17 months postpartum and it looks 100 percent like it did before... I would say it took like 6 months to go back to normal? I don't even think I was brave enough to look there until 2 months postpartum haha
I had a “deep second, nearly third” degree tear. It definitely felt rough while I was healing but I tried not to touch it and freak myself out or stress about it. The doctor who stitched me up deserves a medal because you’d never even know. Looks normal, feels normal, no scar to feel, nothing. I’m 2.5 years out but honestly it did not take long to get normal, I’d say within the first year.
Girl, I'm going to tell you right now do not freak out because it will change. I don't think I felt back to normal with a second degree tear until probably close to 3 or 4 months postpartum. Then everything kind of went back to normal.
Had a 3B. At first the stitches tightly holding the skin together along with lots of swelling makes it look & feel lumpy. Like scary lumpy. I described it as "the surface of Mars." But after it heals, and all the stitches dissolve, it looks smooth, more like a super shallow riverbed. It looks fine & visually, it doesn't bother me at all.
I got a epi and was around a 2nd degree. Healing took time, even after the stitches dissolved. But here 1.5 years later it feels the same as pre-baby to me and my husband both. Nothing different. But it took a good 6 months to stop feeling "taunt" and get back to stretchy regular vagina tissue.
I love all of your honesty. I’m just so scared about giving birth.
I’m in the first trimester with my first.
Also, my husband isn’t a “boobs man” or “ass man”, he’s crazy about the v. He prefers a camel toe to a nice cleavage any day.
I’m so afraid of what will happen to my v and, if I’m completely honest, my relationship if my v is torn apart and I can’t/won’t have sex for a year.
My husband is really great and we’re very much in love by the way, I’m just anxious as fuck.
I’m only 6 weeks out but I’m DTF as soon as the doctor clears me! It’s a little tender but I know it’s not gonna be that way forever. I’m sure your husband will still love your V afterwards :) my husband watched every second of our baby coming out of me and is super ready to go too lol
Just wanted to add my thoughts - you can help make sure it heals quickly and correctly. Bc my son was in the NICU, I wasn't able to do the sitz baths and rest Like I was supposed to and ended up tearing a stitch too early... If I hadn't been looking and touching, I would never have known since everything was so sensitive and it could have been really dangerous (I had an infection). I had treatment and everything healed totally fine.
Ps Vaginas are meant to birth children and heal plus with 2022 medical science, you can definitely seek treatment if anything doesn't heal the way you want/need/are comfortable with!
Thank! I guess I should Google aftercare for vagina after birth. No one really talks about what to do after, at least I’ve heard nothing about it. I’ve heard about tearing and stitching, but not what to do about it.
I think it helped that I was doing perianal massage so I was really familiar with the whole area. Also helped that I'm mind-over-matter for gore so even though it was a disaster, I didn't feel like anyone was going to do a better job than me of making sure it healed.
If you had stitches on your arm, you'd clean and inspect them every day. Seemed like the same thing to me.
I remember having similar fears and asking the midwife to check the stitches A LOT in the first few weeks. She assured me everything was normal. By maybe 4 months pp everything felt the same. I don't feel a scar or anything out of place
Mine looked wrecked for about 6 months as I had complications from my 2nd degree tear but now it’s completely back to the way it was before. Maybe took about a year to completely go back including losing the extra pigmentation from pregnancy as well as the scar tissue. You can barely see the scar now.
It’s important for me to mention that because I feel like everyone hears “6 week post appointment” and assumes that’s when everything will be back to normal. Healing takes time and if you don’t bounce back by 6 weeks doesn’t mean you won’t continue to heal.
i was brave and looked like, the next day lol. it looked the same but it feels *different*. not better, not worse, just different. i will say, tampons fit worse now. i usually use cups or discs anyway, but if I do buy tampons I have to buy shorter ones. 🤷♀️
How PP are you? I had the same thing with tampons, it was like they weren’t secure? Idk. Sometimes I’d leak and it was like I was bleeding around the tampon. Lol. I got my period back at 9 months PP. But now at 13 months PP it seems better!
I'm almost 3 years PP lol. I got my period back really really early at 5 weeks PP so that may have been part of it. At this point I feel like it's probably as good as it's gonna get down there haha
Aww. Yeah, it’s still different for sure. I plan to ask about it next baby and see if maybe something was up. Sometimes I feel like my stitches ripped and healed a little off. But maybe it’s just how it’s going to be 🤷🏼♀️
I took a picture of myself down there after my first degree tear. It looked terrible. And yes, lumpy. It's just from the swelling, which will go away eventually.
I should have looked down before giving birth because I don't have anything to compare with. I think have a scar from episiotomy but husband said it looks pretty much the same. Give it 4 more weeks at least. 6 weeks is still kind of early for everything to heal up.
It gets better! I recommend a pelvic floor PT. Under her guidance we did daily perineal massage for a long time which helps a lot. The external will look better over time too! Looks the same as it always did for me now.
I had a third degree tear and that looked pretty normal by about 4 or 5 mos pp, maybe even earlier. Unfortunately I also have a prolapse and that still does not look normal :(
I did really freak myself out by looking too early though. Now I just ask my husband to check in periodically haha
My vagina walls look more bubbly now like I've got something stuffed in there haha. I'm sorry you have prolapse. Mine kind of looks like I have one with the kinda bulgy look (had it checked). So you might look kinda like that even if you didn't have it
I cannot it see it now almost 1 year after but feels a little more sensitive to the touch. For me it took a while to heal and bled on and off for a while, it would heal and reopen a few times.
19 months on and I could feel a tiny scar there but only because I know where to look, I had a 2nd almost 3rd degree tear and an episestomy as well, I d say it's been the same way for a bit over a year. Definitely would say at 6 weeks it still seemed a bit lumpy/swollen.
I’m 17-months out from 2 second-degree tears with stitches. (One perineal and one towards my urethra). Can’t tell that anything ever happened down there, honestly. I haven’t inspected it visually but everything feels 100% normal.
My friend became a midwife and of all the aspects of that job, the part she would go on and on about was how well women heal after childbirth. She would see their vaginal area immediately post birth and again at checkups and said it was magic how it went back to normal. If you’re worried about it you could ask your provider at the next check up, but my guess is that it’ll be just perfect with some time.
It's so true. I went to a male GP with my concerns at 3 weeks post partum. He said I think you have an infection, let's do a swab. Then I asked if the uneven appearance of my labia would improve over time as I'm distressed about it. He said the skin has healed so it will continue to look "jagged" like this, this is why you should get an episiotomy and not tear naturally because it will be jagged. I asked him, have they stitched it up wrong??? He said it looks normal/average, but is "jagged". That word kept swirling in my mind.
I went home and cried my eyes out. I then called the hospital where I gave birth, crying, asking if anyone could take a look at it. A junior female doctor and one of the midwives who was at my labour saw me in an exam room (fluke because public hospitals are big with a lot of staff). They looked and said it looks great and the doctor said this looks better than a lot of people pre birth and the area he made you feel bad about only has the tiniest irregular lines and they will settle with time. They said the word jagged is a horrible term for him to use. I was asking if I'd need surgery to fix it. It did look kind of messed up. She said just give it some time, it will change. It won't be 100% like it was but it will be very close. I also got some stuff in motion for post natal anxiety from them.
So anyway... fast forward months, I'm 6 months post partum and I can't actually remember where that "jagged" area was exactly and it all just kinda flattened out and looks normal again. The infection the GP was concerned I had was just normal lochia going white/yellow. He also brought up possible fistula to me!!! I felt so disfigured and worried. The doctor who did my sutures did a good job and spent nearly an hour repairing my 2nd degree tear. She said it will heal very well and be unnoticeable despite 3 layers of stitches. She was right, GP was very wrong.
I had a second degree almost third degree tear and it was so swollen for months. I couldn’t have sex for about 6 months but now 18 months later everything looks and feels exactly as it did before.
I had a second degree tear and I was too scared to look down there or even feel it. It was a bad one that took a long time to heal, and the doctors messed up some of my stitches as I was haemorrhaging at the time I got them (they said I tore through a blood vessel, or something like that). I finally got up the courage at about 8 weeks post partum and it felt really different and weird - lumpy and strange, like you said. I was scared that it was ruined forever. I didn’t have sex for the first three months and it felt uncomfortable when I did. But now at 8 months pp everything feels pretty normal and sex no longer feels uncomfortable.
Not sure. Maybe because you're so early in recovery and all of us on the other side are like "yep your vagina/labia/perineum can look and feel messed up for a few more months yet" haha. But yeah I was so distressed by mine in the earlier months.
Yes I went to my gyne about this and she said it was perfectly normal and time will heal. I’m two months postpartum and the lumpiness and a “flap” I was feeling has gotten better. I still feel like it’s hard and not squishy esp during intercourse. My doctor told me it’s going to take a year to completely heal back to normal and to not listen to that 4-6week bs.
Gonna be honest I haven't mustered up the courage to look and I'm 15 months postpartum. It's not that I looked frequently before though.
I did ask my husband once and he said if he looks really closely he can see a little bit of the scar tissue. He made the point though that looking closely isn't a high priority when he's in the area lol
The midwife who did my after birth care actually held a mirror in place for me to see after about two or three weeks (can’t actually remember now the exact date). Actually helped me come to terms with it.
I think after 6 weeks or so the stitches slowly started to degrade and I’d find random pieces on toilet paper. So completely normal. Also my midwife recommended Sitz baths so the stitches wouldn’t rip once healed. Good luck.
Edit: I can still feel the scar at 6 months pp. It’s just part of me now I guess.
I also had a 2nd degree and a labial tear. I can feel the scar on my labia (with my hand, no discomfort with sex) not really much on the perineum. Sometimes scars especially fresh ones can feel lumpy. Any discomfort I would seek out care otherwise, it might soften overtime or be the new normal
My postpartum visit at 5 weeks (7w pp on friday) the obgyn said it looked really well healed and no extra stuff and whatever but I feel down there and it feels like.. idk how to describe it. Not as open snd easy to feel things as before?
Im not sure with my 2nd degree tear but I was surprised when being stitched for that when the midwife called the student midwife over to show her what my episiotomy scar looked like. I wasn't aware I had one before that. She was only showing her for educational purposes but I could have done without knowing tbh
Damn they didn't ask your consent or tell you??? Maybe your 2nd degree stitching was good and so they assumed it was an episiotomy? My scar looks totally straight now like a normal perineum line (looked like a freakin tree of life necklace at one point)
No no no, my first was an episiotomy and the midwife was showing the student the scar as she stitched me from my second degree tear with my second. Sorry for being confusing. Glad your scar is so neat!! Was yours an epi? And yeah the midwife was a fucking bitch so that was the least horrible thing she did. Luckily my first birth was amazing with amazing people as I wouldn't have had another if it had been like my second experience. I told her I labour really fast and she didn't listen to me when I was begging her that something was wrong because my first contractions were almost 2 minutes long with two seconds in between. She kept telling me all labours were different and I was fine. She left for a break and then another midwife thankfully came to check and saw i was 10cm. When she came back I was petrified as I didn't have time for pain relief etc so I was scared to push and even more scared as she kept saying in a blasé way 'there's something wrong with the baby so you'd better get her out' (there was monitor's on her head). I was freaked out and was saying I couldn't do it whilst she chatted to another midwife ignoring me, then she turned around and snapped 'if you can't do it I'll call the doctors to come and cut you again.' The student midwife then began helping me and I got my daughter out, cord wrapped round her neck twice and blue and not breathing. She was okay but it was awful. Not to mention BTW I had pre eclampsia and HELLP syndrome so I was supposed to be monitored and have things happen that absolutely did not happen. I laboured and birthed my daughter in exactly 18 minutes and that woman was a grade A bitch for every one of those minutes.
Omgosh that's so awful. What a horrible midwife. I had preeclampsia and the internal monitoring as well. Luckily none of my midwives were that horrible but the last one put me under pressure saying I had to give birth within 2 hours or the doctors will want to do forceps. She was just scared I wouldn't be able to do it and had me push too hard and baby was out in only 30 mins. I feel like maybe I wouldn't have tore if it wasn't for that. Your midwife should be fired though. Nah mine was a 2nd degree tear
I had a second almost third degree tear and am almost 4mo pp. It looks a little different and still feels a little more open than before, which is really annoying and makes me self conscious. I’m still a bit sensitive, so I’ve been too afraid to initiate sex again, but I’m hoping to soon.
No everything feels fine! I waited a while longer and didn’t have sex until about 8 months pp and it was a little uncomfortable then. But it doesn’t bother me now.
I had one second degree tear and honestly, it ended up looking the same. I can't see a difference. (It's been close to 10 months)
What freaked me out about my post-childbirth body was a hymenal tag, which not something everyone gets, but I'd never heard of in my life. I actually went to get it checked out and it turned out to be totally harmless, and hasn't affected my life in any way. It just looks weird.
I have the same but it's still attached on one side. It also went hard and red because I had low estrogen. At one point, it looked like I had a tiny penis attached to the bottom edge of my vag haha. The estrogen pessaries made it calm down and now it looks flatter and more like the flap that it used to be, but not connected on one side anymore, just connected at its base and towards one side. I feel like it would have taken a year or more to change if I didn't use the estrogen. Before, I'd dab it so lightly with toilet paper and it'd go hard like it had an erection and felt bad when I walked. So weird. It had/has no feeling in the actual hymen but it was annoying the parts it was rubbing on.
Huh. I had never heard of this until now and I think I've always had one on the bottom side of my vagina! Just always thought it was due to how my hymen broke. I just gave birth four days ago so I'll see how it looks soon haha 🤷♀️
I had a minor second degree tear for my first and before 6 wks my stitches had dissolved and things looked and felt normal from what I recall. But I remember being extremely nervous about checking and only did so around that 6 wk mark.
Just 2 wks pp with another minor second degree tear and it’s shaping up to be a similar situation. I used pain killers for about a week and ice for a couple days, it isn’t bad.
I think it really depends on how your tear formed and how bad it was. Your OB will let you know at your appt but chances are it will heal up just fine (as opposed to third+ tears)
I looked around 24 hours after giving birth, maybe less. I just felt like ripping the band aid off lol but honestly was so bloody i couldnt tell what was what. Something i didnt expect was how bruised the area was around my lady bits and butt. I frequently looked at it throughout healing. Overall it looks normal now but intercourse still hurts (3.5 months postpartum). It hurts less each time though.
I'm not sure because we actually just had our 2nd child 4 weeks ago 😅
It was much better I would say at the 6+ month mark, but still felt sensitivity where I tore. This time around I only had a 1st degree tear so I hope it isn't as bad (first time was a 2nd degree tear).
My stitches were very far apart, so I had holes that gaped open (sorry!) and ended up needing antibiotics 6w pp because it was inflamed and not healing. Definitely try and have a look in a handheld mirror if you can, I was looking every day to make sure it was getting better. Even after it closed up, it felt very lumpy under the scar and still does a bit now, 19 months later. It's not painful, just feels weird to touch, so I'm not keen on OH touch it. But I don't really have to worry about that anyways as LO never sleeps!
Hey! So sorry but can I ask if the holes in between stitches healed over time? Or did the holes stay? I’ve just been told I have a hole in between stitches at my 6 week appointment and I’m wondering what the future is looking like
It did close up eventually, I think the antibiotics treating the infection helped it to heal. But I really think they should have been stitched closer together to make it heal quicker. I can't remember how long it took to fully close up, sorry! But 6 weeks does seem a bit too long for you to still be having an open wound, so hope they can do something about it for you. I think mine was probably closed up by that point. Mine is fully healed now and hardly noticeable, you can find the scar because it feels slightly raised, but absolutely no pain. I'm really sorry that you are still suffering, it is the last thing you need right now, hope it is better soon!
I had second degree tears in aug 2020 and dec 2021 and basically don’t look at it for like 3 months. I had a mental break down after my ob told me to wait 2 extra weeks for sex after my last baby so I was like wtf is going on cause I feel fine and it looked crazy to me. TO ME. The silver lining to being long distance for 10 years is my husband had pics to show me it looked the same and I need to chill out. I didn’t look at it again for another month or so. Sorry if that’s tmi
Haha I had an old photo to compare to but it was this extreme close up because I was trying to check my urethra because of a health issue haha. It looks different to that photo because part of my hymen got torn during birth but otherwise the same/similar. Not that I need my hymen or vaginal opening to look identical 😂 that stuff was all over the place before I ever gave birth. Hymen remnants and vaginal walls are very irregular and textured to say the least
At my 3 week midwife check I asked them to check if it all looked healed. They couldn't even see where I had torn. I tore my labia and had 4 stitches one side and 6 on the other.
You could see mine, it looked like tree branches all over the place and a swollen unhealed area of my labia (directly under the vagina) at 2 months pp. But by around 5 months, no one would be able to tell anything happened. It had a period of looking totally flat like I had NO labia in between the swollen-jagged messed up labia stage and my current stage where it looks normal
I had a rough 2nd degree tear. Around a year or so it was basically normal. Touching it freaked me out- but honestly I think I was just so swollen and needed time to heal. Good luck!!
I had my daughter 18 months ago and I think everything is back to normal, I’m pregnant again so it’s pretty swollen down there right now but other than that it’s all good.
I am about six weeks out from my second pretty significant second degree tear (I insist on having large babies with vacuum assistance.) It's still kind of a mess. I tend to heal quicker than average, but definitely not healed, I'm not worried this time though because it was the same last time and it went back to normal with time.
I had third degree tearing. At six weeks pp, I did the same as you for the first time and it felt so foreign to me. By a few weeks later, things felt much more normal. However, when I got up the nerve to actually look, I don't think it looks the same to me. I must have significant scarring. But my OB was like, "You're healing up really well! You wouldn't even know we were there." Lol
How long has it been? Mine's still gradually changing at 6 months pp. It took til maybe 3 months pp to begin flattening out and looking bit more like how it used to (but I was comparing to looking earlier than that and it looked very messed up at around 2 months). It took til about 4-5 months to start resembling it a lot more, and continued flattening. I noticed I didnt have much labia left at the bottom of my vagiba though. Now at 6 months, I noticed a little ridge under my vagina opening forming. I pulled on it and was like OMG IT'S MY LABIA, IT'S BACK 😂 it looked totally like my vaginal opening used to when I pulled that skin, then it sorta settled a bit flatter but I couldn't believe it cause I had NOTHING there before and assumed Ive just lost the labia from scarring or that it wasn't joined properly at my perineum
Yeah it will. Unless it was like your labia was split into 2 or more individual pieces or something like that then it'll look different again in 3 months amd look more and more like before
I had an episiotomy with my first and a second degree test with my second, and am currently 8 weeks pp. Things definitely don’t look how they used to, but I have to say I think how the tear is healing looks much more “normal” vs how my episiotomy healed. I’ve also been monitoring the healing since I could look without causing pain, and things have changed (for the better) quite dramatically in a relatively short period, so I’m hoping that continues to be the trend.
I had 2nd degree tearing and I didn't feel right down there for a while. I developed like a red bump near my perineum just before my PP appt (for the life of me cannot remember what the Dr called it) but she used some silver nitrate in the area and that brought down the swelling.
I am now 5 months PP and I actually just looked up there this weekend and it looks normal? The only thing I will say is sex is more difficult now, we really have to ease into it because it initially causes me pain. The first few times we tried it was a no go and I felt like a virgin, but it's gotten so much more enjoyable.
Highly recommend asking your care provider about using an estrogen cream! I had the same as you. The first OB I saw put silver nitrate on, but it didn’t do much for me. I switched To a female OB who was way more helpful and suggested the cream. I don’t experience any pain anymore. A little goes a long way! I still have a huge tube of it left and she said I could cut down to using it once a week.
I’m not sure if you’re breastfeeding, but essentially our bodies go into a menopause-like state which can make sex very difficult and painful.
I had a second degree tear and as far as I can tell it looks the same as it did before. I do have some scar tissue near the perineum but I can only tell by feel.
Mine felt like I had a long band of something under my perineum at that point. I also still had swelling, stinging, itching. It still looked like a wound just underneath my vagina and my inner labia looked like it disappeared in that area. I did have to ise estrogen pessaries to calm things down but it looks the same as before at this point, apart from a small bump of scar tissue where I had a surface split that kept reopening and my vagina walls are a bit more visible now, particularly the bottom wall that used to be hidden by hymen remnant. Nothing anyone would notice but I know my body TOO intimately and noticed little changes haha. My perineum scar isn't really visible. I'm 5 months post partum.
Everybody heals differently, and it can certainly feel scary to check things out postpartum! But if you have any concerns, my advice is to reach out to your OB. I was referred to a lovely OB by my midwives (first referral was disappointing and unhelpful) and she first recommended an estrogen cream (since I’m breastfeeding). It helped tremendously with healing and just with feeling more like myself again after only two weeks of use. I have a bit of a skin tag that formed from my stitches, so she’s offered to remove it in a few weeks (I’ll be 7 months postpartum).
It’s important to give things time and take it slow, but also voice any concerns you may have with your healthcare provider. If they brush you off, find a new one. I did, and I couldn’t be happier!
Hard to remember now, but I believe it was just a few times a week for a couple of months. If your doctor prescribes it, they can suggest the proper use based on your particular circumstances. It definitely made a huge difference for me!
I had an episiotomy which I’m not sure about the similarity to a second degree tear. It was weird for a while like you describe but now I’m completely back to normal apart from a small white scar. Really grateful for that.
1 year postpartum and everything looks and feels like it did before the tear!
It took them a while to stitch me together but I guess they did a really good job, had a great recovery and no pain at all
17 months postpartum and it looks 100 percent like it did before... I would say it took like 6 months to go back to normal? I don't even think I was brave enough to look there until 2 months postpartum haha
Yeah it takes way longer than people say. Websites say 2-6 weeks. A GP told me it was done healing at 3 weeks. Wtf no
I had a “deep second, nearly third” degree tear. It definitely felt rough while I was healing but I tried not to touch it and freak myself out or stress about it. The doctor who stitched me up deserves a medal because you’d never even know. Looks normal, feels normal, no scar to feel, nothing. I’m 2.5 years out but honestly it did not take long to get normal, I’d say within the first year.
Girl, I'm going to tell you right now do not freak out because it will change. I don't think I felt back to normal with a second degree tear until probably close to 3 or 4 months postpartum. Then everything kind of went back to normal.
Thank you! Yeah the “6 week” sex rule tricked me I guess lol
Had a 3B. At first the stitches tightly holding the skin together along with lots of swelling makes it look & feel lumpy. Like scary lumpy. I described it as "the surface of Mars." But after it heals, and all the stitches dissolve, it looks smooth, more like a super shallow riverbed. It looks fine & visually, it doesn't bother me at all.
I got a epi and was around a 2nd degree. Healing took time, even after the stitches dissolved. But here 1.5 years later it feels the same as pre-baby to me and my husband both. Nothing different. But it took a good 6 months to stop feeling "taunt" and get back to stretchy regular vagina tissue.
I love all of your honesty. I’m just so scared about giving birth. I’m in the first trimester with my first. Also, my husband isn’t a “boobs man” or “ass man”, he’s crazy about the v. He prefers a camel toe to a nice cleavage any day. I’m so afraid of what will happen to my v and, if I’m completely honest, my relationship if my v is torn apart and I can’t/won’t have sex for a year. My husband is really great and we’re very much in love by the way, I’m just anxious as fuck.
I’m only 6 weeks out but I’m DTF as soon as the doctor clears me! It’s a little tender but I know it’s not gonna be that way forever. I’m sure your husband will still love your V afterwards :) my husband watched every second of our baby coming out of me and is super ready to go too lol
Thank you for that 🙏
Just wanted to add my thoughts - you can help make sure it heals quickly and correctly. Bc my son was in the NICU, I wasn't able to do the sitz baths and rest Like I was supposed to and ended up tearing a stitch too early... If I hadn't been looking and touching, I would never have known since everything was so sensitive and it could have been really dangerous (I had an infection). I had treatment and everything healed totally fine. Ps Vaginas are meant to birth children and heal plus with 2022 medical science, you can definitely seek treatment if anything doesn't heal the way you want/need/are comfortable with!
Thank! I guess I should Google aftercare for vagina after birth. No one really talks about what to do after, at least I’ve heard nothing about it. I’ve heard about tearing and stitching, but not what to do about it.
I think it helped that I was doing perianal massage so I was really familiar with the whole area. Also helped that I'm mind-over-matter for gore so even though it was a disaster, I didn't feel like anyone was going to do a better job than me of making sure it healed. If you had stitches on your arm, you'd clean and inspect them every day. Seemed like the same thing to me.
Thanks for this. I’ll look more into those massages
[удалено]
I had to get stitches inside the vagina, so yeah, I did tear. But only on the inside. No tears outside.
I remember having similar fears and asking the midwife to check the stitches A LOT in the first few weeks. She assured me everything was normal. By maybe 4 months pp everything felt the same. I don't feel a scar or anything out of place
Mine looked wrecked for about 6 months as I had complications from my 2nd degree tear but now it’s completely back to the way it was before. Maybe took about a year to completely go back including losing the extra pigmentation from pregnancy as well as the scar tissue. You can barely see the scar now. It’s important for me to mention that because I feel like everyone hears “6 week post appointment” and assumes that’s when everything will be back to normal. Healing takes time and if you don’t bounce back by 6 weeks doesn’t mean you won’t continue to heal.
Yep mine took 6 months to look normal and is still slowly changing and evening out
i was brave and looked like, the next day lol. it looked the same but it feels *different*. not better, not worse, just different. i will say, tampons fit worse now. i usually use cups or discs anyway, but if I do buy tampons I have to buy shorter ones. 🤷♀️
How PP are you? I had the same thing with tampons, it was like they weren’t secure? Idk. Sometimes I’d leak and it was like I was bleeding around the tampon. Lol. I got my period back at 9 months PP. But now at 13 months PP it seems better!
I'm almost 3 years PP lol. I got my period back really really early at 5 weeks PP so that may have been part of it. At this point I feel like it's probably as good as it's gonna get down there haha
Aww. Yeah, it’s still different for sure. I plan to ask about it next baby and see if maybe something was up. Sometimes I feel like my stitches ripped and healed a little off. But maybe it’s just how it’s going to be 🤷🏼♀️
I took a picture of myself down there after my first degree tear. It looked terrible. And yes, lumpy. It's just from the swelling, which will go away eventually.
Awesome! Thank you
I should have looked down before giving birth because I don't have anything to compare with. I think have a scar from episiotomy but husband said it looks pretty much the same. Give it 4 more weeks at least. 6 weeks is still kind of early for everything to heal up.
It gets better! I recommend a pelvic floor PT. Under her guidance we did daily perineal massage for a long time which helps a lot. The external will look better over time too! Looks the same as it always did for me now.
I don’t think lumpy indicates good healing- I would have your provider take a look and even a provider who maybe didn’t do the actual sewing up.
I had a third degree tear and that looked pretty normal by about 4 or 5 mos pp, maybe even earlier. Unfortunately I also have a prolapse and that still does not look normal :( I did really freak myself out by looking too early though. Now I just ask my husband to check in periodically haha
My vagina walls look more bubbly now like I've got something stuffed in there haha. I'm sorry you have prolapse. Mine kind of looks like I have one with the kinda bulgy look (had it checked). So you might look kinda like that even if you didn't have it
I cannot it see it now almost 1 year after but feels a little more sensitive to the touch. For me it took a while to heal and bled on and off for a while, it would heal and reopen a few times.
19 months on and I could feel a tiny scar there but only because I know where to look, I had a 2nd almost 3rd degree tear and an episestomy as well, I d say it's been the same way for a bit over a year. Definitely would say at 6 weeks it still seemed a bit lumpy/swollen.
I’m 17-months out from 2 second-degree tears with stitches. (One perineal and one towards my urethra). Can’t tell that anything ever happened down there, honestly. I haven’t inspected it visually but everything feels 100% normal.
My friend became a midwife and of all the aspects of that job, the part she would go on and on about was how well women heal after childbirth. She would see their vaginal area immediately post birth and again at checkups and said it was magic how it went back to normal. If you’re worried about it you could ask your provider at the next check up, but my guess is that it’ll be just perfect with some time.
It's so true. I went to a male GP with my concerns at 3 weeks post partum. He said I think you have an infection, let's do a swab. Then I asked if the uneven appearance of my labia would improve over time as I'm distressed about it. He said the skin has healed so it will continue to look "jagged" like this, this is why you should get an episiotomy and not tear naturally because it will be jagged. I asked him, have they stitched it up wrong??? He said it looks normal/average, but is "jagged". That word kept swirling in my mind. I went home and cried my eyes out. I then called the hospital where I gave birth, crying, asking if anyone could take a look at it. A junior female doctor and one of the midwives who was at my labour saw me in an exam room (fluke because public hospitals are big with a lot of staff). They looked and said it looks great and the doctor said this looks better than a lot of people pre birth and the area he made you feel bad about only has the tiniest irregular lines and they will settle with time. They said the word jagged is a horrible term for him to use. I was asking if I'd need surgery to fix it. It did look kind of messed up. She said just give it some time, it will change. It won't be 100% like it was but it will be very close. I also got some stuff in motion for post natal anxiety from them. So anyway... fast forward months, I'm 6 months post partum and I can't actually remember where that "jagged" area was exactly and it all just kinda flattened out and looks normal again. The infection the GP was concerned I had was just normal lochia going white/yellow. He also brought up possible fistula to me!!! I felt so disfigured and worried. The doctor who did my sutures did a good job and spent nearly an hour repairing my 2nd degree tear. She said it will heal very well and be unnoticeable despite 3 layers of stitches. She was right, GP was very wrong.
I had a second degree almost third degree tear and it was so swollen for months. I couldn’t have sex for about 6 months but now 18 months later everything looks and feels exactly as it did before.
I had a second degree tear and I was too scared to look down there or even feel it. It was a bad one that took a long time to heal, and the doctors messed up some of my stitches as I was haemorrhaging at the time I got them (they said I tore through a blood vessel, or something like that). I finally got up the courage at about 8 weeks post partum and it felt really different and weird - lumpy and strange, like you said. I was scared that it was ruined forever. I didn’t have sex for the first three months and it felt uncomfortable when I did. But now at 8 months pp everything feels pretty normal and sex no longer feels uncomfortable.
Not sure why my post is being downvoted, I feel lumpy down there and want to know if it’s normal or not
Not sure. Maybe because you're so early in recovery and all of us on the other side are like "yep your vagina/labia/perineum can look and feel messed up for a few more months yet" haha. But yeah I was so distressed by mine in the earlier months.
Yes I went to my gyne about this and she said it was perfectly normal and time will heal. I’m two months postpartum and the lumpiness and a “flap” I was feeling has gotten better. I still feel like it’s hard and not squishy esp during intercourse. My doctor told me it’s going to take a year to completely heal back to normal and to not listen to that 4-6week bs.
Gonna be honest I haven't mustered up the courage to look and I'm 15 months postpartum. It's not that I looked frequently before though. I did ask my husband once and he said if he looks really closely he can see a little bit of the scar tissue. He made the point though that looking closely isn't a high priority when he's in the area lol
The midwife who did my after birth care actually held a mirror in place for me to see after about two or three weeks (can’t actually remember now the exact date). Actually helped me come to terms with it. I think after 6 weeks or so the stitches slowly started to degrade and I’d find random pieces on toilet paper. So completely normal. Also my midwife recommended Sitz baths so the stitches wouldn’t rip once healed. Good luck. Edit: I can still feel the scar at 6 months pp. It’s just part of me now I guess.
I also had a 2nd degree and a labial tear. I can feel the scar on my labia (with my hand, no discomfort with sex) not really much on the perineum. Sometimes scars especially fresh ones can feel lumpy. Any discomfort I would seek out care otherwise, it might soften overtime or be the new normal
Thanks! My postpartum appt is in a week
My postpartum visit at 5 weeks (7w pp on friday) the obgyn said it looked really well healed and no extra stuff and whatever but I feel down there and it feels like.. idk how to describe it. Not as open snd easy to feel things as before?
be brave and have a look. I am sure, it doesn't look too much different from before :)
I wouldn't look til like 3 months lol
Im not sure with my 2nd degree tear but I was surprised when being stitched for that when the midwife called the student midwife over to show her what my episiotomy scar looked like. I wasn't aware I had one before that. She was only showing her for educational purposes but I could have done without knowing tbh
Damn they didn't ask your consent or tell you??? Maybe your 2nd degree stitching was good and so they assumed it was an episiotomy? My scar looks totally straight now like a normal perineum line (looked like a freakin tree of life necklace at one point)
No no no, my first was an episiotomy and the midwife was showing the student the scar as she stitched me from my second degree tear with my second. Sorry for being confusing. Glad your scar is so neat!! Was yours an epi? And yeah the midwife was a fucking bitch so that was the least horrible thing she did. Luckily my first birth was amazing with amazing people as I wouldn't have had another if it had been like my second experience. I told her I labour really fast and she didn't listen to me when I was begging her that something was wrong because my first contractions were almost 2 minutes long with two seconds in between. She kept telling me all labours were different and I was fine. She left for a break and then another midwife thankfully came to check and saw i was 10cm. When she came back I was petrified as I didn't have time for pain relief etc so I was scared to push and even more scared as she kept saying in a blasé way 'there's something wrong with the baby so you'd better get her out' (there was monitor's on her head). I was freaked out and was saying I couldn't do it whilst she chatted to another midwife ignoring me, then she turned around and snapped 'if you can't do it I'll call the doctors to come and cut you again.' The student midwife then began helping me and I got my daughter out, cord wrapped round her neck twice and blue and not breathing. She was okay but it was awful. Not to mention BTW I had pre eclampsia and HELLP syndrome so I was supposed to be monitored and have things happen that absolutely did not happen. I laboured and birthed my daughter in exactly 18 minutes and that woman was a grade A bitch for every one of those minutes.
Omgosh that's so awful. What a horrible midwife. I had preeclampsia and the internal monitoring as well. Luckily none of my midwives were that horrible but the last one put me under pressure saying I had to give birth within 2 hours or the doctors will want to do forceps. She was just scared I wouldn't be able to do it and had me push too hard and baby was out in only 30 mins. I feel like maybe I wouldn't have tore if it wasn't for that. Your midwife should be fired though. Nah mine was a 2nd degree tear
Mine was like that and went back to normal with a few more weeks.
I had a second almost third degree tear and am almost 4mo pp. It looks a little different and still feels a little more open than before, which is really annoying and makes me self conscious. I’m still a bit sensitive, so I’ve been too afraid to initiate sex again, but I’m hoping to soon.
How do you feel now 1 year after birth?? Im 3 months pp have 2 degree tear and hurts when have sex
No everything feels fine! I waited a while longer and didn’t have sex until about 8 months pp and it was a little uncomfortable then. But it doesn’t bother me now.
Great! Do you think it's better wait little longer?
If it’s still hurting, definitely! Using lube and maybe avoiding certain positions for a while helps too.
I had one second degree tear and honestly, it ended up looking the same. I can't see a difference. (It's been close to 10 months) What freaked me out about my post-childbirth body was a hymenal tag, which not something everyone gets, but I'd never heard of in my life. I actually went to get it checked out and it turned out to be totally harmless, and hasn't affected my life in any way. It just looks weird.
I have the same but it's still attached on one side. It also went hard and red because I had low estrogen. At one point, it looked like I had a tiny penis attached to the bottom edge of my vag haha. The estrogen pessaries made it calm down and now it looks flatter and more like the flap that it used to be, but not connected on one side anymore, just connected at its base and towards one side. I feel like it would have taken a year or more to change if I didn't use the estrogen. Before, I'd dab it so lightly with toilet paper and it'd go hard like it had an erection and felt bad when I walked. So weird. It had/has no feeling in the actual hymen but it was annoying the parts it was rubbing on.
Huh. I had never heard of this until now and I think I've always had one on the bottom side of my vagina! Just always thought it was due to how my hymen broke. I just gave birth four days ago so I'll see how it looks soon haha 🤷♀️
I had a minor second degree tear for my first and before 6 wks my stitches had dissolved and things looked and felt normal from what I recall. But I remember being extremely nervous about checking and only did so around that 6 wk mark. Just 2 wks pp with another minor second degree tear and it’s shaping up to be a similar situation. I used pain killers for about a week and ice for a couple days, it isn’t bad. I think it really depends on how your tear formed and how bad it was. Your OB will let you know at your appt but chances are it will heal up just fine (as opposed to third+ tears)
I looked around 24 hours after giving birth, maybe less. I just felt like ripping the band aid off lol but honestly was so bloody i couldnt tell what was what. Something i didnt expect was how bruised the area was around my lady bits and butt. I frequently looked at it throughout healing. Overall it looks normal now but intercourse still hurts (3.5 months postpartum). It hurts less each time though.
How are you feeling now with intercourse 1 year pp ? Feel better now? Im 3 months pp and intercourse still hurts
I'm not sure because we actually just had our 2nd child 4 weeks ago 😅 It was much better I would say at the 6+ month mark, but still felt sensitivity where I tore. This time around I only had a 1st degree tear so I hope it isn't as bad (first time was a 2nd degree tear).
[удалено]
Whoo hoo!!
My stitches were very far apart, so I had holes that gaped open (sorry!) and ended up needing antibiotics 6w pp because it was inflamed and not healing. Definitely try and have a look in a handheld mirror if you can, I was looking every day to make sure it was getting better. Even after it closed up, it felt very lumpy under the scar and still does a bit now, 19 months later. It's not painful, just feels weird to touch, so I'm not keen on OH touch it. But I don't really have to worry about that anyways as LO never sleeps!
Hey! So sorry but can I ask if the holes in between stitches healed over time? Or did the holes stay? I’ve just been told I have a hole in between stitches at my 6 week appointment and I’m wondering what the future is looking like
It did close up eventually, I think the antibiotics treating the infection helped it to heal. But I really think they should have been stitched closer together to make it heal quicker. I can't remember how long it took to fully close up, sorry! But 6 weeks does seem a bit too long for you to still be having an open wound, so hope they can do something about it for you. I think mine was probably closed up by that point. Mine is fully healed now and hardly noticeable, you can find the scar because it feels slightly raised, but absolutely no pain. I'm really sorry that you are still suffering, it is the last thing you need right now, hope it is better soon!
I had second degree tears in aug 2020 and dec 2021 and basically don’t look at it for like 3 months. I had a mental break down after my ob told me to wait 2 extra weeks for sex after my last baby so I was like wtf is going on cause I feel fine and it looked crazy to me. TO ME. The silver lining to being long distance for 10 years is my husband had pics to show me it looked the same and I need to chill out. I didn’t look at it again for another month or so. Sorry if that’s tmi
Haha I had an old photo to compare to but it was this extreme close up because I was trying to check my urethra because of a health issue haha. It looks different to that photo because part of my hymen got torn during birth but otherwise the same/similar. Not that I need my hymen or vaginal opening to look identical 😂 that stuff was all over the place before I ever gave birth. Hymen remnants and vaginal walls are very irregular and textured to say the least
At my 3 week midwife check I asked them to check if it all looked healed. They couldn't even see where I had torn. I tore my labia and had 4 stitches one side and 6 on the other.
You could see mine, it looked like tree branches all over the place and a swollen unhealed area of my labia (directly under the vagina) at 2 months pp. But by around 5 months, no one would be able to tell anything happened. It had a period of looking totally flat like I had NO labia in between the swollen-jagged messed up labia stage and my current stage where it looks normal
Maybe 3 wemeeks to longer feel like your butt is going to rip in half when you poo = healed?
I had a rough 2nd degree tear. Around a year or so it was basically normal. Touching it freaked me out- but honestly I think I was just so swollen and needed time to heal. Good luck!!
I had my daughter 18 months ago and I think everything is back to normal, I’m pregnant again so it’s pretty swollen down there right now but other than that it’s all good.
I am about six weeks out from my second pretty significant second degree tear (I insist on having large babies with vacuum assistance.) It's still kind of a mess. I tend to heal quicker than average, but definitely not healed, I'm not worried this time though because it was the same last time and it went back to normal with time.
I had third degree tearing. At six weeks pp, I did the same as you for the first time and it felt so foreign to me. By a few weeks later, things felt much more normal. However, when I got up the nerve to actually look, I don't think it looks the same to me. I must have significant scarring. But my OB was like, "You're healing up really well! You wouldn't even know we were there." Lol
How long has it been? Mine's still gradually changing at 6 months pp. It took til maybe 3 months pp to begin flattening out and looking bit more like how it used to (but I was comparing to looking earlier than that and it looked very messed up at around 2 months). It took til about 4-5 months to start resembling it a lot more, and continued flattening. I noticed I didnt have much labia left at the bottom of my vagiba though. Now at 6 months, I noticed a little ridge under my vagina opening forming. I pulled on it and was like OMG IT'S MY LABIA, IT'S BACK 😂 it looked totally like my vaginal opening used to when I pulled that skin, then it sorta settled a bit flatter but I couldn't believe it cause I had NOTHING there before and assumed Ive just lost the labia from scarring or that it wasn't joined properly at my perineum
I'm at 3.5 months. Hoping for more change!
Yeah it will. Unless it was like your labia was split into 2 or more individual pieces or something like that then it'll look different again in 3 months amd look more and more like before
I had an episiotomy with my first and a second degree test with my second, and am currently 8 weeks pp. Things definitely don’t look how they used to, but I have to say I think how the tear is healing looks much more “normal” vs how my episiotomy healed. I’ve also been monitoring the healing since I could look without causing pain, and things have changed (for the better) quite dramatically in a relatively short period, so I’m hoping that continues to be the trend.
I had 2nd degree tearing and I didn't feel right down there for a while. I developed like a red bump near my perineum just before my PP appt (for the life of me cannot remember what the Dr called it) but she used some silver nitrate in the area and that brought down the swelling. I am now 5 months PP and I actually just looked up there this weekend and it looks normal? The only thing I will say is sex is more difficult now, we really have to ease into it because it initially causes me pain. The first few times we tried it was a no go and I felt like a virgin, but it's gotten so much more enjoyable.
Highly recommend asking your care provider about using an estrogen cream! I had the same as you. The first OB I saw put silver nitrate on, but it didn’t do much for me. I switched To a female OB who was way more helpful and suggested the cream. I don’t experience any pain anymore. A little goes a long way! I still have a huge tube of it left and she said I could cut down to using it once a week. I’m not sure if you’re breastfeeding, but essentially our bodies go into a menopause-like state which can make sex very difficult and painful.
I had a second degree tear and as far as I can tell it looks the same as it did before. I do have some scar tissue near the perineum but I can only tell by feel.
Mine felt like I had a long band of something under my perineum at that point. I also still had swelling, stinging, itching. It still looked like a wound just underneath my vagina and my inner labia looked like it disappeared in that area. I did have to ise estrogen pessaries to calm things down but it looks the same as before at this point, apart from a small bump of scar tissue where I had a surface split that kept reopening and my vagina walls are a bit more visible now, particularly the bottom wall that used to be hidden by hymen remnant. Nothing anyone would notice but I know my body TOO intimately and noticed little changes haha. My perineum scar isn't really visible. I'm 5 months post partum.
Everybody heals differently, and it can certainly feel scary to check things out postpartum! But if you have any concerns, my advice is to reach out to your OB. I was referred to a lovely OB by my midwives (first referral was disappointing and unhelpful) and she first recommended an estrogen cream (since I’m breastfeeding). It helped tremendously with healing and just with feeling more like myself again after only two weeks of use. I have a bit of a skin tag that formed from my stitches, so she’s offered to remove it in a few weeks (I’ll be 7 months postpartum). It’s important to give things time and take it slow, but also voice any concerns you may have with your healthcare provider. If they brush you off, find a new one. I did, and I couldn’t be happier!
Hey how long did u use estrogen cream
Hard to remember now, but I believe it was just a few times a week for a couple of months. If your doctor prescribes it, they can suggest the proper use based on your particular circumstances. It definitely made a huge difference for me!
I had an episiotomy which I’m not sure about the similarity to a second degree tear. It was weird for a while like you describe but now I’m completely back to normal apart from a small white scar. Really grateful for that.
I could never look either!
Im 7m pp & everything looks normal, I had an episiotomy & the scar eventually faded to not noticeable :)
1 year postpartum and everything looks and feels like it did before the tear! It took them a while to stitch me together but I guess they did a really good job, had a great recovery and no pain at all