Perineal massage while pregnant From 35 weeks onwards, you or your partner can use daily perineal massage until your baby is born which may reduce your risk of tearing. This is particularly beneficial for first-time mothers. You may choose to ask your partner to help you with this.
Just like your abdominal wall stretches to make space for a growing baby, your pelvic floor and perineum can stretch and yes, even tear, to let baby out. Tears are not typically felt as discrete events in childbirth (you won't notice… it just all rolls into the big birth finale).
Birthing in the side-lying position has been shown to reduce perineal tearing by allowing the presenting part to descend more slowly (Shorten, Donsante, & Shorten, 2002).
Due to the amount of pressure caused by your baby's head on your perineum, it is unlikely that you will feel any tearing. But everyone's birth is different and some women may find that they feel a lot of stinging, especially as the head is crowning (when your baby's head can be seen coming out of the birth canal).
Up to 9 in every 10 first time mothers who have a vaginal birth will experience some sort of tear, graze or episiotomy. It is slightly less common for mothers who have had a vaginal birth before. For most women, these tears are minor and heal quickly.
“If it's your first baby, you have a 95 percent chance of having some form of tearing.” Baby's position: The most optimal position for a vaginal birth is “head down,” in which baby's head comes before their body during birth.
The episiotomy tradition
Experts believed an incision would heal better than a natural tear. The procedure was also thought to help preserve the muscles and connective tissue that support the pelvic floor. Today, however, research suggests that routine episiotomies don't prevent these problems after all.
For first-time mothers the average length of pushing is one-to-two hours. In some instances, pushing can last longer than two hours if mother and baby are tolerating it. Normally, the baby is born with his face looking toward mother's back (referred to as an anterior position).
Its conclusion was that those with epidural anesthesia had a 1.95 times greater risk of perineal tearing than those who did not.
Benefits of laboring in water
A positive birth experience: Women who have labored or given birth in water say they had less pain and a greater sense of control. Less pain medication: Some studies show that women who labor in water need less pain medication and may have a shorter first stage of labor.
Certain breathing techniques have also been shown to reduce tearing during childbirth. Organizing breath. Take a deep, cleansing breath before and after every contraction. Inhale deeply through your nose and out through your mouth.
Preventing a perineal tear
The midwife will ask you to stop pushing and to pant or puff a couple of quick short breaths, blowing out through your mouth. This is so your baby's head can emerge slowly and gently, giving the skin and muscles of the perineum time to stretch without tearing.
Decreasing the Severity of Vaginal Tearing
To decrease the severity of vaginal tearing, try to get into a labor position that puts less pressure on your perineum and vaginal floor, like upright squatting or side-lying, Page says. Hands-and-knees and other more forward-leaning positions can reduce perineal tears, too.
Generally, the babies who do not cry at birth suffer from a condition called Hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy (HIE), which is in trivial terms a brain damage due to less supply of oxygen.
Foods to avoid during labor include rich foods such as large pieces of meat and heavy meals. Though rare, if aspiration does occur during labor, solid foods are more dangerous than liquids. Dairy and acidic beverages like juice should also be avoided because they can upset your stomach during labor.
The most significant downside of an epidural is that it may prolong the labor and delivery process. The epidural is very effective at numbing the nerves and muscles in a mother's lower body. The problem is that this makes the mother less able to use her muscles to effectively and rapidly push the baby out.
Even though labor and vaginal birth can be hard work, they are generally easier on a woman's body than a cesarean. Recovery after vaginal birth is usually shorter and less painful than after a C-section, and allows the woman to spend more time with her baby.
Fainting during labor is extremely rare. Nature created the female body in such a way that it mobilizes all its forces when giving birth to a baby. Passing out is not a typical reaction of a woman's body to childbirth. If you are prone to fainting, you should inform the doctor in advance.
But if you're close to 10 centimeters dilated the research suggests it's not an issue. Evidence suggests it's more of a theoretical fear that just adds additional stress and in some cases results in an epidural (or a higher dose of epidural) to mask that urge.
Purple pushing, coached pushing, holding your breath, all mean basically the same thing. Mothers being instructed on pushing causes them to hold their breath and push down into their bottom. Another more normal and less exhausting option would be “breathing or bearing down” working with the contractions.
In first-time vaginal births, you're more likely to have worse injuries if the perineum tears on its own than if you get an episiotomy .
The “husband stitch” refers to an extra stitch that some women may have received after vaginal delivery led to their perineum becoming cut or torn. This stitch extends beyond what is necessary to repair a natural tear during childbirth or a cut from an episiotomy.
The stitches in the skin should heal in 5-10 days. The underlying stitches in your muscle layer will take longer to heal. These won't completely heal for 12 weeks. For the stitches that you can see, make sure to watch for any signs of infection.