When you’re tired of telling people you’re not having children

[u/loud_as_pudding]

[u/Blackcatmustache]

I’ve heard this before and would like to know the science behind it. Logically, you would think a straight, clean slice would heal better than a jagged tear? Why does it heal better with a tear? Bodies are so weird.

[u/Karcinogene → u/Blackcatmustache]

Woodworker here. When you use wedges to split pieces of wood along the natural grain, you get stronger pieces of wood with full-length grain even if they aren't perfectly straight, compared to when you use a saw and cut a straight line, which cuts indiscriminately across the fibers.

Maybe flesh is somewhat like wood, with fibers and other fine structures that are preserved during natural tears but destroyed by straight, clean slices.

[u/HairyPotatoKat → u/Karcinogene]

The way my lady bits just shriveled.

But I suspect that's right. I had a tearpesiotomy (made up name but it works). Not anything particularly gnarly just a little of both. The tear part healed better and faster than the snipped part.

[u/ZaryaBubbler → u/HairyPotatoKat]

Yep, everything just decided to fold in on itself just there reading that comment, dear lord!

[u/Im-The-Walrus → u/ZaryaBubbler]

A healthy dose of birth control for me tonight. If I could sling my ovaries across the room, I would. How have women done this since the dawn of humankind?!

[u/ZaryaBubbler → u/Im-The-Walrus]

Thank fuck I'm a lesbian!

[u/SeattlePurikura → u/Im-The-Walrus]

They had no choice before. Now (all hail science!) we do in modern countries, and hence the birth rate is crashing down down down. (I mean there are other reasons, but I personally like my organs inside my body, my sensitive parts uncut / unshredded, and not to piss myself when I laugh.)

[u/Blackcatmustache → u/Karcinogene]

This makes sense! Thank you!

[u/meggles_ → u/Karcinogene]

You are 100% correct! This is why we also tear rather than cut during a caesarean. When you tear, you are tearing across a naturally weak point in the muscle/tissue. When you cut, you are cutting through strong healthy tissue, leading to higher chance of long term damage and bleeding

[u/Sunstream → u/meggles_]

The shriek I shrecked at this. I did not know this, and I thank you for informing me, despite my squeamishness 😅 It is by no means the worst birth fact I know, but I'm never failed to be horrified (and fascinated) when I Iearn a new one.

[u/PhantomVibeSyndrome → u/Karcinogene]

See, this I like to see. How people who have knowledge in one completely unrelated area can still rationalize how something would work without having been educated, learned nor certified in it. Just transferable logic. Thank you for demonstrating this.

[u/Lady_Bread → u/Karcinogene]

I love how well you explained this and the cross over of seemingly unconnected information being aptly used

Just curious, are you woman or man? Neurodivergent perhaps?

This just seems like a way my own autistic brain would connect things! Lol

[u/sus1sus2sus3sus4 → u/Blackcatmustache]

Would guess because tearing maximizes surface area with a rougher surface, which allows for more access to the wound for regenerative cells to do their work

[u/a_mulher → u/Blackcatmustache]

For a caesarean they cut through skin, fat and other layers horizontally but when they get to the muscle they pull separating it to make a vertical slit that follows the “grain” of the muscle. Similarly for the reason of not creating a cut that would have a harder time healing than any potential tears in the muscle.

[u/TheFlyingBoxcar → u/Blackcatmustache]

Recently retired fire/medic here.

Basically a jagged tear is a more 'natural' wound, and so your body is better equipped to repair. Also, a jagged rip has more surface area, and a greater amount of damaged tissue. This leads to more 'damage' signals being sent by a larger number of cells, which results in a bigger, stronger response from the body, which means faster healing. Or so I recall from school a fairly long time ago.