Please tell me it's possible to give birth without stitches???

[Tigerlily1]

I really need to hear some positive stories of people who have had a natural birth without tearing/cutting etc?
Had an emcs after hideously long labour 2yrs ago and my son's head was not descending due to it's position. I did push for a time to no avail and I really wanted a waterbirth.
However, now it is 2wks till my 2nd due date and am so scared to try for this vbac as am now thinking about the ripping open and not being able to control things.
My mum had 2 stitch free births but then i had an emcs so it doesn't follow.
She says its all about breathing. I'm scaring myself to the point where I may chicken out and have another section but I know that's not what I really want. I just don't know if I can take the pain and the thought of tearing/cutting is really freaking me out.
I dilated fully last time and did push so they said I have a good chance of vbac this time.
Please share your positive stories with me?? xx

Had two DC and no stitches and one was delivered by vontouse (sp?)

but will add I had the most horrendous bruising with both, when my first was born ( the ventouse delivery) my midwife said it was the worse bruising she'd ever seen, so I suppose I didn't get off that lightly

I had a natural (home)birth, no pain relief, no tearing, no stitches (and no stretch-marks ). No idea how it happened - it all just went right! I delivered kneeling over a birth ball so I had gravity on my side. He was early and only 6lb 6oz but he had (and still has) a mahoosive head. So yes, it can me done!

I've given birth five times and had not one single stitch.

I gave birth twice with no stitches or tearing, hoping for third time lucky.

Fivesetsofschoolfees, I guess the school fees hurt with 5 DC though

Tigerlily, I really hope it goes well for you

Just to echo a couple of people on here, I did have a 2nd degree tear but it wasn't that bad, I didn't really feel it happening amidst the pain of the contractions/pushing.

And although the stitches weren't pleasant (I had g&a which helped a bit) the recovery was fine. You're generally bruised and sore down there anyway afterwards and it really didn't feel that bad.

If it helps, I'm dreading labour next time because I'm an utter wimp who hates pain of any variety BUT, I'm not worried at all about minor tears. You can cope!

with DS i had a second degree tear and was stitched

with DD (3 weeks old) i was worried about tearing but i had her in the water and had a tiny graze which healed within a week or so

both were normal deliveries with gas and air

i do think the water really helped me have such a good delivery with DD (which was very fast 7 hours from start to finish)

I had a 32 hour labour, with syntocinon and eventually epidural, gave birth lying on my back on the bed to a 8lb 3oz baby whose head diameter was on the 98th centile but I had no tearing. I seem to remember the mw telling me I had a slight graze but I was not aware of it. The main thing is to listen to your mw when she tells you to stop and pant, and do everything in your power to stop yourself from pushing at that point.

I've had 3 and never had a stitch.

I don't think it's about the breathing and I don't think worrying about such things helps. I think it's a bit of genetics - which you could have if your Mum's had a good labour - and a bit of luck - which clearly you didn't have last time.

Good luck. Hope it al goes well.

Thanks chaos I have heard that the stopping pushing and easing it out with panting is a key thing. I am very scared I'm not up to the job and am not strong enough but I am getting more positive after reading all the posts here. Going to try it and really hope for the best, that's all I can do!

i have had both my children with no stitches

ds was 5lb 11oz so pretty tiny..36+5 (3.5 years ago)

dd 6lb 10oz...39+3 (7 weeks ago)

epidural first time, nothing this time! IT IS POSSIBLE!

Two with no tearing at all, although, funnily I was much calmer 1st time round. Think 2nd was so fast (wandered around all day going "ooh, that was a wee pain there then suddenly everything went WHOOSH!! and dd was born within 30 minutes of arrival at hospital)i didn't have time to think at all, while with 1st had an excellent midwife who let me do whatever I needed to. One thing that really helped my healing process though was arnica. You can get it from homeopathic chemists. Its just granules and you can take it all the way through labour, and for a while after, and I think it really helped everything heal much faster.

Before I had my DD, tearing or an episiotomy was the main thing I was dreading. I would lie awake worrying about it. And I did have to have one, but actually it didn't really hurt. Often the worry's worse than the event. Good luck and don't worry too much!

3 DCs, no stitches, all 3 with gas and air - largest 10lb 4.5oz. I would recommend staying upright, and being in water...

I had my DS naturally at home, in a birthpool, he was 8lbs 2oz and i didn't have any tears or grazes. i think someone has already said about listening to your body and i think thats the best advice. For me, I just knew when to push, I didn't really have any control over it. I had a fantastic midwife who just let me get on with it in my own time and it took about 3 hours of the pushing stage until his head was born. so IME, slowly slowly helped, as well as being really relaxed. FWIW i was also worried beforehand about tearing, but it was really important for me to have my baby at home and natuarlly so I just bundled it in with all the other possible risks. when it came down to it i didn't even think about it at the time as I was concentrating so hard! I also listedn to the hypnobirthing CD whilst pregnant and do think this helped me stay relaxed.
one more thing: don't know if this is true but i have been told that having sex often during pregnancy can help!

On ds 7lbs 2oz 24hr labor, pethadine no stitches just a graze which only hurt when you pee for day or two.

On dd 8lbs 2oz 10hr labor gas and air only again a small graze which only stung for the first two days when peeing.

On ds I started pushing straight away but on dd I had a great mw who didn't even check to see if I was ready and said wait until you cant stop yourself from pushing anymore and then go.
Made the second stage much easier to wait it out and pant until the urge was uncontrollable dd just shot out in two minutes.

I hope all goes well for you and good luck.

The tearing is no more painful than the birth itself - basically you don't FEEL the tearing in the scheme of things. I think that around 90% of births result in tears but 40% of those tears do not needs stitching (i.e. are first degree)

However that is from memory which is notoriously unreliable...

Errm almost right:

"Probably around 80% of women will have a tear or a cut during a vaginal birth, and around 70% of women will need stitching."

DD1 small 2nd degree tear - which wasn't too bad in the great scheme of things - certainly didn't feel it happening at the time.

With DD2 had no tearing, just minor graze which wasn't at all sore after a day or two. I was sure I had torn with DD2 as 2nd stage was really quick.

I've had 3 straightforward births and no stitches for any of them.

had two straightforard births, no tears or stitches, both times I had a graze, which I only know because they told me - never actually felt them either when they happened or afterwards. Both DCs were small/average size, but I have no idea if that helps!

Had no stitches with my DD.

I just did what my body told me to do, and ended up with just a graze.

Same as henryhuggins - 3 straighforward births, no stitches.

Did have some grazing apparently with the first baby though. Don't know what that involved and didn't dare look for a few weeks! It just stung a lot when I peed for the first week or so (though the warm water in a jug helped with that).