Birth Trauma: physical injury
Physical Birth Trauma
This can result from a poorly healing wound or pain from a tear or episiotomy scar. Birth can be associated with awareness of a bulge or lump at the opening of the vagina, difficulty with the bowels or heaviness in the pelvis. Some women experience pain or difficulty with sex or laxity in the vagina. Other symptoms of physical trauma can include urinary or faecal incontinence. Pain from a caesarean scar usually subsides by 3 months, but for some women, it might take longer - even up to a year.
Getting help for physical birth trauma
Assistance from professionals can help diagnose the cause of the problem and identify the best people to provide treatment if healing doesn’t occur in the usual time frame. People who can help include:
Your General Practitioner - as the first line of expertise and central coordinator of your care
Women health (pelvic floor) physiotherapist
Gynaecologist
Urogynaecologist
Psychologist
There are treatments for all the symptoms listed above and the sooner you can begin the process, the quicker you will recover.
If you have not long had your baby, you may be able to have a postnatal review at the hospital he or she was born. Referral may be coordinated by your GP, midwife or private obstetrician.
You will find helpful and accurate nformation on the Australasian Birth Trauma Association website here.