Anyone with experience of vulvar varicose veins? Please help!

[washngo]

I'm on my 3rd pregnancy and have recently been suffering from this delightful pregnancy ailment which I never before realised existed. They are really painful and uncomfortable and I find it hard to stand up for any length of time (standing still seems to be much worse than if I am moving). I have a few questions for anyone who has any experience of this problem:

1. Did they go away after pregnancy or at least get a lot better? (Please say yes!!) How long did that take to happen?

1. Did they have any effect on your labour and delivery? I am really worried about this as they are so painful now I can't imagine pushing a baby out! Specifically, do they ever burst during labour and if so what happens then?

1. Did you find any way of alleviating the discomfort during pregnancy?

1. Do they make you any more likely to have a bad tear? I had a rather traumatic first labour and have a lot of scar tissue anyway, so am a bit worried these veins might weaken it further?

Sorry for all the questions! Thank you!

Oh flashback!
Yes I had them, hurt wen standing up too long etc. Didn't quite make it to pushing so don't know about tears and they did not contribute to her head getting stuck! Iirc they disappeared fairly quickly, no doubt to return in a future pregnancy!

I suffered from them with DC2 and it is horrible isn't it :-(
BUT they went away within the time the postlabour swelling went down.
My midwife suggested putting freezepops in my trousers to ease the discomfort- I didnt try this but I found that standing made them more painful but sitting down on something cold and hard helped.

Apparently they never rupture in labour because they are stretchy.

Hopefully a medical professional.will be along in a mo to give you some more advice

Oh and I had no tearing with that pregnancy unlike the previous one.

Had this on dc3. Had previuosly had a tear and episiotomy on dc 1 (forceps) small graze (superficial tear 2 stitches) on dc 2 and was worried about them bursting or being cut / torn but had dc3 without any trouble no tears etc and they went down straight after.

Speak to your midwife if you're worried but from what they said to me they are fairly common.

Over share alert! I was squatting over a mirror I had placed on my toilet seat, whilst heavily pregnant, in order to veet my bikini line. Well, I saw this big blue thing and immediately thought it was the umbilical cord which had somehow prolapsed.
Cue me phoning the hospital, them telling me to come in ASAP for a check up, and then the midwife blithely telling me it was just a small vaginal wall prolapse with a varicose vein on it (oh the joy).
I was also then terrified of the pushing stage, in case the whole thing collapsed and exploded! But my birth was fast, simple and as easy as birthing a 9lb 11 baby can be. I did not tear at all, and the first wee I did was completely painfree.
Best of all it now all looks completely normal down there. No vaginal walls visible and no blue veins.
It'll be fine.

Thank you all! It's nice (well - you know what I mean!) to know that other people have had the same problem and that it hasn't caused too many problems. Wish I'd posted about it ages ago as have been really worried and you've all been v reassuring!