Stitches after birth

[SunshineSnowflakesDaydreams]

I feel this might lead to a stupid question but here goes...!

I've quite often seen women comment that getting stitches after delivery was worse than the actual birth itself. This got me wondering, do you not get pain relief when getting stitched up?

I ended up with a 3rd degree tear that required plenty of stitches but I had a spinal for an episiotomy and forceps delivery so was pretty numb when they stitched me up!
Since it seems quite common to tear along an existing episiotomy scar, I've been thinking about it a lot since I'm now expecting my second child and I've now got it in my head that, if I do tear again, they could stitch me back up without giving me anything to numb it first.

Please tell me I'm crazy! Right? Surely they give you something for the pain?

Yes they should numb you down there. I had a really bad tear with my 1st and ended up in surgery to fix it. My second they made sure I was numb but I could still feel them pulling it was very uncomfortable.

I always thought you wer still under the affect of the painkillers from birth :S

I had my son yesterday through induction but didn't need stitches as just a small tear suprisingly and figured I would prefer it to heal naturally.

You have a local anaesthetic first before they start stitching if you haven't had a epidural. I gave birth 3 days ago and needed stitches, you can feel them pulling etc but no pain

I had an epidural and they gave me a local anaesthetic before my stitches after my episiotomy

I went into labour with twins too quickly for any pain relief (not even gas & air!!) and when having a 2nd degree tear stitched was given gas & air and anaesthetic- the labour was definitely more painful!!

Like lemon I had a fast labour with no time for pain relief, so had anaesthetic injections to numb the area and gas and air. It was a bit sore but not a patch on labour!

You get local so it doesn't hurt but you can still feel the thread moving, which is surreal to say the least

I was given a local anaesthetic. It was fine. Labour was definitely worse! Although a Dr was training 3 student midwives so a lot of people were looking very intently at my muff

I had stitches second degree after both mine. I remember feeling it prickle a bit but it’s not comparable to labour.

I had second degree tears and had a local anaesthetic. The needles hurt but didn't feel the stitching at all.

I got no pain relief for stitches because it was either stitch it up without or move from our lovely midwife unit to the delivery suite to be stitched with pain relief by a doc. It was a labial tear close to my clitoris and OH MY GOD THE PAIN. I used swear words I’ve never used before or since

I have had 2 totally drugfree labours with 2nd degree tears after.

First one, used local anaesthetic to numb, all good although could feel them moving the thread.

Second, LA didn't "take" properly and I could feel the prick of the needle each time. I used gas n air which I hadn't in labour!

I think that is quite common, as I know several people who were "anaesthetised" for stitches but felt everything. It is nastier than labour imo because you think you've got ut all over, then you have soneone sticking needles into a sensitive part that's just been torn open!

I was in an MLU and had local anaesthetic injection for the stitching -also told I could use gas & air if I wanted but the local did the job, as with others could feel a bit of pull/prickling but not pain!

I had only used the pool/gas & air for labour (though neither when actually pushing), labour was definitely worse pain wise. But I suppose labour is kind of a productive pain, if you know what I mean? And once you've done it you just want to be holding your baby and rest, not having someone faff about down there!

Thanks ladies! It was going so well until wasn't! Sounds like it's a bit hit and miss on the pain and relief front, and the fact you can still feel the sensation of the thread makes my skin crawl!

I had an epidural so couldn't feel it... the pain of the stitches getting infected afterwards was awful though so just make sure to clean them as much as possible! Use shower head a lot!

I was induced with the drip (drug free), and being sewn up afterwards was 100 times worse than labour. I did have the local anesthetic (two lots in the end), but I have never found local to be effective in relieving the pain of stitches (had my arm stitched with local and felt it all then too). They offered me the gas and air, but I hadn't liked it during labour so declined. In hindsight I should have tried it. Only consolation is it was over quicker than labour!!

I had stitches for episiotomy - I had lots of local anaesthetic injections, I remember the obstetrician saying she was putting a particularly large amount in a particular area that she knew people found particularly painful to be stitched. I found the needles for the anaesthetic painful and the stitching even more so. I had a ventouse delivery, I had diamorphine in my system - I found it horrendously painful and traumatic and the stitching was just as painful and traumatic as me. The only other time I've had local anaesthetic injections was for a filling at the dentist and I remember the dentist ended up giving me more injections than first planned because when she checked if I was numb, I wasn't at all - so I'm wondering whether there's something in my biology that I seem to need more local anaesthetic than most people do, as I was in horrendous pain still and I assumed that it was like that for all women but I can see on this thread most people did not have pain after the locals .

I had an episiotomy with dd, they gave me a local anaesthetic injection. Stitches were still very painful, not quite as bad as the episiotomy though. A

They gave me a local anaesthetic first. I went for natural pain relief, tens, ball, pool. After 4 days in early labour and having irregular contractions, the stitches don't hurt at all.