During labor, it often happens that a woman has a rupture of the uterus, perineum or vagina. This condition does not pose a particular danger to the woman's he alth, as the treating specialists quickly and professionally stitch the gap without focusing on it.
In fact, such a procedure is quite unpleasant and painful. Also, postpartum stitches can bring women a lot of problems and worries. Every woman who has undergone such a procedure should know how to properly reduce pain and avoid possible complications. Proper care of scars will directly depend on where they are located.
Varieties of sutures
Depending on the location of the rupture, there are external (sutures on the perineum) and internal (on the cervix, in the vagina). The seams are made with threads from various materials, which requires proper care and careful examination of the diseased area.
Stitches on the cervix
This state is characterized by the following features:
- The reason for the appearance is too large fruit.
- Anesthesia is not needed for stapling, as the cervix completely loses sensitivity after childbirth.
- When suturing the gap, catgut is used, which helps to apply self-absorbable sutures, as well as PHA, caproag and vicryl.
- The main advantages of such stitches include the absence of unpleasant symptoms, as well as dangerous complications.
- Suture maintenance is not required.
Stitches in the vagina
Distinctive features of seams in this area:
- Occur due to birth trauma, vaginal rupture to different depths.
- Local anesthesia with novocaine is used as anesthesia.
- Sutures are applied with catgut.
- The main disadvantages of the procedure are severe pain that continues throughout the day.
- No care needed.
Stitches on the crotch
Sutures on the perineum after childbirth are characterized by certain features:
- Causes of appearance: natural (during labor) and artificial (dissection by a gynecologist).
- Types: first degree (dissection takes place on the surface layer of the skin), second degree (damage extends to muscle fibers and epithelium), third degree of development (rupture reaches the walls of the rectum).
- In anesthesia, local anesthesia with lidocaine is performed.
- Suture materials - catgut (at the first degree of rupture), non-absorbablethreads - silk and kapron (with other degrees of severity of the gap).
- The main disadvantages are prolonged pain.
- Caring for the rupture will consist of careful adherence to hygiene rules, as well as regular treatment with antiseptics.
The most problematic situation is with the external seams after the birth of a child. They can lead to the appearance of various complications (inflammatory process, accumulation of pus, spread of infection), therefore, they need especially careful care. Even in the maternity hospital, the doctor should inform the woman about how wounds should be treated.
Suture healing time
Any woman who has had a rupture is interested in the question of how soon the stitches on the perineum will heal during childbirth, as she wants to get rid of the pain syndrome as soon as possible and return to her previous lifestyle. The rate at which a tear will heal will depend on many factors.
How long the stitches in the perineum heal depends on the following reasons:
- When using absorbable threads, healing occurs after 14 days, the scars themselves continue to dissolve within a month and do not pose any problems to the woman.
- The most common question is how long does it take for stitches to heal with other materials. They are removed only after 5-6 days after the birth of the child, they take from two to four weeks to heal. Depending on the characteristics of the woman's body and the correct care, the duration of healing may vary.
- Healing time for postpartum scarsmay be greater if the wound becomes infected. After suturing, it is important to treat wounds regularly and keep a close eye on cleanliness.
In an effort to return to their previous lifestyle as soon as possible without pain and discomfort, young women are looking for a method to quickly heal the stitches after childbirth. The recovery time will directly depend on how careful the woman is and how well she takes care of the postpartum stitches.
When are stitches?
Perineotomy is a surgical intervention that protects a woman and helps a child to be born without problems. In the second stage of labor, severe stretching of the perineal tissues can occur, leading to an increased risk of rupture.
Stitches are applied in certain cases. These include:
- high crotch;
- poor extensibility of a woman's tissues (if she is giving birth for the first time and her age is over 30);
- remaining scars from previous births;
- if at birth the baby is located to the perineum forehead or face down (extensor presentation);
- use of special obstetric forceps or vacuum extraction;
- women's pelvis is too narrow;
- quick delivery;
- large embryo size;
- premature eruption of the head due to obstetrician errors.
A cut with smooth edges recovers much faster than a tear. The rupture is sutured for quick recovery (photo stitcheson the crotch for aesthetic reasons are not placed in the article).
How to properly care for the seams?
If a gap does occur, then you should find out in advance how to properly care for the stitches after childbirth in order to avoid possible complications and other unpleasant symptoms. The specialist must tell in detail how to properly care for the seams.
This is part of his professional duties, so don't hesitate to ask about it. Most often, care for stitches after childbirth includes mobility restrictions, the exclusion of any sport from life, as well as following the rules of hygiene and the use of various antiseptic, wound-healing drugs.
Care technique
Features of care:
- The stitches on the perineum after childbirth in the hospital are treated with brilliant green or a concentrated solution of potassium permanganate several times a day.
- It is important to change the pad to a new sterile pad every few hours after giving birth.
- Use only loose underwear made from natural fabrics or specialized disposable underpants.
- It is forbidden to wear highly constricting underwear, which exerts strong pressure on the perineal area, which negatively affects the blood circulation process: in this case, the healing process of the sutures is greatly delayed.
- It is important to wash every few hours, and also to carry out hygiene procedures after going to the toilet.
- It is important to go to the toilet so often that a full bladder does not affectcontractile processes in the uterus.
- In the morning and evening while taking a shower, it is important to wash the perineum with soap, and throughout the day with plain clean water.
- Wash the outside seam as gently as possible, directing a jet of water directly at it.
- After washing, it is important to dry the perineum with a special towel with blotting movements - from front to back.
- It is also important to consider how long you can not sit with stitches on the perineum after childbirth. Specialists, depending on the form of the gap and its severity, prescribe a period of one to several weeks. At the same time, you can sit on the toilet immediately on the first day after suturing. After seven days, you can gently sit on the buttock opposite the side on which the damage is located. You should only sit on hard surfaces. It is important to remember about the duration of sitting even after returning home from the hospital. It is best for a woman to be in a lying state or in a semi-sitting position
- Don't worry about pain and skipping toilet trips because of it. Such actions only put an additional load on the muscles of the perineum, as a result of which the pain syndrome becomes only stronger. To alleviate the general condition, glycerin suppositories should be used after childbirth with suturing: they are rectal and help soften the stool.
- It is important to avoid the appearance of prolonged constipation, to exclude from the diet foods that can lead to it. Before eating food, you should drink a tablespoon of vegetable oil torestore digestion and speed up the healing process.
- During the rehabilitation period, it is forbidden to lift weights weighing more than three kilograms.
The described rules are basic, they help speed up the process of healing the gap and restoring the body of a young mother.
Causes of painful stitches
Many women experience pain in their perineal stitches after giving birth.
They continue regularly if a person has to constantly sit down or lift heavy objects - in this case, the weight of the objects being lifted should be limited and, if possible, do not sit down on two buttocks at the same time.
The perineum hurts after stitches, as a rule, and with prolonged constipation. In the first few months after the birth of a child, the woman's body is actively recovering, lactation needs to receive a large amount of fluid, and water may not be enough for normal defecation. A breastfeeding woman should consume more milk, green tea, fresh juice, or herbal tea.
In some cases, the perineum hurts during intercourse due to the dryness of the vagina and the natural load on the perineum. In this case, experts advise using moisturizing gels. Sometimes the pain syndrome occurs when changing the posture to a more painful one.
Development of inflammation
The stitches hurt a lot and pull after labor during the development of the inflammatory process. In this case, the patient additionally develops redness and discharge of pus. In this case, it is importantvisit a gynecologist and start complex treatment.
Also, stitches after childbirth can hurt because postpartum discharge forms a breeding ground for the active spread of pathogens, which provoke the inflammatory process.
What to do if the seam came apart?
Sutures made of non-absorbable material are most often removed as early as 5-7 days after the birth of the child. The procedure, as a rule, does not bring pain and discomfort. Unlike internal sutures in the vagina and uterus, in the perineum they become inflamed most often due to regular contact with lochia and physical activity.
The most common reasons why a crotch seam has come apart are:
- not following bed rest in the first few days after childbirth;
- premature sitting down on two buttocks at once;
- lifting heavy objects that put a lot of pressure on diseased tissues;
- penetration of infection into the wound;
- poor genital hygiene;
- wearing tight or non-natural underwear;
- Earlier initiation of intercourse.
Re-suturing
If, after self-examination, a woman determines that the suture looks bad and hurts, then she should immediately visit a gynecologist or a maternity hospital, from where she was discharged. Only a gynecologist can accurately determine the cause of the divergence of the seam. In order to correct the situation as soon as possible and prevent complications, you should visit an obstetricianthe gynecologist who delivered the woman.
If the wound is well healed and the seam looks normal, but there are small inflamed areas, the doctor will prescribe antibiotics and treatment of the diseased area with anti-inflammatory ointments and antiseptic solutions. Things are completely different if the wound is still fresh, and the seams have already begun to diverge. In this case, the specialist prescribes a second procedure for suturing the wound.
Repeating features
If the discrepancy occurred while still in the hospital, the specialist will determine the damage to the sutures during the examination and stitch them as soon as possible. During the procedure, local anesthesia is used, which helps to completely hide the pain. The suturing for the second time is carried out in the same way as for the first. The operation continues for 30 minutes. After the procedure, the doctor prescribes standard preventive measures for disinfection and rapid healing of the wound.
