hi my name is dr sarah bjorkman and i am a board-certified ob gyn
and a first-time mom and a couple weeks ago we did an episode
all about how to hopefully prevent perineal tears or lacerations when you're in labor
um and so this week i want to talk to you about how to take care of your bottom after delivery if
you do end up with a tear um giving you some of my medical expertise as well as my in real life
knowledge having just gone through this myself so we're going to get into it right after this
so as we talked about in that episode all about preventing perineal tears which is linked here
um anywhere from 50 to about 80 percent of women may experience some kind of tear when
they are giving birth and there's different degrees of tearing which we talked about
um but the question is how do you take care of that injury after birth so today i'm going to
go through the products that will help you be as comfortable as possible and heal as quickly
as possible okay if you haven't subscribed to our channel please do that we love um bringing
you guys pregnancy postpartum parenting uh topics um and we want you to stay with us so here we go
you have had a baby or you're about to and you want to know
what to do to take care of your bottom postpartum so the number one thing that you are going to want
to have is a parry bottle so most hospitals have something just looking about like this you are
going to want to fill this up with water when you go to the bathroom you are going to want to squirt
this to clean off your vulva and vagina my pro tip on this is if you have any labial lacerations
you may even want to squirt water while you are peeing because urine can really burn on
an open cut so you use this so you don't have to wipe aggressively and you can also
use it to kind of distract you while you're peeing so step one carry bottle um the next
thing you're going to want to do is you can gently pat your perineum and your vulva dry
with a washcloth or some toilet paper after that the next thing you're going to want to do is to
take your dermaplast often you can ask for this at the hospital and your doctor can
prescribe it but this is basically just a topical anesthetic so after you pee you use
your peri bottle you are then going to spray this on your labia your vagina your perineum
and your bottom and it is a nice cooling anti-itch kind of numbing medicine that really helps now
if you are one of the lucky mamas who is also dealing with some really painful hemorrhoids which
you may be at that point you are going to want to get yourself some witch hazel pads okay these are
circular little white things that have witch hazel on them you fold up a couple of these
put them between your cheeks and that really helps with that hemorrhoid pain um the next thing you're
going to want to do is get yourself some jumbo pads again the hospital will usually have these
take as many home with you as you can but you want a nice jumbo pad that you are then going to
put on the inside of your disposable undies okay these things are amazing
they're so comfortable they're huge they fit every body um and they're
super comfortable so i was very into the disposable mesh undies loved them
so mesh undies pad on the inside some people prefer depends but those are the key things
to help your bottom heel and be comfortable some other things
um that i found were really really helpful were um instant ice pads okay so freedom mom make
some and i thought these were amazing the hospital also has some of these but basically what you do
um it's an absorbent pad and it has um like an ice pad on the inside so you break it and it cracks
and then the whole pad gets really cold my pro tip for this is to sprinkle just a tiny little bit of
water on the pad and it makes it so much colder so you can sit on these for about 30 minutes at
a time is what um i found before then they got warm and then you just throw them away and so you
can do this a few times a day to help decrease swelling you know if you have a sports injury
you're going to ice it it's the same thing if you have an injury to your bottom here you want
to ice it and it'll really help um the other things you want to be thinking about are taking
some kind of pain medication to help you feel comfortable and those are going to be things like
tylenol and motrin if you don't have any allergies or contraindications you can take those every six
hours kind of around the clock those first that first week or so that you're home um that will
really help with your pain another thing everybody dreads that first postpartum poop especially
if you have stitches um in your vagina in your perineum so something i recommend is some kind
of stool softener whatever your stool softener of choice is cold lace miralax whatever works for you
start taking that as soon as you get home so that it's more of a everything falls out you do not
want to be pushing anything out while your bottom is still healing and you still have stitches
um other things that you can think about um you can take sits baths so you don't want to take um a
15-minute bath okay and your cervix is still open there's a theoretical risk of increased
infection so your doctor isn't going to recommend a bath um you know for the first couple days um
but you can take six baths you know sit in the tub for 10 minutes splash some water to make sure your
bottom is nice and clean some people love these like some bath salts it's like an epsom salt soak
and that's really wonderful and can be really comforting on your bottom another thing
if you aren't into the witch hazel pads you can use this it's a witch hazel healing foam
that you can also put on your perineum to kind of help so you can use the dermaplast on your
perineum it's a topical numbing and then the witch hazel is kind of a an antiseptic
that helps in terms of healing and anti-infection and so you can also put this on your vagina and
perineum things that you want to look out for when you are postpartum is if you notice that you are
having really exquisite pain that isn't getting better you want to talk to your doctor right away
if you notice that you are having kind of like foul smelling discharge from your vagina that is
purulent or green or and doesn't smell good those are things that you want to talk to your doctor
about um if you have a fever above 100.4 call your doctor right away and so those are things those
are just things you want to call your doctor about other things to think about especially if you
have had a third or fourth degree laceration again is going back to make sure you're taking a stool
softener religiously because with a third or fourth degree tear there was a tear in
your anal sphincter and so you want to make sure that you aren't putting any stress on that at all
of course if you have any questions talk to your ob gyn but hopefully this helps all of you
be able to take care of your parenting so having lived through this and as an ob gyn something for
you to think about that can be very helpful when recovering from a tear or a perineal laceration
is pelvic floor physical therapy and this is something very often that your ob gyn can give you
a referral for or put you in touch with your local pelvic floor physical therapist and so if this has
something is something you have access to i would absolutely recommend you see them because they can
help you regain the strength in your pelvic floor make sure those muscles are working correctly show
you how to do exercises and this can help down the road in terms of helping prevent incontinence and
pain and all sorts of things and so postpartum after you give birth something i would absolutely
look into talk to your ob about is seeing a pelvic floor physical therapist because they are amazing
and will really help you restore that strength and function in your pelvic floor
all right guys those are my favorite things that will hopefully help you be comfortable
and heal from any tears that you have from giving birth everything is linked in our amazon store
or in the description below if you have any questions please leave them in the comments
and if you all have anything that you loved that really helped you recover postpartum please leave
them here so the other mamas can see um thanks for being here we will see you all next week
we're doctors but not your doctors anything we've said in this video
is for education or entertainment purposes only it is not medical
advice any specific medical questions you have should be directed to your provider