Looking for positive stories about recovery from episiotomy please!

[Maxymoo1]

Hi everyone,

6 weeks ago today my rainbow baby boy was born and I am so in love with him!

Labour was pretty fast and a blur to me, I had gas & air, one shot of morphine which made me incredibly sick and I needed an episiotomy. I was quite out of it so it took me some time afterwards to realise the details of my labour and I'm curious and nervous about episiotomy recovery after reading many horror stories.

Can anyone help to reassure me that I will make a full recovery? Currently if I go for a walk I ache quite a bit but other than that I'm not suffering any pain. Will sex be painful? Will it still be as enjoyable? What can I expect? This is my first baby.

I felt so prepared during pregnancy and read everything I could but the recovery post birth has shocked me a bit. Thanks for reading!

I had an episiotomy, a second degree tear, forceps delivery, my son's shoulders got stuck, I haemorrhaged and lost 2 litres of blood, a manual extraction of my placenta and then into surgery.

My episiotomy has healed REALLY well. I have some pelvic floor issues and I think a minor prolapse but the episiotomy doesn't give any problems at all

Everyone is different, but by about 3 months I felt more or less back to 'normal', despite having spent the previous weeks feeling like my insides might fall out! Sex did feel a little different to begin with, but I think that's more that I was subconsciously tensing and we weren't as relaxed and more tired etc. Wishing you a comfortable recovery.

I had an episiotomy and my stitches were sore and uncomfortable for maybe 6 weeks but healed quickly. I was very nervous to have sex and it was quite uncomfortable for a while but I think a lot of that was mental as apposed to physical. 1 year post partum now and everything is totally back to normal, sex feels the same as before baby, everything looks completely normal too!

Hi, I wanted to come back on here and give an update for anyone who looks at this thread in the future. My baby boy turned 9 months old yesterday and I am so pleased to say that my episiotomy healed so well and everything went back to normal by I think 4 months pp. I honestly wouldn't know it's there, no pain or discomfort day to day, no pain during sex at all, I feel very lucky. In fact, how crazy is this, the positions I used to enjoy most and those I wasn't too bothered about have completely switched around! I used to be super nervous and awkward on top (how cringy but it's true), but now honestly it's the best position ever and I'm suddenly so confident. My husband is pleasantly surprised by these unexpected changes lol! Anyone reading this who has recently had a baby, it can be shocking to see and feel the changes to your body after labour and you may think you will never recover or be back to normal. YOU WILL! You will go completely back to normal (a slightly new normal but still great), our bodies are amazing, have faith xx

Aw I'm so glad to read your update. I want to add too that even for people who have a longer recovery, like me - I still had pain at the episiotomy site internally until about 8 months PP, and I unfortunately do have a weaker pelvic floor although no incontinence and pelvic floor physio did improve things - I still did recover pain wise. I didn't have sex til 9 months PP and I was nervous but it was fine and not painful at all. Everything looks the same as it did before, the scar is barely noticeable and if anything sex is better for us than it was before the baby roo. So even if it takes a long time to heal it doesn't mean it won't heal eventually.