Labia pain in labor?

[birthsister]

I had a client last night who described having major labia pain as her contractions picked up. She said she felt like she'd been punched down there. It sounded to me like the kind of pain I have in the first day or two of my period, but have never had a laboring mom indicate that type of discomfort before. Is it from increased prostaglandins? It started around the time she got cervidil (she'd been ruptured for 18 hours and hadn't made any cervical change - still 2cm and 50% effaced).

Any thoughts on the cause, and what I could have done to help relieve the discomfort? I thought about a rice sock wrapped in a towel, but it wasn't long after that that she got her epidural so the rice sock was put away and she wasn't feeling anything (except her bladder cath).

[DL]

[DoulaCBE]

Quote:

Originally Posted by birthsister I had a client last night who described having major labia pain as her contractions picked up. She said she felt like she'd been punched down there. It sounded to me like the kind of pain I have in the first day or two of my period, but have never had a laboring mom indicate that type of discomfort before. Is it from increased prostaglandins? It started around the time she got cervidil (she'd been ruptured for 18 hours and hadn't made any cervical change - still 2cm and 50% effaced). Any thoughts on the cause, and what I could have done to help relieve the discomfort? I thought about a rice sock wrapped in a towel, but it wasn't long after that that she got her epidural so the rice sock was put away and she wasn't feeling anything (except her bladder cath).

I've had clients tell me that having cervidil is like someone taking sand paper to their genitals. It could be that she was sensitive to the cervidil and that's what was causing her pain. I'd have tried a cold compress, as cold typically is more effective than heat and if you already have an inflammation you don't want to use heat.