Perineal Massage

ok so ive been told that i should be doing this to avoid tearing/stitches

my questions are

did you
do it/not do it
tear/not tear

i havent started doing it - might be stupid but the thought of it creeps me out

Lol, just me Alsih:) Not that I have much experience in this area so far but I gave it ago two days ago...actually quite nice,lol.
But seriously I think if it helps then why not? My aunty had four babies and swears by it as she never had a tear once so keep on going, she recommended olive oil helps to massage it in with. Creeps me out too, especially when my DH walked past and was like "um so what are you doing?"

haha nice !?!?!?
i get embarassed about stuff like that! if dh caught me doing that id die!!
thanks for your input xx

*bump* come on ladies :D

I never did it & i only grazed both times.

I got DH to do it but not often enought to make a diff I don't think and I got a tiny tear needing 2 stitches.

i got DH to do it but i found it really uncomfortable. i ended up with an epi so but had an assisted delivery so no idea if it would have worked.

Didn't do it, didn't tear. I had some internal tearing with DS, but I don't think that any massage would have stopped that?

Personally I think water is the best tear preventer, if you can be in the shower or bath everything will soften up and you will be less likely to tear **NB: makes sense to me, may not have any basis in fact**

didn't do it with DS and had an episiotomy (mainly due to his presentatation head shoulder and arm coming at once) didn't do it with DD and wish I did 2nd degree tearing. I too was a bit embarassed to do it, but some others from my hypnonbirthing course did it and had no tearing.
Good luck xx

thanks everyone!

im still not completely convinced i should be doing it though :lol:

anyone else?