Re: Re:Re:stitches (another long debrief!)

[Guest guest]

I hate to cut because then I know I have to sew it up again whereas

>if I work with the woman and she tears then she will usually tear only as

far

>as is needed to fit the baby out and so may not need stitching. Also a tear

>heals better than a cut because a tear goes with the muscle fibres rather

>than across them.

Okay, my turn to debrief my birth experiences... apologies to those of you

who've heard all this before

Pregnant with in 1997, my truly wonderful community midwife (who

took our NHS a/n classes - they were every bit as good as the NCT ones I

did, I have to add) told us that she was of the opinion that tears heal

better if unstitched, and suggested that we put on our birth plans no

stitching if we tear naturally. In the event there was nothing " natural "

about my first labour, and my birth plan just stayed in my bag unread - a

choice I made at that time due to the circumstances of my pregnancy. So I

had an episiotomy (for forceps) and (apparently very neat) stitches, which

healed quite rapidly and were no great problem.

Second time round, I was lucky enough to have a straightforward pregnancy

and labour, though second stage was pretty rapid and I tore - not badly,

just a little, more of a graze than a tear - in two places internally. My

community m/w had again impressed upon me that tears heal better unstitched,

so when the hospital m/w announced her intention to stitch me, I told her

I'd rather she didn't. (It didn't help that she'd left us after Caitlin had

been born and didn't reappear for 2 hours, during which time I'd had a bath

and got dressed and basically stopped feeling numb...) Anyway, she

completely ignored my request to not be stitched, explained that it was

hospital policy to stitch these sort of tears and that I wouldn't heal if I

wasn't stitched and that I'd only be back in x no of weeks to be stitched

if I didn't let her do it now. Meanwhile Rob was nodding wisely at her

every word and I felt bullied into complying. It was actually torture - the

worst part was having the local anaesthetic injections. I was lying there

yelling " NO NO STOP " and the m/w was completely ignoring me. When she did

eventually pause in her administrations, it was only to tell me that she had

no choice but to stitch me because that was hospital procedure. It was only

2 stitches, but having them put in was definitely far more painful than the

labour and delivery (and I wasn't offered gas and air while it was being

done - couldn't because the orderly had already come in and cleared the room

thinking that after 2 hours I was ready to go up the the postnatal ward).

After being discharged from hospital I spoke to the community m/w, and she

was not happy. She is employed by a different health trust to the hospital

(because we are on the Beds/Bucks border) and so couldn't really comment on

the hospital's policy on stitching, though said that I should make an

official complaint about it. The question of whether or not I would heal

better without stitching she said was immaterial, but the fact that I was

shouting No and Stop should have meant that the m/w did just that! She also

said that if I didn't heal, and I " stuck together " as the hospital m/w

delicately put it, she herself would have been able to deal with it, rather

than sending me back to hospital. She asked if I would like her to remove

the stitches, but by this time the damage was done, and I really felt that I

didn't want anyone else prodding round down there, so I politely declined!

I didn't make a complaint, but I did bring the matter up with the MSLC. I

don't know if anything came of it though.

Anyway, the whole stitches thing rather ruined what was in fact a rather

positive birth experience.