Perineal Tear? « Back to Group Discussions

[teegan db]

So, after Thomas's birth, I had two tiny tears (not worth stitching, they said) and a scrape. I didn't feel the tears after a few days, and I didn't feel the scrape after ten days or so. I stopped using the bottle to rinse when I peed, and I upped my activity little by little. Well, about a week and a half ago, one of the tears (I think? Definitely not the scrape) started to sting again. I can't see anything that looks wrong/torn when I look with a mirror, but I'm also not sure what I'm looking for exactly. 
Besides normal activity (including an upstairs bedroom and a basement laundry room and daily walks of half a mile to a mile and a half), I haven't progressed. No yoga or jogging or sex, however much I may be very much wanting to do all three (and work off these extra twenty pounds of which I'm NOT a fan!). 

I have a midwife appointment Friday (it was supposed to be yesterday, but the hurricane stopped that), and I emailed her today to let her know when we were discussing the rescheduling.

But do you have any advice? Should I be doing sitz baths (I haven't since the first week pp)? With what herbs? Should I really be sitting around, limiting my walking and stairs for a while yet (a challenge with a baby that goes through a dozen cloth diapers a day and a laundry room a flight of stairs away)?

Ahhhh! Thomas is five weeks old today. I'm frustrated. 

[willfulmama]

I'm sorry you're feeling frustrated, mama! 

As it so happens, I was cleaning up our bookshelf as O finally decided he could nap without me holding him and my toddler seemed mostly self-entertaining. Anyway, I checked Susun Weed's Wise Woman Herbal for the Childbearing Year. She recommends a sitz bath with any of the following herbs: yarrow, rosemary, goldenseal, oak bark, witch hazel, myrrh. Hopefully you have some of those around to try?

Even just taking a few minutes to enjoy a bath of ANY kind will help relax and recenter you. Hope you feel better!

[BRC_MacKenzie]

I tore with both DD and this birth but only added  herbs to my sitz baths this time and I felt like it made a big difference in how I felt.  My tea came w/ my birth kit and I can't remember everything it had but sounds pretty similar to willfulmama's list. There are also some available on etsy but then you would have to wait for mail. 

Also, I had a little relapse at about 3 weeks also. I did get stitches so thought it was just one working its way out but I took it very easy for about two days (watched sound of music about 10x ti keep 2 year old near me and out of trouble) and it went away so even if you do feel like you need to go back a bit in activity level, it may not needed for long. 

Hope you feel better soon.

[MIrandaM]

Have you had any problems pooping?  I had just a first degree tear that needed five stitches, and for the 1-3 days it was tender but I could tell it was healing, each day was easier than the last.  Then I noticed it was more tender, hurt to sit etc. and my midwives looked at it, checked the stitches, said everything was fine.  The next day it was slightly worse, checked stitches again and they kept telling me it looked great, almost healed etc, but it kept hurting, I was convinced they'd messed up the stitches or something.  Finally I pooped and noticed that right afterwards it felt great for a few hours, then painful again.  Turns out that the place I tore kind of shares a 'wall' with my colon and if I was backed up (omg this is disgusting but we're all friends here, right??) then the hard poop was pushing against the tear (from the inside) and causing it to hurt.  For about the first month it was always fine unless I was backed up, in which case it would start to be tender again.  Oh the dignities of being childbirth! 

PS I'm finally back to normal and also looking forward to getting back into a routine w yoga, dtd, and working out! love your photo blog btw!!
 

[MotoMom]

I had the tear from hell that I ended up massaging a golf-ball-sized hematoma out off and it healed beautifully doing lots of sitz baths with epsom salts, lavender oil and tea tree oil. It was definitely good by five weeks so I can't imagine that yours hasn't healed by now. One thing that my midwife mentioned was that sometimes after a tear, you can have a spot that's painful because of the way the nerves heal. I'm pretty sure she said that if that happens, she just finds the spot and cauterizes it and that does the trick?

[teegan db]

Thanks for the advice, everyone!
Will try to sitz bath once I get some herbs. 
Miranda, no problems pooping the whole time. In fact, I think the problem is that the tear is farther down, meaning that after I go, it feels a little more tender, as though the act of pooping - or a really forceful pee - (sorry if this is all tmi!) opens it back up. 

And I'll have my midwife take a look at it - hopefully she'll have some answers if nothing's better by then!