When You Are In Labor & You Have To Get An Epsiotomy, Can You Feel It?

Question

I really need to know this because i'm pretty tight down there & i'm pretty sure i'm goin to need one.

Answer 1

There are hormones released before and during labor that help loosen everything in your pelvic region up.

You can insist on having freedom of movement during labor and pushing so that you are in a better position. DO NOT lay on your back with your feet in stirrups. This will increase your likelyhood of tearing or "needing" to be cut.

Tell your doc NOT to cut an episiotomy unless there is fetal distress. There is NO OTHER REASON to consent to one. Risking a tear is better. It may or may not happen. A tear is likely to be smaller and not as deep as a cut. A tear will heal better than a cut.

Do perineal massage in the last month of your pregnancy.

Have good prenatal nutrition. This will make your skin more elastic and stretch better.

Talk to your caregiver about using warm compresses during pushing to help you stretch. Consider a waterbirth. (I tore some with my "land" birth but NOT with my two waterbirths.)

When I tore with my first, it was a second degree tear. I didn't even know it happened until afterwards when my doula said the doc was going to sew me up. It happened when I was pushing, so that kind of makes it so you don't notice. With an episiotomy, ask the doc to do a pressure episiotomy...same idea...and you won't feel it as much. OR ask for a shot of a local anasthetic if you want. (I think you'd be more likely to notice getting the shot though, personally!)

Answer 2

I had an epsiotomy, but i also had an epidural, so no, I did not feel it. But i did feel it after the birth was over. With 37 stitches, you can not help but to feel it. My suggestion is that if you think you will need an episiotomy, have an epidural and you will be fine, you won't have any feeling from the waist down, but be prepared for the pain afterward.

Answer 3

Depend when you have the injection, they can give you a smaller dose so you can feel when your body tell's you to push. Or you can have a higher dose so you don't feel anything. But if I was you I would go in with an open mind you may find that you can cope with the pain or you have a very short labour in which case there may not be time to have one. Whatever you decide good luck, giving birth is hard work but worth it in the end. You will finally get to see you baby which is a magical moment. And your vagina is designed to stretch to get a a babies head out. Good luck.

Answer 4

I didn't feel anything at the time, and I did not have the epidural. You don't really start feeling it until the next day. And by the way, being a little 'tight down there' doesn't mean you'll need one. Keep doing your kegels!

Answer 5

Man, I don't know how I got on these questions, but I started reading and have a mom who is a labor nurse. She said if you have an epidural you shouldn't feel it. If you don't then they will numb you with lidocaine. You will feel the stick, kinda like going to the dentist, and then be numb down there and then be comfortable. Then said something about massaging and strecthing that I decided not to listen to. So, talk to your doc..It sounded like you will be okay. Hope this made more since to you than it did to me.

Answer 6

I had episiotomies with my first three children, I also had epidurals with them all. I did not feel the cut at all.

I had no episiotomy and no epidural when our daughter was born in January. I did tear and had to be stitched up. I didn't feel that either... they gave me a local anesthesia when the doctor did the stitches.

Also, I did have a longer recovery when I had the episiotomy.

Good luck!

Answer 7

An episiotomy causes more problems than it solves. Most doctors are trying to get away from using them now. They originated in a time of "science" that we now know was mostly ignorance. Women are designed to give birth, Skin can stretch amazingly. Have your baby confident and relaxed and you'll have a much better experience.

Answer 8

For me, it was relief. It stops the pulling and stretching that can actually make you tare. The doctor gives you a tiny shot to numb it first, like the dentist does. I think not having an episiotomy would hurt more. It's all good, you'll do great!!

Answer 9

If you have a epidural, you will not be able to feel it.

If the doctor has to give you an epsiotomy and you do not have other pain medication in your system, he will most likely give you a local anathestic.

It's really nothing to be concerned about.

Answer 10

Definately have the episiotomy! My doctor with my first baby said it wasn't his policy to do them and I ended up with a 3rd degree tear from front to back, very deep. A cut might have saved me a whole lot of pain. I had an epidural and didn't actually feel myself tear, so I'm guessing that you wouldn't feel an episiotomy.