I was under the impression it was forthe woman's benefit, that it is easier for a cut to heal than a tear. Is that not the case? Is the risk of tearing overblown?

[–] NielsBohron@lemmy.world 20 points 2 weeks ago (3 children)

I think you actually have that backward. In general, a jagged tear heals quicker than an incision because there is more surface area in contact between the two pieces, so a larger number of cells can be working to repair the tissue. That said, I'm not a doctor and it's been 10 years since my wife and I looked into this before our first kid, so I may be misremembering.

[–] medgremlin@midwest.social 8 points 2 weeks ago

These days, an epesiotomy is done to direct the tear. If the tear is allowed to happen spontaneously, it can go through nerves, arteries, and pelvic floor muscles, greatly increasing the chances of permanent problems with things like prolapses or fistulas at worst, and more commonly, long term problems with incontinence.

[–] 5ibelius9insterberg 7 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Nope, you got it right: my wife had to c-sections and afaik they cut just enough tissue to make possible to tear it apart. It healed very well.

[–] NielsBohron@lemmy.world 7 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Glad your wife healed well; my wife had three c-sections and the first one was done by a very old-school OB in an emergency situation, so she never stood a chance. That said, even old-school c-sections are better than my wife and son dying in childbirth, so I'm still grateful for modern medicine, but it would have been nice if it was a little more "modern"

[–] Croquette@sh.itjust.works 2 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Were the second and third child almost guaranteed to be born by C-section? My GF first childbirth had 2 incidents that had risks for the second pregnancy. We were a bit scared for the second birth. But it when the opposite way. She almost gave birth in the car. There wasn't even an hour and a half between the first real contractions and the birth of our child.

I'm asking because I am curious to hear about different experiences than mine

[–] NielsBohron@lemmy.world 3 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

We live in a small town in a state that has a law that to attempt a VBAC, the hospital must have an full surgery team on site. It being such a small hospital meant they almost never had a full staff at any given point, so the second two were scheduled C-sections.

However, like your experience, my wife went into natural labor the night before the second C-section was scheduled and almost certainly could have delivered naturally, but the hospital went ahead with the C-section anyway

[–] Croquette@sh.itjust.works 2 points 2 weeks ago

Ah I understand better. We have a lot of friends that have kids and they all pretty much had birth in a hospital, and to me it seems like they were a schedule and they all had a scheduled delivery and if the birth wasn't done by then, the doctors provoked the labor.

We are lucky to have a midwife school program here that trains midwife as expert in pregnancy, birth and early weeks of the babies life, and our experience felt a lot more intimate. Like, they are legit medical expert in their field. The only restriction is that they cannot work with women with at risk pregnancy (so twins, mother ailments, etc).

We had both pregnancy with the same midwife and we were lucky that both times, she was on call when my girlfriend went into labor. We were both times in the same delivery room at the birthhouse. It was radically different than what our friends experienced.

Thanks for sharing

[–] theneverfox@pawb.social 4 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

It’s not about the surface area, a tear heals without creating a straight line of inflexible scar tissue in flexible tissue. You recover faster and better, because you distribute the new connections throughout the tissue, you don’t have this one rigid perforation to tear, so you don’t have to be healed up all the way before you can get back on your feet

In general, it’s the opposite though - a sharp cut heals much faster than a rip, there’s far less damage to repair

[–] NielsBohron@lemmy.world 3 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Thanks for the explanation!

You recover faster and better, because you distribute the new connections throughout the tissue, you don’t have this one rigid perforation to tear, so you don’t have to be healed up all the way before you can get back on your feet

Isn't this a function of the surface area, though?

[–] theneverfox@pawb.social 3 points 2 weeks ago

I mean…sort of? I can’t say that’s wrong, but I also don’t think it’s the full picture

Like imagine a cut rope. Gluing the ends together joins it with a weak point, but if you unravel the ends and weave them back together, you can create a very strong connection, even without glue

Yes, the surface area in the latter is far greater, but in addition to the surface area you have the structure - the weave itself grants strength, because when you pull the rope the fibers compress against each other, making it stronger than just surface area contact

I think it’s kinda like that, surface area certainly plays a big part, but I think it’s more than that. It lets the muscles reweave themselves - as opposed to the skin and the uterus lining, which are cut in straight lines to minimize damaged surface area - they’re more like cloth than rope, you stitch them up in neat lines