Anyone else have a second degree tear and NOT get it repaired?

[heatherRN]

8 days ago I had a 10# 9oz baby at home. I had a second degree tear and my MW said that I could either get stitches or go on 5-7 day bedrest and it will heal fine since it was a very straight forward tear. Well at our 7 day check up she reported that it would probably not heal as closed/tight as prior, ok no big deal, but I took a look at it today and was shocked. OMG how on earth will this thing heal? I have to have faith, but I am nervous, not to mention still having a lot of pain and unable to sit. Ugh, anyone else BTDT, can you tell me it will be ok and that I didn't make a horrible mistake not getting repaired?

[WifeofAnt]

I haven't BTDT but I have heard that back in the days of long hospital stays they didn't repair tears as often because the women stayed in bed the whole time and they healed fine on their own.

[greengirl_]

Congrats on your new baby!!!

I had a pretty big tear, at least it seemed big to me! I think it was a first-degree tear though and kind of went on a diagonal. I chose not to have stitches and my mw was supportive of that. She had me use seaweed, like the sheets you can buy for sushi. I would wet it and place it over the tear adn it was really soothing and helped it to heal. I think it took a couple weeks before it wasn't so tender.

I had the same feelings as you, felt like I had made a terrible mistake at first. It has healed as a kind of v-split, the edges never did come together. It hasn't really caused any problems, except sometimes it can be painful when dtd in certain positions. I was really worried at first that my vulva looked different and I was embarrassed, but dh doesn't have any complaints.

[Twinklefae]

Not really, but kind of. I had a second degree tear, repaired, but then tore it open. (Who knew that when they said 6 weeks, they actually meant 6 weeks?)

I have some permanent damage, most notablty a microscopic hole that allows gas to escape into the vagina. I also have the v-spilt a pp mentioned. Poking around I definitely know where it is.

It doesn't really bother me, but if I had the option of getting it fixed I would.

[liberal_chick]

I had one with my ds2 and it healed totally open in the V the PPs mentioned. Mine was far enough back, though, that I had very little perinenum left. I was told by a NP that I saw for a vaginal infection about 5 weeks after birth that it could eventually cause issues with a prolapse (if I ever had one). That combined with the fact that it really bothered dh to have it so open caused me to go see an OB and have it repaired at 9 weeks PP.

I'll spare you the details on the repair surgery, but I'm glad I had it fixed. I just gave birth again a few days ago and managed to escape without retearing along the scar (woot!), but we did intend to get anything beyond the tiniest of tears stitched if they occured this time.