Did your vagina return to normal after the birth? Share your thoughts/experience..

[ELJ15]

I am new to this forum and I have a concern.
I recently (5 1/2 weeks ago) gave birth to a beautiful baby girl and I noticed when I looked "down there" something wasn't quite right. I have a friend who is a urologist (as I thought I had a bladder prolapse and freaked out) so I asked him to come and check me out. He told me it was my vaginal wall and it looked fine. That was at 4 weeks pp.
Things haven't changed. My parts look like they are near my vaginal opening and they appear swollen. There isn't a bulge per say but I did notice my urethra is larger than previously.
This is my first baby. My l&d was fairly easy. I did it naturally. No tears, no forceps. I pushed for 40 min and she was 8lbs 2.5 oz.
My question is: does this sound like a prolapse or is this normal? And, will these "parts" go back to their original position or should they already have by now. I'll be 6 weeks pp on Saturday.
I called the obgyn's office and if you didn't have an episiotomy or tears, or forceps delivery they will not see you. So I called my family MD and can't get to see him until next week.
I would go to the ER here but I am a nurse there and don't need everyone knowing my business. I have seen prolapsed bladder's as I used to work on urology and it doesn't look like that. Nothing is "falling" out of my vagina, so I'm wondering if it's a stage 1.
Anyone else have this?
Please help!

 

[Cridge]

I had a 3rd degree tear with #1 and was having sex again 3/4 weeks pp. DH was more emotionally scarred after watching me tear - he thought I'd never be the same, but I healed just fine.

 

[XJessicaX]

My daughter required a vacuum assisted delivery and I needed a 3rd degree cut. Stitches fell out 24 hours after they were put in and I was left to heal naturally with a gaping wound! Took 14 weeks to be completely healed and I can say you couldnt tell! Barely a scar, my vagina (TMI) could possibly be tighter than before and I can still trampoline without fear of peeing myself!

 

[poutie]

After I had my son, it took about 6 or 7 weeks for it to go completely back to normal. I actually became tighter! (sorry for tmi!) Everything was completely healed up within 2 weeks or so. DH and I were able to have sex again after about 4 weeks. I was really scared to though!


I actually didn't really do kegels when I was pregnant with my son or after I had him, mainly because I never thought to do them! I'm doing them with this pregnancy and I plan on doing them after LO is born.

 

[rjm09]

Never did kegels with my first, and even though he was emcs, i still dialated and had contractions. So everything was um.. Stretched a bit. By 8 days after csect, we dtd. Dh said i was a bit tighter, and went back to normal a few wks later.

Now i'm swollen, moreso cause of blood pooling down there, abd a bit tighter, but having another c, no onset of labor. Ill go back to normal after baby comes.

 

[starah]

No. I can no longer wear tampons - it's like I can't push them up very far so they like...stick out...TMI sorry. It also hurts every time I have sex. It was def worth it though

 

[MachyBear]

This might be a bit of a weird question, but pre-pregnancy for me, sex was great! Then I got pregnant and we just can't do it because everything is so swollen and it hurts (stil wondering how exactly I'm gonna squeeze a baby through there if I can't even have sex). But yeah, anyway, the question is, has anyone ever had the same situation and everything's returned to being great again after giving birth...? I'm just worried that sex will never be as good as it was before, that maybe I'll heal too tight (from reading all these posts) and it'll be just like the swollen feeling ... forever.

 

[daddiesgift]

I don't think I'm tighter at all, I was a month or two after having my son then it went back to normal as my husband says. I think it feels different. Now that I'm pregnant with #2 I could really careless about sex and don't enjoy it at all. But I am huge at this point and getting into any position is a workout lol

 

[Agiboma]

I had a c section we waited a few months and it was definetly tighter sex hurt the first few times

 

[Emsabub]

I had a 2nd degree tear and we tried out having sex to see if it would be painful and it wasn't at all, that was 3 weeks later. I have noticed though that, even though I wasn't exactly dry before, I'm a lot easier to enter, maybe tmi there sorry

 

[Jessicahide]

Haa, yes it went back to normal x

 

[almosthere]

I had 4th degree tearing and had a very long recovery my stiches reopend a bit but fortunately it closed on its own (ibhad the dr check she said no need to restitch) i honestly couldnt have sex for i think 6 months because it felt so painful and tight i think the dtiches mad eme tighter again LOL i did go back to normal but one change when i am on top for sex sometimes it is uncomfortable and sensitive. i still want to do natural labor again even though i had a bad experience the first time

 

[maryanne1987]

3rd degree tear last time that needed repearing in theatre and at 12 weeks pp I thought it would be a good idea to have a look to see what was going on down there. It looked liked a lion had mauled my lady garden. I'm honestly not that bothered though. I mean it's not like a vagina is the prettiest thing to begin with anyway. I have pushed 3 humans out of it, and that's pretty amazing. Not like anyone bar DH or my doctor will be seeing it anyway. It does feel a little different to before I had children but I was expecting that so it's never bothered me.

 

[jessmke]

Everything went back to normal, although I am one who also feels tighter down there. My doctor said I'm not actually tighter, I'm just drier which gives the sensation of being tighter. I brought it up with her because I was concerned that the OB stitched me up too small after my daughter was born, lol. I am breastfeeding which makes the dryness last longer apparently.