Advice on perineal massage please!!

[Louba]

Ok ladies - is it worth doing? Has anyone had good results?? Which oil is best to use?? Not sure I like the idea of raiding my kitchen cupboards for that kind of massage!!!

Any advice would be much appreciated - thank you!!

Bump, as I also want to know.

I'm not sure how strong the evidence is that this works (to help reduce the risk of tearing) - at least with first births. will try and find something

YOU can use olive oil and gentle strecth both wide and down to get maximum effect againsttearing.

Will do it next time to try to prevent.

I got an information sheet at my ante-natal class about how to do it properly. I think you can use almond oil or wheatgerm oil. My midwives said there was only anecdotal evidence to back it up and if you do it and don't tear, you won't really know if it was down to the massage or not. I thought there's no harm in trying though, but tbh it wasn't just a case of rubbing a bit of oil in down there, according to the information I had, you had to do quite a bit of 'stretching' too
I didn't find it the most pleasant experience so maybe did it for a few weeks then gave up. I came away with a 2nd degree tear which healed fine. If there ever is a next time I wouldn't bother trying it again.

Kayzed -

Which type of oil did you use - or don't you think it really matters?

I was a first timer, no massage head also at wrong angle and hand up like he was on the phone, I didn't tear at all, I did need some internal stitches where he had scratched me with his nails but that was it.

Now all I have to hope is that this time works out just as well :)

It is just for lubrication you could use ky or your own special stuff. It is explained quite alot in the gently brithing method by dr gowri mothi. Very interesting and alot of her woman dont tear which she puts down to stretching but alot of her ladies have 7lb babies not like 9lb that i had.

what si the maximum centile kayzed?

I am sure my cousins baby was 39 cm head but my midwife said you can't get heads that big! As average is 36 cm i wondwer what constitutes big?

I tried it but couldn't reach (had a huuuuuge bump though)! Ended up with a c/s anyway so would have been a waste of time in the end. DS's head was 98th centile (he was 98th centile all over), I'll look up what that was when I get home...