If the decision has been made to put stitches into the woman's genitals, then it will normally be done soon after the birth, depending on who will put them in. For women having their own private doctor or midwife, they will do the suturing. For women who are using the Medicare system, often the midwife or doctor who delivered your baby will put in the stitches. Sometimes the midwife will call for a doctor to come and suture if they have not been trained to put them in (not all midwives have in Australia) or because this is the hospital policy. If the doctor is busy then the woman may have to wait for a while.
Some women are happy to have it 'over and done with' as soon as possible and if the woman has an epidural in place and it is still effective as far as pain relief is concerned, then it is ideal to put them in before the epidural wears off.
Other women prefer to delay putting in the stitches, wishing to 'recover' before being touched again. In birthplaces such as birth centres and homebirth, where there is usually no rush to move the woman to the postnatal ward and the caregiver does not need to leave soon after the birth, suturing can often be left until the baby has breastfed, the woman has eaten and she is 'ready' to have them put in.
If the caregiver is unable wait around for the woman to be 'ready', they will normally put the stitches in as soon as the placenta is delivered. Occasionally some caregivers will start to suture or put a couple of sutures into small tears while they are waiting for the placenta to be delivered.
Regardless of the time interval between the birth and the actual suturing, the procedure will be fairly similar and will include:
Looking for any injury(s)
Positioning the woman
Pain relief
Putting in the stitches
Checks after the stitches are put in