How long does it take to get stitches after childbirth?

Women cannot escape childbirth due to their body structure. In ancient times, childbirth was equivalent to a trip to the gates of hell. With the development of medical technology, fewer and fewer women die in the childbirth process. Most women will choose natural birth for the sake of the fetus, but some women will have a caesarean section due to physical reasons. If I give birth naturally and have stitches, how long will it take before I can have sex?

1. How long after a normal delivery can I have sex?

Some women are worried that after an episiotomy, the sutured wound will damage the nerves in the vagina, and the suture knots may remain in the vagina, causing the vagina to become loose, thus affecting their postpartum sexual life. In fact, there is absolutely no need to worry about this.

An episiotomy is an incision several centimeters long made at the external opening of the vagina. The incision is very small and if it is sutured in time, it will heal quickly.

When doing perineal suture, the skin outside the incision is sutured with silk thread. The incision will generally heal in five or six days and the stitches can be removed. The incision inside the vagina is sutured with catgut, which will be quickly absorbed by the body. Therefore, no knots will remain in the vagina, nor will the mother feel a foreign body sensation during sexual intercourse after delivery.

After an episiotomy, the vagina will not become loose. Because the elastic fibers in the vagina are like rubber bands. When you pull them hard with your hands, they will stretch, and once you let go, they will return to their original shape. By the same token, when a woman is giving birth, the fetal head will fully expand the elastic fibers in the vagina. After childbirth, the elastic fibers in the vagina shrink. Therefore, episiotomy and suture during normal delivery generally do not affect sexual life.

2. How long after giving birth can you have sex?

How long you can have sex after giving birth is determined by the way the mother delivers (natural birth or caesarean section), her postpartum recovery, etc. The appropriate time for having sex is 2 months after a natural birth and 3 months after a caesarean section. It also varies depending on each person's specific physical recovery.

For normal delivery, the general confinement period, that is, the postpartum period, is 42 days. This period is the repair period of the endometrium. After the postpartum period, if there is no abnormality in the mother's body, theoretically, she can have sex. The mother should go to the hospital for a check-up 42 days after delivery and follow the doctor's guidance based on her own physical recovery. Having sex too early can cause great harm to the mother's body.

Generally speaking, the appropriate time for women who give birth naturally is 2 months after delivery. The reason for waiting for such a long time is that it takes about 8 weeks for the female reproductive organs to return to normal. The vaginal mucosa that is stretched during childbirth becomes very thin and easily damaged, and it takes some time to recover.

As for how long you can wait after a caesarean section before having sex, medical research suggests that it is best to wait three months after a caesarean section, because a caesarean section requires a surgical incision, and having sex must wait until the caesarean section wound heals.