OK, I'm curious (not pregnant, just curious!). If you tore during birth, what did it feel like?
I ask because I've always wondered if women specifically notice tearing, or if it just feels like part of the regular pain of pushing. In some birth stories I've read, I got the impression that the women didn't even realise they'd torn until the midwife checked them later. Is that usually the case? With Rowan my MW wasn't sure if I'd torn or not (nuchal hand presentation), and I wasn't sure if I was supposed to know. (I hadn't; I mean, she checked, she didn't just guess! But one of the first things she said after Rowan was born was 'I'm not sure if we managed to save your perineum', which come to think of it wasn't the most tactfully-worded statement on the planet).
Thanks for indulging my impertinence!
: When I hear "I had a second-degree tear" it sound horrifically painful, but women bring it up so casually. Then again, women are weird... we can describe the most tortuous childbirths in undramatic, matter-of-fact terms. So one never knows.
I ask because I've always wondered if women specifically notice tearing, or if it just feels like part of the regular pain of pushing. In some birth stories I've read, I got the impression that the women didn't even realise they'd torn until the midwife checked them later. Is that usually the case? With Rowan my MW wasn't sure if I'd torn or not (nuchal hand presentation), and I wasn't sure if I was supposed to know. (I hadn't; I mean, she checked, she didn't just guess! But one of the first things she said after Rowan was born was 'I'm not sure if we managed to save your perineum', which come to think of it wasn't the most tactfully-worded statement on the planet).
Thanks for indulging my impertinence!