Too late to stitch a tear?

[seren]

My son was born May 29th. We had a bit of trouble at the end with shoulder dystocia. After everything calmed down the midwives didn't check to see if I tore because they said it would be all swollen and they wouldn't sew it up right away anyway. They would wait until the next day. Well, the regular midwife didn't do the 24 visit, her assistant did and she didn't check me for anythign at all. She asked if it burned when I peed and I told her it stung a bit, but it wasn't bad. Based on that she decided I didn't tear. The other midwife was supposed to come to my house the next day, but we had a huge storm and I didn't have any power. I saw her briefly the following day, but she was looking at Noah's brachial plexus injury before I took him to the ped. Fast forward to last night. I asked dh to check and see if he thought I tore. He says it looks like I did on the scar from dd1's epesiotomy. I don't know if I should call the midwife or not. Can she do anything this late? I actually did try calling her earlier, but she hasn't been returning my calls lately. I'm jsut not sure what I should do.

[Reha]

Well, depending on how your tear looks, it may do just fine healing on it's own. Most tears that I see don't need stitches. If the two sides come right together on their own, you likely don't need any suturing, just time for it to fully heal.

However, I think it would be helpful to have your midwife look at it. If it looks like it DOES need to be sutured, you would need to have the two sides abraded a bit before it could be sutured.

[nashvillemidwife]

It's too late to stitch, but also too early to assess for lasting damage. It's only been 10 days, it's not uncommon for it to still look like hamburger meat even if it had been repaired that day. Stop opening your legs wide enough to look at it!

[MsBlack]

Yes, keep your legs together, and avoid sitting as much as possible. Keep it clean--if it really did tear along an old episiotomy scar, it's probably a clean straight line--easier to come together if you help it stay together as much as you can. Oh yeah, and kegeling could help too.

[majikfaerie]

as well as what the others said - keep your legs together, you can also try herbal baths with comfery and arnica to aid healing.

[seren]

ONly looked the one time. I finally got a hold of the midwife and she's going to look at it today.