Can your cervix rip? *update/more info*

[bobandjess99]

Hello all. Well, the last week i have started charting again..ovulated last week, got AF for the first time pp this week....this is the first time i have really felt around in there since the birth...
a little background..I tore horribly with dd, bad 3rd degree..all the way back to my rectum (but, thank god, not "into" it, thus no 4 th degree tear) all the way up to and including my clit, which is now torn in half through the middle, and the split skin in my crotch did not heal back together, so i have basically an extra set of inner labia now..and all over on the inside, basically just shredded to hell :( .......took a LONG time to heal..it was 10 months pp before sex did not hurt, although we "tried" about once a month after about 12 weeks pp. Anyway, getting to my question....as i am feeling my cervix, I'm noticing that along the one side, there is like a divet out of it....using the analogy that a cervix is like a mushy bagel, its like someone cut a slice out of the bagel..it is also much...not sure what the right word is.."rougher", maybe? than before..by that i mean the skin itself is no longer smooth, but there are several rough bumps and ridges...could this be scar tissue? Can a cervix stretch so far it gets "stretch marks" or actually rips?
and just in case anyone is thinking I'm a total moron, yes, i am sure it is my cervix..... :LOL

[Undercover Hippie]

Wow mama, I have no idea but :hug for what you've gone through!!!

[MamaTaraX]

Yes, your cervix can tear and scar over. It can make dilation more difficult during subsequent births, though not impossible, sometimes longer to dilate or more painful and sometimes scar tissue needs to be manually broken by someone (painful). I'm so sorry that your body has suffered so much from your birth! :Hug

Namaste, Tara
mama to Doodle (7), Butterfly (2), and Rythm due at home 1/06)

[applejuice]

Yes, usually it is bad obstetrics as high forceps deliveries that cause the cerivx to tear.

[bobandjess99]

hhhmmm, well, no high forceps for me, obviously, LOL! My birth was a UC. Although my babe wasn't that big, a little under 9 pounds, she had a big head 15 1/4 inches....and i had a really small vagina, beforehand....like, tampons were a tight-fit.....so I understand why my vagina ripped all to hell....but I thought the cervix..well, I mean, isn't it DESIGNED to dilate? she came out anterior, no nuchal arm or anything, no bruising or anything that would indicate that she had ever been anterior or asynctlic, she had settled into ROA at about 30 weeks and stayed there.......position-wise, she was supposedly in the "best" position. I had used EPO vaginally and by mouth for a week or two before the birth..and labored in water...and used hot compresses at crowning....i tried about everything i could not to tear, but was okay with the (perineal/vaginal)tearing...I'm not so sure i am as okay with this whole cervix tearing thing.....but, it does lead me to a question..from a mathematical standpoint, something with a circumference of 15.25 simply can not come out of something that has a diameter of "10 cms"..by my calculations, the largest head circumference that can come out of 10 cms, is 12.2 inches...furthermore, my cervix would have had to dilate (or stretch, or rip) to ...12.3 cms in order to get her big ole head out.....is this right? I mean, I knew that "10 cms" was just a sort of average..my midwife said that when they say "10 cms" what that really means is that the cervix is Gone, fully dilated such that you can't feel it anymore, not that it is necesarily at 10 actual cms.... So..maybe my cervix just wasn't big enough or stretchy enough to dilate all the way to 12 without ripping?? And could this be why my "transition" took so long? Because I was dilating more than 10 cms? Just sort of pondering...still trying to process my birth.......thoughts welcome...!