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Healing after a vaginal birth depends a lot on whether you tore, and how deeply. Enter your birth date and what happened, and get a plain-English read on what's normal at your stage — and what's worth a call rather than a wait.
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Bleeding is heaviest now — bright red, heavier than a period, often with some clots. Swelling and stinging are at their peak. Ice packs, a peri bottle for rinsing while you pass urine, and staying ahead of pain relief rather than waiting for pain to build all help.
Soreness usually peaks somewhere in this window. Stitches, if you have them, can feel tight and pulling. The first bowel movement worries most people — a stool softener and supporting the area with clean tissue makes it much less alarming than expected.
Bleeding lightens and shifts from red toward pink or brown. Dissolvable stitches usually start breaking down around now, which can feel itchy, and you may notice small pieces coming away — that's expected, not a sign something has gone wrong.
Bleeding tapers to a light yellowish-white discharge. Most external swelling has gone. Sitting is usually comfortable again, though the area can still feel different from before.
Most people are formally cleared at this visit. That's a checkpoint rather than a finish line — the pelvic floor and deeper tissue are still rebuilding well past it.
Scar tissue softens gradually. This is often when people first try sex again, and finding it uncomfortable at first is common rather than a sign of failure. Pelvic floor work in this window makes a real difference.
Tissue remodelling and pelvic floor strength keep improving for the best part of a year. Symptoms still present at six months — leaking, pain, heaviness — are common but not something you simply have to accept; they are treatable.
These terms get used quickly in a delivery room and rarely explained properly afterwards. Here's what each one refers to.
Involves the skin and surface tissue of the perineum only. Often doesn't need stitches, and tends to heal within a couple of weeks.
Extends into the perineal muscle underneath. This is the most common type and is usually repaired with dissolvable stitches. Most of the healing happens over the first few weeks.
A deliberate surgical cut made to widen the opening during delivery. It's repaired with stitches and generally heals on a timeline similar to a second-degree tear.
Extends from the perineum into the muscle that controls the anus (the anal sphincter). It's repaired in an operating theatre and warrants specialist follow-up.
Extends through the anal sphincter and into the lining of the rectum. Like third-degree tears, it's repaired surgically and needs proper follow-up care.
An umbrella term — obstetric anal sphincter injury — covering third- and fourth-degree tears together. If you hear this word about your birth, it means one of those two.
Dissolvable stitches typically start breaking down within the first couple of weeks and are usually gone by around six weeks, though it varies. Itching as they dissolve is normal; increasing pain, a bad smell or the wound opening is not, and should be looked at.
Because everything down there is sore and it genuinely feels as though the stitches might give way. They are stronger than they feel. A stool softener, plenty of fluids, and supporting the perineum with clean tissue while you go makes a real difference — and it is worth asking for a softener rather than waiting to see how it goes.
It's common, particularly the first few times and especially where there's scar tissue. What isn't something to simply accept is pain that continues month after month — that's treatable, usually through pelvic floor physiotherapy, and worth raising rather than enduring.
It often improves as the pelvic floor recovers, but "common" isn't the same as "something you have to live with." If it's still happening at your six-week visit, ask for a referral to a pelvic floor physiotherapist rather than waiting it out.
These injuries warrant specialist follow-up rather than a standard six-week check alone — typically a review with an obstetric team and a referral to pelvic floor physiotherapy. If nobody has arranged that for you, it's reasonable to ask for it directly.
Physically, most people describe turning a corner somewhere between six weeks and three months, with full tissue healing continuing for up to a year. Emotionally it runs on its own clock entirely, and the two don't always line up.