The perineum is the soft tissue between the anal and vaginal openings
Commonly in vaginal births there may be tearing of this soft tissue or your Obstetrician may choose to do a small cut of the perineum to aid delivery. Stitches will then be done to repair the tear or cut. When wounds heal they form a scar and when a scar is formed all of the collagen fibers heal in a bit of a mass and can become a little stuck and not as mobile. This can then lead to problems such as pain especially on return to sex or inserting tampons down the line.
Gentle massage can help to realign these collagen fibers and make the scar more soft and mobile again not stuck down which can prevent these issues.
How To Do Perineal Massage
Clock Face Perineal Massage
Imagine your underparts as a clock with you ‘clitoris and pee hole’ being 12:00 on the clock and your ‘perineum’ being 6:00 on the clock.
1) Make sure you are in a comfortable and safe environment where you can lean back, be supported and relax. You need to open out your legs into a comfortable position and if need can place a support under your knees. You need to be able to access your vagina and perineum easily.
2) So if you imagine your underparts being a clock with the ‘clitoris and pee hole’ being 12:00 on the clock and your ‘perineum’ being just above the anus (poop hole) at 6:00 on the clock
3) Take a clean thumb and insert it into your vagina with some lubricant on and gently start moving around and stretching the perineum in different angles aiming at pushing into 6 oclock, 7 oclock and 5 oclock angles.
4) Once you have manged to put slight pressure in without issues then use a deeper pressure and more downward pressure to start stretching out the perineum.
5) If you are able to insert your 2 thumbs to create a downward pressure and slightly stretch apart and relax off gently and stretch apart and relax off and firmly stretch apart and relax off. What you want to do is a bit of pressure and hold it there for a few seconds and then
Practice for a few minutes per day
