Your healing of forceps and episiotomy

[anonny55]

If you had forceps and episiotomy what was your healing like?

Did everything go back to looking how it was before after? If so how long did it take?

How was the pain afterwards?

How long did it takes for the pain to reside?

Thanks!

I only had an episiotomy but was advised to take ibuprofen to reduce bruising and swelling. It also became really itchy for a few days. It took a couple of weeks and at first was as painful as my emcs had been.

I had forceps and episiotomy for my first delivery. The procedure itself was fine as I was numb.
to be honest, the recovery wasn’t easy peasy. I had no issues urinating or opening my bowels at all (no need to pour water over myself etc, just went as normal). The cuts themselves didn’t bother me either, the thing that bothered me was where the midwife tied the knot, the end of the suture and the knot were poking directly onto/into my perineum so that hurt when sitting at a certain angle or trying to sit up. Called midwives on day 5 and they came out and removed the stitches for me as by that point I’d done the majority of the healing. The pain left immediately. It was the sutures specifically not the cuts that hurt. Well placed sutures (and less of them, I tore too) wouldn’t cause this issue. General ache and pain I couldn’t tell if that was just normal post birth or not.

second birth I delivered naturally 2 years later and tore in the same places I had the episiotomy, and had that stitched up and had no bother that time round at all post partum.

have you had the procedure and worrying if your recovery is normal? Or are you dreading your birth potentially having these occur?
if the former call and speak to midwives. If the latter, it really wasn’t as bad as I imagined it to be.

with regards to what it looks like, no idea I don’t often look. The midwife encouraged me to look a few days post partum but not for me! Function wise it’s as normal, I did do pelvic floor exercises though!

Hey thanks for the info!

Im growing a whopper of a baby and consultant said she'd recommend c section or early induction for when he's estimated at around 9lb (38 weeks)

I asked what I'm high risk of happening if I was to be induced, she said as this is my first baby and an induction the chance of an instrumental delivery is quite high. If he was to get stuck they'd try forceps and episiotomy usually and if that don't work emcs.

I'm trying to weigh up the recovery of an elective c section or the recovery of forceps and episiotomy/ at last resort emcs to help me decide

My friend had an episiotomy and ventouse with her 8lb baby and couldn't sit on her bum for 4 weeks😅

I had an episiotomy and ventouse, rather than forceps, delivery for my first.
Healing was fine, looked a little sad down there for a while but no major issues.
Can't have been too bad anyway as I was really quite keen for them to do it again and help me out a bit for my second delivery, but no such luck! 🤣
The second baby was just under 3lb heavier than the first too

I had forceps + episiotomy. Healing was fine, tbh. I sat on a donut pillow for a few weeks but I suspect I may well have been doing that anyway...

Urinary control took a couple of weeks to be reliable but I did my physio exercises and got there in the end.

Hi there.

I had a long labour and ended up with an episiotomy - I’m not sure why exactly other than they felt I needed it. Baby was almost 9lb so maybe they felt I needed the extra space. I’d had an epidural so had no problem with it or the stitching up.

However, by day 4 my wound was ‘gaping’ and the following day it was infected. I ended up back in hospital for 48 hours on IV antibiotics, and the wound had completely opened up. I believe this is very rare, my Consultant says she sees it a couple of times a year.

2 months on, the wound has healed really well on its own, and I didn’t ever really have a problem with sitting down. I was just really unlucky. I feel good now, don’t feel any different in myself. My friends who had sections are still experiencing discomfort around their scars etc and most of them got infections too.

I've had c sections and a vaginal birth with forceps and episiotomy. It wasn't very nice and the recovery was harder than my c section. I had a prolapse afterwards and things just weren't ever really the same down there. When I have my period, the scar tissue flares up and that baby will be 8 this year! I've no long lasting effects from the sections that aren't just aesthetic.

I'm not particularly worried about how my tummy may look after baby..I've lost 9 stone naturally so have loads of lose skin and an over hang anyway I'm such a scar and a bit more lose skin will be fine!😅

What would you do in my position? I explained a little in my comment above🙂

I had forceps and an episiotomy and had quite a tough recovery. Walking hurt for about six weeks, I couldn’t walk the dog etc. I sat on a pillow for months. I had my stitches checked and there was no infection, it was just an extensive episotomy. Bowel and bladder wise it did cause me issues with both, I do think the forceps caused some damage, but in the long term these have resolved and cause me no issues. In your position it’s a tough call. Even though written down it sounds horrendous at the time it didn’t feel so bad and I was in much better shape immediately after birth than those who had csections.

I had an episiotomy and forceps delivery. I was very bruised afterwards but pain was controlled with paracetamol and ibuprofen.
I had a spinal and I did struggle to pee after catheter was taken out but managed in the end and didn’t need another one put back in.
Absolutely no issues with recovery, everything down below back to normal. Lucky for me the horror stories of forces didn’t materialise and I’m so glad I managed a vaginal delivery with forceps and would do it again over a C-section any day.

I recovered far faster from a CS (failure to progress) than a forceps delivery. Perfectly normal after 4 weeks though didn't drive for 6 just in case.

Unplanned vbac with forceps and 2nd degree tear for second delivery. Couldn't sit or walk normally for 16 weeks, massive internally bruising, pelvic floor shot, some continence issues and overall just horrendous experience after the euphoria of having delivered "naturally". Still wish I'd had my ELCS 12 yrs later. My GP said my recovery period wasn't unusual in her experience. 🤬

Both babies well under 8lbs but lots of birth notes about narrow pelvis, tilted uterus and difficulty doing pelvic checks when I reviewed my notes with a senior midwife. No bugger thought to do a post delivery review and tell me it would always have ended up in a CS until I was pregnant with No.2 and determined to have a CS. I was pushed into a vbac as DC2 was early and small and my labour was moving along quickly.

I have no stats on this but surely with forceps/ventouse a tear is a big risk? I had forceps, episiotomy and 3C tear (so episitomy didn’t do anything, except perhaps save me from a level 4 tear). Recovery was horrendous tbh. I was young and energetic and running on newborn adrenaline for months, but looking back, yeah it was awful! Couldn’t sit properly (haemorrhoid pillow is your friend); had to use vaginal dilators as they either stitched me too tight or my vag was shocked (nurse described that more technically!) couldn’t even get a tampon in; urge incontinence etc etc
I think they prefer you to tear rather than cut you because it’s a more natural route for better healing? But yeah. Not the same after forceps (10 years later). It really damaged my pelvic floor. Sorry but you did ask!
Had 2 c sections, one didn’t go to plan but would take that any day over forceps!

Ouch ouch ouch. I have a tilted uterus too. Don't know what to do! I'm stuck!?!

@MassiveSalad22 thank you for your honesty!

Well done on your weight loss!
So I had a Cs with my first followed by vbac for my second. For my third birth I was offered the option and on the basis on the previous recovery (and some other factors) I went for an elective section. I also found labour absolutely horrendous (everyone is is different though) and wanted to bypass it ASAP.

I had forceps with episiotomy. I’ve since had to have an operation for a TVT sling as I pee’d myself all the time and also a halo operation on my bottom for prolapse. I still have a mild rectal prolapse. I would have definitely have had a cesarean had I known I would have so many problems. Immediately afterwards the healing was fine, but the problems later on were bad!

In your shoes I’d take the recommendation to have a CS if you are not madly invested in a vaginal delivery. It’s rare they are recommended as far as I know as it drives NHS costs up so if any actual obstetrician is saying it’s a good plan. It’s probably a VERY good plan.

Unless you are private and think your consultant might have a wedding to go to? 😉

I had forceps and episiotomy with a spinal, so I didn't feel a thing during. And genuinely, my recovery was fine - didn't need to sit on a pillow, don't remember any pain but probably some discomfort and could go to the loo without difficulty once the catheter was out. No problems with the stitches getting infected or anything. I have no idea what it looks like down there, but DH hasn't said anything!

I know there are risks, and my experience is different from others, but I wanted to share a positive experience.

I had forceps ventouse (spelling??) and episiotomy with DC1. The episiotomy was definitely way harder to heal than the tears I got with DC2. Pain- wise I am sure a C Section was worse.

However I remember very clearly my NCT friend, who’d had a c section one month before I’d given birth, announcing she was 3 months pregnant*, and I thought - I’ve not even been able to have sex yet! So at that point I went to the GP to get the scar checked, and I was given some numbing cream to use before sex. I used that cream for months (should have named DC2 after it!).

*not a good idea though to have babies one year apart after a C Section.

I had two births with bad tears, one with and one without ventouse, and fortunately neither have had any lasting impact. The one without the ventouse I felt no symptoms at all although the ventouse birth was uncomfortable afterwards for two/three weeks. The length of labour was very different so this may also have impacted the bruising.

I think the risks are greater with a CS but a lot more controlled/unknown. If you are a worrier then the CS is probably easier to plan for. Statistically I was unlucky but someone has to be.

Forceps and episiotomy for me 6.5 years ago. I was induced for a large baby, estimated at 9lb at 38 weeks. He was only 7lb 5oz once born!

The induction was long, slow and painful.

My recovery was very hard. I had a lot of pain and terrible swelling for the first couple of weeks. It was probably 4 weeks before I started to feel proper improvement and 6 weeks to heal and feel more normal.

I do have pelvic floor issues now. I have stress bladder incontinence if I run or jump around and a bowel prolapse. I do also have rectal Crohn’s disease so the rectocele could well be partly due to that and not specifically the delivery.

Everything looks like it did prior to birth and it all still feels the same. Like a previous poster said, on days 1 and 2 of my period I get pain and a pressure feeling in the scar.

The rectocele has reached a point where I need treatment now even with lots of pelvic floor physio.

I am one and done but if I could go back knowing what I know now, I would have declined an induction and if pushed, gone for a section.

It's not just episiotomy that you may have. It's also a tear. Despite the episiotomy I had a 3b tear as well. The immediate recovery was actually fine but six weeks later I got a prolapse which caused me a great deal of stress and low mood (as I was advised not to walk more than 5 minutes or hold my baby -- not ideal!) I also suffered with stress incontinence for wee and back passage issues. I had a lot of
Physio and it's better now but it did definitely darken my post partum period and I will have to manage it for the rest of my life. If medical professionals are advising c-section I'd go with that! Obviously mine was quite a bad case but wanted ti be clear that vaginal recoveries can be much longer than c-section if they go wrong.

Oh and my baby was only 6lbs 6! I think he flew out fast and had is hand next to his face, hence the tear.

I've only ever wanted 1 baby so that's my plan unless this one makes me want more😆 thanks for sharing your experience!

@babystack that's what I'm trying to weigh up atm..if there's a high chance I'm going to have tears and cuts that are quite bad and forceps surely the recovery of those may well be equally as bad as a recovery of a c section..some will agree and some will say well it's still not a major surgery so no

If he could come bang on 37 weeks spontaneously and not be so big that would be ideal😄

The horror stories of inductions dragging out for days being exhausted and ending in emcs or very painful instrumental assistance really worries me..it seems very common! Especially for an induction at 38w, for a first time mum, and a big baby!