Any One Else Have Problems like This?

I am so sorry you went thru that... for your next child - you will probably want to go with a stand alone Birthing Center Midwife. Large babies do not routinely need episiotomies, nor does tearing usually occur. Midwives take very seriously the need for MOthers to move around, feel like they are in control and that their body knows what it is supposed to do. They also practice perineal/perineum support and integrity with a passion!!

Check out the DVD "Business of Being Born" and the books "Pushed" by Jennifer Block and "Ina May Gaskin's Guide to Child Birth" by Ina May Gaskin.

If I had been a Nurse and done my research on Midwives BEFORE I had my first child with an OB... my birthing experience may not have been so horrible that I still feel traumatized by it almost 6 years later! I'm having a home birth VBAC (Vaginal Birth After Cesarean) with a Midwife in July with #2. I wish I had found them before automatically going to an OB!

I have had a couple of girlfriends undergo this type of corrective surgery.

Both are very glad they did and the results are far better than what they were living with...

HOWEVER, neither of them received BIO-FEEDBACK therapy post-surgery. So they have had some 'training' issues to contend with...

Make sure you request and insist upon seeing a physical therapist who specializes in female pelvic issues and also get signed up for Bio-Feedback...the docs and PT will know what this is. It's critical for re-learning how to urinate/defecate again properly.

Surgery techniques are great nowadays and recovery's are fast, especially at your age.

Congratulations on your big baby...!!!!

I am interested in the responses for this ?

I just found out this week that the issues I'm having....are the direct result of my son's delivery 23 1/2 years ago!!

Thanks for asking the ?

EDIT: just as a side note...my delivery was vaginal, with an episiotomy. I had additional tearing & extensive internal vaginal tears. The next delivery was c-section due to our daughter being in extreme stress. 3rd/last delivery was vaginal again....& natural to boot!

Yes, This episiotomy business is for the doctors a big extra in money from insurance. Not everyone needs it. I was thin at the time of the birth of my first child. I only gained 11.5 lbs as my idiot doctor, who I hope is a barren woman in a Muslim country at this incarnation, thought it would keep my baby small.
Since then I learned that a woman should gain at least 40 lbs.
I would not go back to the same doctor if you are having a correction to the episiotomy he did. He's not good at it and you do not know how many women he has injured in the past.
It was only by accident that I learned that the "doctor's doctor" I had had botched many other deliveries. A woman who lived nearby asked me who had done my delivery and then informed me about him. I wish I had known during the pregnancy.
My second pregnancy cured what went wrong in the first.
Sorry to tell you all the medical profession does not police its own members they are cover up experts.

I gave birth to an 8 pound baby 40 years ago, when some OB's believed in routinely hauling babies out with forceps. That and an extensive episiotomy left me with a severe rectocele, though I didn't know quite what the problem was until a few years ago. But it's gotten progressively worse as I've aged, and my sucky but expensive health insurance doesn't kick in until I've paid out $7000 per year, so I've never been able to even consider getting surgery to repair it.

This may be more detail than some ladies will care to read:

It can become quite a quality-of-life issue, so if you can afford the surgery, I strongly recommend you go for it. As I age, my tissues have become less elastic, and for the last 12 years I've gone from "only" having to support my perineum in order to poop, to having to manually scoop out the poop that accumulates in the rectocele at least a couple of times a day. There are public toilet stalls that make it virtually impossible to pretzel myself into a position that works, so I've either been in severe physical distress quite a few times, or simply don't consider going out if I don't know there's a toilet that will work for me.

I hope I see responses to your Q that say the surgery works. As of now, I'm less than 2 years from Medicare, and am eager to get this corrected as soon as I can. Even if it's only partially helpful, I figure it will be an improvement to a difficult and sometimes intolerable situation. Don't wait!

Specifically rectocele? No. Screwed up my body something fierce? Hail yes. And I had neither an episiotomy nor ripping. Being preggers DID trigger cancer in me though (multiple LEEPs and surgeries while pregnant and post pregnancy), was 23 and an athlete... but because of a metabolism issue doubled my weight (!!!) on 1800-2100 cal per day... and my placenta grew nearly 10x too big (over 20lbs instead of the usual 2-5) so I was carrying 10lbs of baby, 20+lbs of placenta, plus amniotic. My skin will NEVER be the same w/out surgery. My docs automatically deduct between 20 & 30lbs off my weight since it's all extra skin, and just for fun... because the skin on my thighs stretched so much, the hairs get ingrown.

I was young, I was an athlete, I used to model... and now I'm a mess. I never had a pretty face, but I had one rockin body. What bothers me the most is my stomach. It's twice as "thick" now as it was from all the skin, and it IMPEDES my sports. I can't bend the way I used to because it all gets in the way, and the weight hurts my back. It's also "numb" because it's completely separated from the musculature and fascia and the nerves didn't reconnect. Sniff.

I'd die for my son, I'd live for him... but I REALLY miss how my body USED to be.

I had a c-section that got infected so not the same issues as you but yes, having a baby messed up my body (in this case my second and the last one I plan to have). If you want another child sit down and have a long discussion with your doctor and maybe another doctor or midwife for a second opinion. Maybe you can find out the best ways to correct the medical issues you have now and prevent any new ones. Childbirth can be very hard on a woman's body but we sometimes forget that because of modern medicine.

Well, if you are having another babe, find a midwife OR an ob/gyn D.O., that your insurance will cover. My insurance doesn't provide for a midwife so I found a wonderful ob D.O. she repaired what she felt was never "put back together" right, after my sixth child. The important thing here is that YOU feel ok and have the quality of life that You are ok with. As far as being thin and snapping back, once again, YOU need to be ok with you, stop the craziness of thinking that being thin makes you good to go, many females have issues and they are thin. Be happy and confident in yourself and you will go far in life and L.!!!! Have a great rest of the week!!!!

I have both sides falling =(
I cannot really afford to have surgery either.

My friend had a similar problem and this is what she told me:

sort of... I did have a rectocele. But not because of the size of the baby... more from the trama after delivery. I had a rectocele, cycstocele, falling uterus, and short perineium.darn enter button... sorry. It sounds like her pelvic floor is only ripped in the back. So the surgery will be pretty easy on her.. Mine was ripped all the way in half... The posterior repair and perineium repair alone will be a long recovery, but NOT from pain.. just from letting her grafting heal. The perinieum repair is no different from having stitches after having the baby. The repair of her rectum will be through her vagina and the stitching does not hurt after a few days. When you first wake up, it is pretty rough... but again, I had a lot more repaired... so I am not sure rhow much of that initial pain was from just the rectum. She will have to be restricted from lifting for 12 weeks because that is how long it takes for the graft to take hold. I can say, I am already noticing such a difference in how things go down there.

Hope this helps and good luck!

It's good to see positive responses here. I'm considering having a transvaginal rectocele repair and I've been scared out of my mind reading the horror stories on other sites. I had an average size baby and I was in excellent health prior. I had a really long labor, major tears, episiotomy and for the last 16 months have been in terrible pain. My insurance has denied my claim to continue pelvic floor therapy so I'm considering surgery. The million Kegels, stretches, etc I've done in the last 4 months haven't helped anyway. It's good to know I'm not alone in feeling this way!