Help! Labia disappeared after birth...anyone else?

[LambChopsMcGee]

Hi,

Sorry, I am posting a new thread as my last was...too long and rambling!

I am wondering whether anyone else has experienced a drastic change to the appearance of their "down there" after birth. My issue is that my inner labia seem to have disappeared. I'm really worried. Any thoughts appreciated.

My 'down below' became swollen after pregnancy, very strange and took some getting used to, even wiping after then toilet it felt different and at first I was super conscious of it with Dh, even though he said he didn't notice any difference. I looked it up at the time and it seemed to be normal.

Thanks dizzy.

Permanently though? My dd is 3 months, I'm pretty much healed, but when I look down there...it's like...open. I went swimming once and it felt so odd, like nothing was stopping the water getting in. I've never heard of them disappearing...

I think it goes back after a while. Mine was awful, cavernous, but got better over time. My perineum never returned, though...

Yes, mine was open for a while, had the same feeling when swimming and in the bath. Took a while to get back to normal, nearly a year I think

Pkl, how can your perineum disappear? Unless you tore from vagina to anus and it's not been repaired, which would be severely neglectful of your hcp to say the least.

This has happened to me and it has remained the same. I had kind of forgotten about it but I went to a urology clinic last week and the nurse examining me mentioned it. She said it was probably due to the trauma of the birth of DD1 (10) - forceps, 3b tear, etc (which is why I was at urology clinic - still left with continence issues).

Sorry to hear that littlepink. I have some similar issues but of course it's early days.

I also had forceps, episiotomy and a tear. Not sure what degree (should find out...). I sort of wondered if they've stitched too tight further back and stretched them out? I used to have moderate flaps, didn't hang out but nearly, and I was happy with that! I said to DP, it's like walking around with your teeth bared... I guess maybe they just, I don't know, stretched to breaking point with DD's giant head and were destroyed.

And angry, did the labia return then? Or do you just feel less open with pf exercise?

Sorry, these are obviously incredibly personal questions!!

No worries, I have no shame about such things
My labia have always been fairly long, so they didn't disappear, my issue was the feeling of being wide open, as you describe . I was also forceps birth with episiotomy, so similar experience. As I said, took about a year but feels "normal" again now.

Really, I have no idea. The whole stretching business happened, then when things slowly returned to normal the shape was different and there was no perineum. I eventually (DS is 16) had a prolapse repair and it was rebuilt as part of the support system. I think these things change gradually over time, and we generally don't know what is normal. The first few times I raised concern I was told it was normal. I had a 10lb4oz baby with a big head, so...