Post partum recovery. Second degree tear.

[Zrose]

Hi all,

I gave birth naturally on Monday night, to a 7lb baby and suffered a second degree tear. Due to me feeling so tender and tired after labour I opted not to have stitches. I am now wondering if this was the right thing to do and whether it’s too late now? Would they help? Any recovery tips as I’m still quite sore? How long until I will be fully recovered? Also what is sex going to be like now? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

I was stitched after an episiotomy (not sure if it’s similar to a 2nd degree tear) but my stitches broke down & I had to heal naturally. It was extremely hard. And it took a long time. It actually took about 4 months to heal & 6 months before I felt kinda well & a bit more normal. Sex is absolutely fine. Not so great in the beginning but it got better as time went on. My baby is now 11 months.

Call your midwife & ask for her opinion - you may still be able to have stitches. She can check out your tear for you and see what she thinks.

I think everyone heals differently. Weirdly midwives now tell you not to have salt sitz baths to heal tears but I found that unless I had one each day, the whole area just got horrible gunky and moist with al the postpartum bleeding and didn't heal properly. As soon as I started having a short shallow tepid salt bath each day things healed much better.

I’ve asked the midwife they said because it’s been a couple of days now they probably wouldn’t do it.

From what they’ve said episiotomy is a deeper cut. I just hope it heals nicely, sitting down is so hard. Been told to take ibuprofen which has been helping.