Info on perineal massage wanted

[stilllearning2016]

Hello Ladies,

Do any of you have good info/ advice on perineal massage? Anything online you find useful or if you can give me tips yourselves... I've unfortunately been too bad with that part of my preparation so far. I tried it once but felt like I had no clue what I was doing. It feels pretty acrobatic to me somehow and I am too shy to ask my partner for help.

Thanks!

[roxannacar]

Never done it myself and probably won't be doing it this time either but here's a website that might be useful.

babycentre.co.uk/x1955/what...

[stilllearning2016 in reply to roxannacar]

Thanks for the link! I'll check it out, whether I'll still impliment it, remains to be seen. Am so lazy... Yet convinced it would be benefitial.

Good luck to you - how many weeks waiting have you got still?

[roxannacar in reply to stilllearning2016]

Still 14weeks to go here. Second baby. My first one I had a third degree tear but no amount of massage would have prevented that because she came out with a hand on her face. Hopefully this time round will be luckier!

[Sophie62]

I used to do this after a bath/shower and use almond oil as it's not as greasy as other oils. It's not the most gracious of massages to do but I was desperate not to tear during labour that I used to do it out of necessity. In the end it was fruitless as I had to have a ventouse to deliver my baby and so they had to give me an episiotomy - that was not part of my birth plan!

The massage is supposed to help but my midwife pointed out that there's no guarantee that even with the massage that would won't tear or will need an episiotomy for whatever reason. There's videos on YouTube on how to massage your perineum which I found handy. Some women also use dildos to make the job a bit easier too!

[ReBeCcA-90]

I brought a gel from Mothercare and put it on 3 times a day for 7 weeks, and tried every breathing exercise during labour to avoid tearing. But daughter was a week late and born very quickly was 6cm dilated at 6am she was born 8am (first child also) weighing in at 8.11 so tore 😥

No harm in trying, u could look into buying perineal gel from Mothercare only a fiver! Best of luck x