Vaginal examination after giving birth

[Ekitty]

Has anybody been offered to have vaginal examination or scan after giving birth? I had complicated labour, episiotomy, tearing etc. during my postnatal appointments, midwifes only looked at the stitches but haven't done any vaginal checks. How can I know that my uterus is healing properly?

You can't feel the healing of the uterus through the vagina.
You can feel it as it decreases in size through the abdomen, and you can monitor the amount and colour of the lochia (bleeding) after birth.

Your uterus won’t have torn. Your perineal stitches have been checked. At some point a midwife would have put her hands on your abdomen to check your uterus was involuting back down to size. The lack of serious, heavy bleeding and infection (i assume you don’t have these) are also good indicators of involution. A vaginal examination also wouldn’t see or reach your uterus, only your vagina.

Your uterus and perineal wounds are separate.

Your uterus reducing in size will be felt abdominally.

Visually inspecting your stitches is the right thing to do as touching or internal exams soon after birth can 1) introduce infection and 2) cause further trauma to vaginal tissues.

See how your recovery is going. If you feel like there are ongoing issues with your scar or pelvic floor after 6-12 weeks see your GP/hospital postnatal clinic for assessment. Depends on what is the pathway in your area. Women's health physios IME are also fantastic at assessing this kind of thing. These appointments would probably include internal examinations, but certainly not in the early days.