Healing A Tear

When I gave birth to my first baby girl, I was in the hospital and my baby had gotten stuck so they were in a hurry to get her out...they used a vacuum and basically forced her out too fast. That resulted in a terrible 3rd degree tear that I had to get 18 stitches for. First time ever needing stiches....and I do not recommend needing them down there. Haha

The healing process after that birth was brutal. It hurt to sit or do anything. I took some herbal sitz baths and that helped to ease the pain momentarily...and I had one of those fancy donut cushions to sit on. At my six week check-up the doctor said everything looked fine...but it didn't feel fine, especially once my husband and I tried to have intercourse again. I literally couldn't handle the pain from my scar area....and it took about 6 months to actually heal. I couldn't believe how long it took but I didn't know what I could do speed up the healing process....

After my second baby girl was born, I didn't tear at all (she was my biggest baby!) But my scar from my first tear was still hurting during intercourse and made a lot of positions uncomfortable. I was looking for answers...I heard about Pelvic Floor Therapy and since I was also having issues with incontinence, I decided to try it. I told my pelvic floor therapist about my scar and she was able to work through a lot of the scar tissue that was causing me pain. It wasn't completely gone and I could still feel it during intercourse a little bit, but it was much improved! (I think if I had kept up massaging the scar tissue, it would have finished healing all the way...but #busymomlife...) 

Fast-forward to my third birth...this time I was having a home-birth and I had a total of 50 minutes of active labor...5 minutes of pushing. It was a little intense! As my baby girl's head was coming out, she put her hand up to her face which gave me another 3rd degree tear...in almost the EXACT same place. Thankfully, it was only a 3rd degree tear so I didn't have to go to the hospital and my midwife was able to stitch me up at home. This time I had a special spray called Claraderm with some premium essential oils in it. This spray was specifically formulated for helping the perineum stretch during labor and healing it afterwards.

Here's where I tell you to do what I say, not as I did. I hadn't used it before labor like I should have. What I should have done is sprayed it on my perineum once a day for the 3 weeks leading up to the birth. If I had done that, I very likely would not have torn at all. I have many mom friends who have used this for their births in that way and all of them swear by it and none of them suffered any tears at all.

Back to my story...I used Claraderm on my tear while it was healing after every time I went to the bathroom. I would rinse the perineum with warm water mixed with a little bit of Lavender oil and then after gently dabbing away moisture, I would spray a couple of sprays of Claraderm on my tear. I was AMAZED at how fast my tear healed compared to my first tear. Even after a couple of weeks, I didn't even notice it!

When we began having intercourse again, my scar didn't cause nearly as many issues as my first scar had. I still need to massage through the scar tissue a little more like my pelvic floor therapist did because there is still a small amount of scar tissue that needs to be worked through but all in all, Claraderm was a lifesaver for my second third-degree tear. I just wish I hadn't waited to use until after my labor! That was my biggest mistake so don't make the same one I did!

xo Rachelle <3