When is postnatal physiotherapy recommended for perineal tear?

A perineal tear can affect skin, muscle and pelvic-floor tissues. Healing may change comfort with sitting, walking, bowel movements, intimacy or exercise. Physiotherapy is generally considered after the wound has been medically checked and can include education, relaxation, graded pelvic-floor work and, when appropriate, scar care.

Tell your maternity or primary-care team about persistent pain, leakage, a feeling of pressure, difficulty emptying your bowel, or pain with intimacy. A pelvic-health physiotherapist can assess the scar and muscle coordination, then plan exercises around healing. Do not massage an open, infected or very tender wound.

Contact a clinician promptly for increasing wound pain, redness, swelling, discharge, fever, wound separation, heavy bleeding, or loss of bowel control. These symptoms require medical assessment before routine rehabilitation continues.

Ask whether the tear is healing as expected, when examination or physiotherapy is appropriate, how to protect the repair during bowel movements, and which symptoms should trigger an earlier review.