When does it stop looking like a gaping hole?

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I had a forceps delivery with my ds 12 days ago and have been looking at myself in the mirror (checking unhealing epi 'wound' rather than any great desire to see myself) and my bits look like a gaping wound - you could lose a foot it there. when does it start looking nirmal again?

soon ! give yourself some time, and make sure you are doing your pelvic floor excercises.

So when I asked friends a while back about what you...er...look like afterwards and everyone said 'oh fine', they were, in fact, lying!!

Oh blimey... Sorry, I'll butt out now.

Message withdrawn

Oh no, I did that and it FREAKED me out! I can't remember when it went back to normal, but honestly it definitely does. No different now to before, so don't worry

chortle

Well my DD is five and I still occasionally lose things up there

car-keys, sofa cushions, the cat etc

I remember having a peek after 10lb10oz DS1, I wailed from the bathroom that it looke dlike a cave, DH wanted to see but I wouldn't let him. (I am Mega Legs in disguise by the way)

lol I threw myself on the sofa with my legs akimbo after about 2 days postpartum and said to DH "Those stitches look all right, don't they?" and I thought he was going to keel over and be sick

LOL at thread title.

Answer: Never.

You threw yourself on the sofa, 2 days postpartum? Good grief woman I could barely stand upright!!

I didn;t dare look for about 6 weeks, and by then everything looked fine.

I knew I would be freaked if I saw the stitches.

why do i want to say 'NEVER!!!'

just me then

After ds1, my suggested I had a look down there - my God!!!! I was expecting to see an underground train appear out of the tunnel!!! It did take a few months to return to normal, maybe 3-4.

With dd2 it looked pretty normal straight away, thankfully.

I had to pysche (sp?) myself up to have a look after forceps with ds1, it took several deep breaths and a long moment in the bathroom. Tbh though my ahem, bumhole looked pretty weird too after all that pointless pushing and straining. Ds2 followed and now expecting no.3 so I'm not planning to ever look again if I can help it.

LVC - did you have long skinny babies or did you just not look?

megalegs' fanjo

Bats?? I've got moths coming out of mine

oh i looked.

i had big babies. dd2 was 9lb dd3 was almost 8lb 2 weeks early.

i had a lot of stitches with dd1 as well. and each time i sort of torn down the same place, but not as bad as the first time.

I said never!

here's mine

PMSL (quite litrally) MP, those bats are itchy.

I had a ventouse and epi 8 weeks ago and I'm pretty much back to normal now (haven't done a lot of looking with a mirror, but sex felt the same as before so I'm taking that as a good sign ). In fact, the only bit that doesn't feel quite right is the 'bum end' of the epi scar, where the stitches didn't heal terribly well, and there's still an indentation and a bit of scar tissue that gets quite sore (sorry if TMI, but you did ask!). Don't know if forceps makes a big difference, though.

not just a foot

I've waited 4 years and I'm suspecting never 3 hours of pushing and 2 extended episiotomies have put paid to mine I think...
I was never brave enough to get the mirror out until recently - morningpapers picture is surprisingly representative

Well at least you've got a man in there, LadyV ...

lol hot cross

actually my fanjo DOES look like that picture

is that bad?

Never. But it's a handy place to hide Christmas presents - the kids will never look there!