Postpartum Recovery: Everything You Need to Know About Wounds, Tears and Infection
This blog post is taken from a Postpartum Masterclass hosted by midwife Shaheda Yasmeen-Khan
Birth is incredible, but it can sometimes take some time to recover from, particularly if you have experienced a tear or wound during labour. If not treated properly, this can lead to infections, which can mean that healing takes even longer. With this in mind, it’s really important to look after yourself and understand how to both spot any symptoms to look out for as well as how to best treat them to heal.
Let’s start with that fun area, your perineum (the area between your vagina and anus). This can sometimes tear during birth. There are four types of tears:
First degree tear - likened to a papercut, very mild, this isn't normally stitched up
Second degree tear - a little deeper into the muscle, will require stitches
Third degree tear - deeper into the muscle and closer to the muscles around your anus
Fourth degree tear - straight down to the anus, through the muscle
With tears, it’s a very good idea to drink lots of water and stay hydrated to try and dilute your wee so it burns less when you go to the toilet. With a second, third, or fourth degree tear, it’s important to care for your tear, which means changing your pads frequently, washing down after you wee (you can use a peri bottle or a jug), patting it dry afterwards and also changing your pad each time after you wee. This will help to keep the area very clean, help reduce the risk of infection and encourage quicker healing. You can also use painkillers to dull the discomfort of a perineum wound as it heals.
Next, let’s talk about a cesarean wound that you’d get from a C-section. There are three types of stitches you may be given for a cesarean wound:
Dissolvable stitches
Prolene beads
Staples
While dissolvable stitches and prolene beads are the preferred method, if someone has had a particularly difficult cesarean or if they are a higher weight, staples may be used.
When it comes to cesarean wounds, infections are something to watch out for. A tell-tale sign is that you may still experience a great deal of pain even if you’re taking regular or strong painkillers. Painkillers should be enough to take the edge off the pain, but if you have an infection this may not be the case.
Other signs which might point to an infection in a wound are:
Smell - you may notice a foul and funky smell coming from your wound. If there is an infection the smell would be super pungent.
Discharge and puss - creamy, yellow fluid that is coming out of the wound site or the perineum area.
Redness and painful to the touch - this is harder to spot on your perineum, but on a cesarean wound, you can normally see it’s red and painful to touch.
We would always recommend keeping an eye on any wounds, even in your perineum area, using a mirror to monitor their healing progress. Most importantly though, keep your wounds clean. This will reduce the risk of infection.
This is a tiny snippet of the information you’ll find in The Postpartum Pack, our fully comprehensive online course to guide you through the fourth trimester. This course also comes with a free 15 minute call to one of our midwives and access to a private peer support group on Facebook for ongoing solidarity with other parents. Sign up here.
Get more advice from Shaheda by watching the full Masterclass with her here. Or follow Shaheda on Instagram here.