Postpartum labia healing problem/questions *why I tore (in post#8 & 10)*

[Ooey]

The basic point of this post is to find out if how I healed is "normal" or if I should be concerned. I'm not so much bothered by the way that it looks anymore, I've moved past that and I'm okay with the fact that my vagina is not as pretty as it was before I gave birth My main concern is weather it will effect a future vaginal birth or become a problem for me sexualy.

My right labia has a lump about half the size of a golf ball, it is permenently swolen. It almost seems like one of the muscles that use to be inside is now on the outside, but I don't know enough about vaginal muscles to tell. It's not really painful, although it can be in certain sexual positions The upper part of the same labia has a rip in it about an inch long, but that has healed fine and doesn't cause any problems, just looks funny.

I ripped pretty badly durring the birth (it was 11 months ago) and refused stitches as I was too exaused and it was too tender to be messed with. It seemed to be healing fine for the first few months but recently the lump seems to have gotten bigger, either that or I just didn't notice it for a while. I never had any post partum exams past 6 weeks, but I did just schedual and exam for next month with my old CNM.

I'm wondering if anyone has something like this or any experience with it. I guess my main concern (assuming it's not a tumor or something else horrible) is giving birth again and weather this will effect pushing, ripping or streatching.

Any info would be greatly appricated

[Ooey]

...

[velcromom]

I hope someone with experience can come along and advise you on this one...

I can tell you at least on the topic of a laceration healing, that my c/s scar developed a lot of lumps, marble-sized and bigger, during the healing process and they took probably about a year til I noticed them shrinking and today, they are gone.

[Belleweather]

I had some major tearing in my labia when I gave birth to my son, and while there were some small bumps for a little while, what you're talking about sounds out of the ordinary. Have you talked to a doctor about this?

[Ooey]

No I haven't talked to a doctor yet or even been seen since giving birth. I have an apointment with a CNM schedualed for June 8th though.

[lurve]

i don't have any answers. all i know is i keep re-tearing my damn labia! it's been almost four months now and just last week...ouch! i think this is one area where it takes a real long time to get everything in order!

[suzy0005]

Tearing

Sounds similar to what happened to me after I had my son 5+ years ago. I tore badly from the birth and never healed properly. I ended up having a very thick scar that DID cause pain during sex. My doctor, who was a family practice doc that also had a lot of various experience (he had a lot of OB experience (and he delivered my son) and cosmetic surgery experience) referred me to a gynecologist who specializes in female dysfunction... Anyway, that doc gave me some numbing cream, which I found frustrating. (Who wants to use that every time you have sex for the rest of your life.) Eventually, I came back to my family practice doc who actually "vaporized," yes that was the exact word he used, my scar tissue. He used some strange tool to do it. But then he gave me some cream with copper in it (from his cosmetic surgery practice, I assume) to help the healing process. That really seemed to do the trick! I hadn't wanted to go to such extreme measures, but I also didn't want to live with pain like that every time I had sex. I would really start to hate/avoid sex if it was ALWAYS painful.

Hopefully you can find a solution that works for you!

Suzy

Originally Posted by Ooey

I'm wondering if anyone has something like this or any experience with it. I guess my main concern (assuming it's not a tumor or something else horrible) is giving birth again and weather this will effect pushing, ripping or streatching.

Any info would be greatly appricated

[Ooey]

Hmm.. well this really doesn't feel like a scar at all, more like a muscle that is out of place. When it was healing it was a huge swolen "blister" according to the midwives, there was a pice hanging out but I t went back in and appeared to heal okay, but I felt like I was walking around with a tennis ball in my pants for weeks! It seems to get bigger/fill up with blood when I'm turned on/having sex and it kind of gets in the way.

It really upsets me when I think about why it must have happend. My birth was natural and at home in a birth tub, progressing really steadily and normally. Pushing just wasn't really working in the birth tub on hands and knees, I felt like I was floating away and couldn't get leverage. So we decided to go sit on the toilet, and oh man it was a wonderful change! She started crowning almost immediatly, but there was my husband and my mom on either side of me, my friend taking pictures, and 2.5 midwives (couldn't fit them all in) in the door way. Suddenly I started feeling short of breath, then I felt like I couldn't breath at all, I was having a horrible asthma attack like occurance right as my baby was about to be born. There were so many people in that tiny little room, I don't know why they didn't try and open the window or get me out of there, but I just couldn't get any air and I started freaking out. The next contraction came and I felt like if I didn't push my baby out righ then I was going to pass out or die or something or even worse get transfered to the hospital. I pushed with everything I had and she came out all at once, head sholders body everything, and the sac was still intact so I pushed out all the fluid at once as well.

I still wonder what my birth would have been like had I not gone into the tiny little stuffy bathroom and not been able to breathe. Anyway, that was kind of tanget lol but I was just reading on the UC forum about how most women don't tear much in a natural home birth because they are able to push in the position they feel comfortable in and at their own pace. Next time around I'll be ready with a birth stool in the middle of the back yard

[Belleweather]

Originally Posted by Ooey

I still wonder what my birth would have been like had I not gone into the tiny little stuffy bathroom and not been able to breathe. Anyway, that was kind of tanget lol but I was just reading on the UC forum about how most women don't tear much in a natural home birth because they are able to push in the position they feel comfortable in and at their own pace. Next time around I'll be ready with a birth stool in the middle of the back yard

That sounds so familliar... I also had a waterbirth and also pushed DS from crowning to born in one mighty push -- and tore the ever-living hell out of my labia doing it. I was exhausted and starving and dizzy and wanted him OUT before I passed out. In retrospect, it probably would have helped a lot if someone had the forsight to FEED the laboring woman with hypoglycemia rather than just letting me labor for 13 hours on an empty stomach. :
I might have been a bit more capable of rational decisionmaking then!

But honestly, I think whether women tear is more a function of how fast they push their babies out and how well their tissues stretch than home birth or positioning. And I don't think it does either of us any good to beat ourselves up about it after the fact, either.

[boobjuice]

hi Ooey,

i also had a home water birth and had a very large labia tear. it sounds like you were hyperventilating there at the end. I did 3 pushes and out she came with a nuchal hand. i kinda rushed it too as the water made me feel really worn and too warm.

i had little knots, i think where the stiches pulled the tissue together and still have one that stuck around.

Your midwife should be able to refer you to a specialist, if you have muscle that came out, would that be like a hernia perhaps? It sounds like you may have to have some cosmetic work done if it has not changed at all in the last 11 months.

my midwife said it is uncommon to have labia tears and that normally it will not lead to future tears.

I hope all goes well for you, just wanted to offer some support.

[Ooey]

Thanks so much to both of you for sharing, and thanks boobiejuice for the info. I don't know why but just hearing that someone else had a simmilar thing happen makes me feel better about it.

I refused to have it stiched up, there was some major trama and drama that happend after the birth with the placenta, it hadn't come out an hour afterward and the midwifes started getting really worried and trying to scare me. They kept "examining" me and one of them tried to pull on the cord a little, and I was so sore and exausted (no sleep for 3 DAYS of mild labor) all I wanted was for them to go the F*** away and stop tocuhing me. I think at one pont I said "leave me alone" and they said "No, we need to work on getting the placenta out now." It didn't feel that urgent to me I just wanted to enjoy my baby. Once I got my baby back in my arms and she started nursing the placenta came out and it was fine. That is when they told me that I "needed" to be stitched up, and I said absolutly not, don't touch me again just leave me the hell alone

I guess my decsion not to be stitched up was 90% based on the fact that it hurt so bad down there everytime they touched me and I was physically exausted and DONE with pain at that point. They said I had to do it right then or not at all so I chose not at all. I'm still glad that I made that choice and trusted my body to heal on it's own. After talking to so many women and reading a lot on the topic I know there is no gurentee that if I did go get stiched up it would have been done right or stayed in, especially with how swollen I was, you couldn't tell what went where.

Ah another tanget, lol I feel like I'm finally remembering and reliving this part of my birth that up until now I've kind of just lumped together as "the crappy part." It's so nice to have a forum to discuss this kind of stuff, thank you