Does postnatal physiotherapy treat perineal tear?

A Perineal Tear may leave soreness, tightness, altered sensation, fear of movement, or difficulty controlling the pelvic-floor muscles after the wound has been checked. Physiotherapy does not replace examination and treatment of an open, infected, or poorly healing wound. Once healing is appropriate, a clinician may assess breathing, pelvic-floor contraction and relaxation, bowel habits, scar sensitivity, posture, and everyday movement. Care is adapted to the tear, symptoms, and stage of recovery.

Attend the recommended postnatal checks and ask when internal assessment or scar work is suitable. Begin only the exercises advised for your stage, often focusing first on comfortable relaxation, circulation, gentle pelvic-floor awareness, and gradual strength. Keep stools soft, avoid straining, and change positions regularly. A physiotherapist can guide a gradual return to walking, lifting, intimacy, and exercise while respecting pain and tissue healing.

Contact a clinician promptly for increasing perineal pain, swelling, redness, wound separation, offensive discharge, fever, heavy bleeding, or difficulty passing urine or stool. Seek urgent help for severe pain, sudden heavy bleeding, faintness, or feeling acutely unwell. New loss of bowel control or inability to control gas also deserves medical review rather than self-directed exercise.

Ask whether the tear is healing as expected, when physiotherapy is appropriate, how to protect the repair during bowel movements, and when pelvic-floor or scar exercises can begin.