labour after cervical stitch - more painful or painless?

[slinkstah]

what is labour like when you have an incompetent cervix?
how long does it take to go into labour after the stitch is taken out?
does the cervix dialate quickly and painlessly or is it more painful and slow due to scar tissue from the stitch?

i have only a few weeks until stitch removal. i have no idea what to expect. seems like i have to have a spinal for the removal as i have the shirodkah stitch.
i am worried that i will go into labour straight away and end up having the baby during the stitch removal operation.

has anyone had any experience of cervical stitches?

Hi there

I had MacDonald stitch with by my DD's. I'd had to have a cone biopsy for cerival cancer so had shortened cervix. Just had gas and air when stitch was taken out. Slight contractions afterwards but nothing to worry about. I did have awful pre-term labour with both pg when they put them in, so was worried that I would have this again when they took them out. DD was born on her due date and DD2 was born a week before due date. Labour with DD1 was 5 1/2 hours and DD2 was 2 1/2 hours! But that could just be me as I'd had really really painful BH with both pg's for about 3 weeks before I gave birth.

Re: painful labour. DD1 I had epidural. Not that painful looking back, but was in USA and they pretty much do it as standard. I dialated quickly. Got to hospital and was 5cm, one hour later was 7cm. Had epi and 2 hours later was at 10cm. DD2 was in the UK and just gas and air. Woke at 1am with contractions. By 1.20 they were 2-3 mins apart and fairly painful. Got to hospital at 1.50am. Walked thru contractions and sucked on gas and air. By 3am was 6cm, into birthing pool and went from 6-10cm in 10 mins and waters broke...that really hurt . Pushed for 20+ mins and DD2 born.

Worst case scenario, if you bub is born straight after stitch taken out then s/he will be perfectly mature enough to survive. And the medical staff will know exactly what to do.

Best of luck. Really hope that everything goes well for you. I hope that I'm not teaching you to suck eggs, but try and keep an open mind as to what you want when in labour. Epi/gas and air/nothing. I found it really great knowing that I hadn't forced myself down one route only to find it totally inappropraite to my needs when I gave birth.

Will keep an eye out for your birth announcement

G xx

thanks kayzed and heytheregeorgiegirl
sounds like very short labours heythere, i have the shirodkah stitch in so looks like i need a spnal for removal, which i am not looking forward to.
i hope they are gentle with me so i don't go into labour straight away i would like to go a bit further.
i really wanted a homebirth, i have had to argue for this as have had a previous cs.

i am hoping i can go another week after the stitch is out but the dr joked about being induced the other day, which would be crazy!

i am wondering whether there is much differnce to a mcdonald verses shrirokah stitch as in how much scar tissue there will be on my poor knackered cervix.

did you get any twinges/pains in the cervix before the stitch was taken out?

I think yours in slightly more hard core than mine . I have no idea if I have any scar tissue. The fact that I dialated so quickly would point to the fact that I didn't. I did have some twinges and pains in my cervix at about 32 weeks. Hospital put it down to some type of infection....but I wasn't so sure. I thought it was the stitch being pulled tighter.