but I remember that it was still partly open at my 8 week check (but majority closed and much less painful by then).

Also, I was obsessed with keeping it clean to avoid infection. I went through about 10-12 maternity pads per day (changing every time I went to the loo and any time I felt damp from lochia loss.) also bathed with drops of tea tree oil and if no time for bath, ensured I cleaned with sterile cotton wool and a bowl of water with a drop or 2 of tea tree.

Mine had healed completely at 3 months but I've never since been pain and discomfort free (now over 2 years on). Keep asking your GP for help/treatment if you're still feeling pain, don't end up like me.

Who is "they"? I would be seeing a gynecologist. I had this with a bad second degree tear and after a lot of antibiotics it was restitched as my consultant said it would take ages to heal on its own and the muscle wouldn't rejoin properly. It was a miserable time for me and I was really shocked as my NCT classes said that it would take ages to recover from a CS, but nothing like this about VB.

Yes, I'm afraid I did . I insisted on going back to see the consultant (via the GP) and he offered a restitch, but I just couldn't face the general anaesthetic (was EBF) and even more pain.

However it took at least a year before all the pain was gone, and it is still not totally right (eg I just had a few weeks of pain after having a smear and a coil, as something 'gave' inside). If I could go back, I would go for the restitch and the short term pain...

Yes I had this. Stitches started to come away after about 4 days and then infection got in. GP was useless and just kept saying it would heal on its own and I ended up back in hospital after 4 months of agony for removal of scar tissue (granulation), muscle repair and re-stitch. After the op I was virtually pain free within a couple of days. I believe the risk in sitting it out is that infection gets in, which will make matters worse. Or you end up with granulation like me, which is where the scar tissue keeps over-healing because it's moving about all the time and can never knit together properly. This looks and feels like a permanently open wound. I would insist on seeing a consultant asap so that you can see what your options are and go from there.

Anchorwoman - yy, that makes sense, I remember the consultant saying I had a lot of granulation. I can 'feel' it sometimes, and that must be what hurts occasionally if it pulls apart again.

Great this childbirth thing isn't it?!

they - the medics on the ward.
I'm still under consultant care and packing the wound with sugar paste twice daily (keeps infection out and helps it heal quicker I gather). It's more discomfort than pain - I don't need painkillers atm.
You all make the prognosis seem grim so I'll make sure I get answers from the consultant when I see her next.

Ybr - sorry to make it sound so grim. It will get better either way, I'm sure, it's just that I think there is more chance of it getting back to 95-100% better with an op iyswim.

I would say that I'm about 80% ok without an op, but if I could go back in time I'd never have had a vbac I'd have a restitch to give myself a better chance of total recovery.

YBR i just wanted to reassure you that prognosis isn't grim. as lukewarm says, it will get better either way. to give you an alternative story to restitching: my stitches starting falling out at about 9 days postnatal, and were all out by the time the mw saw it at 10 days postnatal. i had a 3 inch episiotomy, which was then a 3 inch open wound. they didn't want to restitch. i was in agony, and lots of painkillers. anyway, instead of a restitch i had cauterisations, ended up having this 4 times, and also i had to have a small amount of granulation cut away under local aneasthetic. oh, and on day 16 postnatal before all that, they ruptured some granulation tissue with some guaze. anyway, through this process of managing the granulation tissue, i did not have to be restitched, and the wound eventually healed and the pain eventually subsided (it took months though)

i did a lot of research and never heard of sugar paste, that's interesting. i did however hear of manuka honey applied to the wound, salt water baths, and tea-tree and/or lavendar oil baths.

wash the area after you go to the loo each time, you should keep it really clean to avoid infection too.

get as much air to the area as you can- sleep without undies if possible.

there are lots of threads on this, its surprisingly common, you can probably search for them to get a range of stories.