What can I expect in recovering from a ventouse delivery?

[johendy]

I've just had my second child and due to her distress I had to have an assisted delivery with a ventouse and episiotomy.

My first labour was straight forward so I'm not sure what to expect from this recovery? Might it be different? How? Any tips or advice?

I had the same. Can't compare to normal delivery as not had one. recovery wasn't too bad, especially compared to friends who had forceps-main issue I had was infected stitches, which I needed antibiotics for, so try and keep them as clean as possible -which is hard with all the bleeding, pads etc. if you can have some time each day sitting on an old towel with nothing on your bottom half! Not always practical obviously! Make sure midwives check them when they visit you if you home, so you can catch any problems early.

Other than that, just take your time and do what you feel like physically.

One tip which I found soothing was to keep a bottle of distilled witchazel in the fridge and put some on your pad each time you put a new one on. Somebody else suggested adding dettol to your bath, but I could never bring myself to do that! Perhaps would have avoided infection though!

Hi i had my baby girl 4 days ago via ventouse and OMG I still feel like being ridden over by bus.
Was told my stitches were clean and nice. However I had SPD before and now it is 10x worse. Also after delivery I started leaking urine big time. Not the best combo.
So far can not sit, getting in and out of bed is nightmare. Makes breastfeeding super hard.

I've had both ventouse and normal. The main difference was that the recovery time from the ventouse was a bit longer.

I only had one delivery, ventouse plus episiotomy, so cannot compare but I found recovery largely fine. My consultant showed me up to date research which suggested washing in plain water only was the best for healing, nothing in bath or on pads. She also advised shower rather than bath. For a day or two, I sat on an inflatable plastic ring or a breastfeeding pillow to avoid any pain but this wasn't strictly nexessary, more precautionary. I rarely take painkillers for headaches etc but I was very proactive in ensuring I had adequate medication which I took diligently and this meant I was never actually in any real pain, if you know what I mean.

a hugely important point that noone told me is that assisted delivery can increase your risk of deep vein thrombosis -unfortunately I learned this the hard way. You absolutely must get up and about and moving as much as possible and be particularly conscious of this when you are sitting under baby for the lengthy cluster feeds -I am pretty sure it was a multi-hour cluster feeding session where I sat immobile for ages which led to my dvt, even though I had been out walking in the park earlier that day. You definitely do not want a dvt, it is hugely painful, potentially life threatening and I ended back in hospital separated from my baby then six months of daily painful injections. So move, move, move some more, rotate your ankles and stretch your legs while feeding, etc.

Congratulations and best wishes for your recovery.

I should add the dvt risk period is up to six weeks postpartum, mine appeared at three weeks, so don't get complacent.