Stitches

[Londongirl84]

I have birth 3 days ago and although my stitches feel like they're healing, as in the pain is easing, I'm a little bit concerned as they seem to be leaking a bit of pus. Sorry- way too much information!! Is this ok? Midwife visiting again tomorrow.

If you have an infection, you always get increasing pain in my experience. Keep clean with plain water, pat dry with kitchen roll. Ask the midwife to have a look tomorrow.

Get the midwife to have a look. She should be able to spot something. She might ask you to go to GP to get a swab, if she is concerned.

Stitches take a while to heal. Mine took about two months, and then a further two months to fully heal. All the best x

Thank you both so much x

Mine got infected as I wasn't drying them properly - I was advised to dry with a hair dryer which felt odd but really helped. Don't worry too much if they are infected, mine cleared up fine after a week long course of antibiotics.

If you do use a hairdryer make sure you clean out the filter which can often be full of fluff, or you risk introducing an infection. Better still buy a cheap new hairdryer (I bought a new fan but then I was in near permanent bed rest with my stitches problems, hopefully you're nowhere near that so a clean hairdryer would be more practical)

Agree with drying with hair dryer. Also lie on bed with knees up and legs apart for a few minutes, as this helps with the drying! Not very elegant but seemed to work for me.

Don't use kitchen roll, it's full of chemicals and usually rough to touch!! Normal nice toilet roll or a clean dry flannel each time

I got an infection almost straight away! I certainly knew something was amiss. The pain was terrible.