Another question re. episiotomies

[arabella2]

I am worried that where there is scar tissue from my episiotomy with ds1, my perineum may not stretch enough to let baby2 out... It hurts at the moment with the pressure of the baby's head on it so I am also worried that it may hurt a lot during the birth.
Does anybody know about this?

I dont know much but I hadan episiotomy with ds and it was v painful afterwards. I didnt have one with dd just a small tear and a couple of stitches and little pain afterwards.

Thought i'd bump this up!

Anyone any experience of second/third etc... babies after a tear/episio first time around?? I still sometimes have a little tenderness 3 years on and am now 20 weeks with my second. Dread this tearing agin and given the damage first time, not looking forward to it!

I had an epsiotomy first time and didn't 2nd time.... hardly tore too.
Probably because I had a water birth (softens the tissues).
It is common not to have an episio the 2nd time around unless you are with an episiotomy-happy midwife!
Make it clear you don't want it... if you did stretch your perineum the 1st time it will stretch again better then 2nd time.

I had a second episiotomy because it didn't stretch enough and the OB/Gyn thought I'd otherwise get an awkward tear. It was far less trouble than the first and in fact I felt considerably more comfortable afterwards than first time as he "tidied" the previous scar tissue as it had been a bit of a botched job.

I had an episiotomy first time round plus a 3rd degree tear. The episiotomy scar was fine during my 2nd labor but I needed another one as the tear began to go again and I wanted to protect that rather more vulnerable area.

As for the pain, if there is any extra, I suspect you won't notice it amongst the "normal" pain of childbirth. I certainy didn't notice anything from there.

I managed without an episiotomy for my fourth baby, even though I'd had consideable ones with my first three babies. I can't say that I noticed any specific pain in that area, above and beyond the general childbirth pangs. Good luck.

I had a 2nd degree tear first time round, the stitching didn't heal properly and I had to have an operation to repair it. The whole area was still painful when I had my 2nd baby, and I tore along the scar (though in the words of my wonderful midwife 'not quite as much'. This time the stitches healed well and, hallelujah, everything is so very much better - no pain! I too was very worried about it, and posted several times here on Mumsnet. Plenty of reassurance .

IIRC, it was more sensitive during pgcy, but it certainly didn't give me any problems during labour. I felt the burning sensation when the baby crowned, which I hadn't felt with the previous one, and the midwife got me to pant etc, but there was no pain when the baby was actually born.

Have you tried perineal massage? I've heard good things about it, but haven't done it myself - could never reach!