'Extensive' first degree tear-- what does this mean?

[texmati]

I had a vbac with my daughter on Sunday. At  first the ob said that it was just a minor tear; but once he started stitching he said the tear was unusual and went very deep into the vagina-- almost to the cervix. But it was still a first degree tear.

I'm wondering what this means in terms of recovery? I guess I'm wondering is this really bad, or nothing to worry about/

[woodchick]

I had a complicated tear with a similar description with my second.  I don't remember the recovery to be any worse than with my first.  I think I had a couple of weeks of mild pain and uncomfortableness...and needing to use the peri bottle frequently to prevent the pain of drying out.  (I'm two years out, sorry my memory is hazy!)

ps. Congrats on your VBAC! and Welcome, baby girl!!

[cileag]

I don't know exactly what it will mean for you since everyone heals differently, but the degree of the tear simply indicates what layers of tissue were involved.  So, just like if you cut your arm, it can be a shallow depth but long or short.  It sounds like it was pretty long unfortunately, and I would suspect that you'll be able to "feel" it for awhile.  For me, I can still feel where my 1st degree tear was and my dd is 15 months old, but it doesn't hurt anymore, it just feels a little different.  It might be more challenging to use comfort measures on an internal tear---things like Tucks or ice packs aren't going to help as much.

Congrats on your VBAC!

[texmati]

Thanks for the responses-- really I guess I was just posting to see if it meant that every thing would be ok. I'm honestly not as sore as I thought I would be, but it still 'scares' me that there are so many stitches down there! It was also kind of worrysome to hear the doc say -- "well, that was worse than what I thought!"