Stitches

I'm wondering what some of the specifics are for getting stitches. How deep does the wound need to be (current situation: my MC has a shallow wound on her stomach, from about her belly-button to her side. At worst it cut through some muscle.) and is there a pad placed on the wound before the bandages?

Side note- If you have any information on recovering from the aforementioned wound, I'd appreciate it!

The book is fantasy. I don't think I need to say more on that for time-period and technology. xD

Hey Rosey Unicorn,
I might not be much of a help since I haven't seen it done on humans, but I work at a vet clinic where I see sutures (stitches) all the time. I'm pretty sure your MC would get stitches though it kind of depends on the time period. There's a lot of different ways they bandage the stitches. After sewing the skin together (if it's really deep they sew up to three different layers together, but that's normally when it's cut all the way into the body cavity) They put a pad/gauze on to help soak up any fluid leakage. Then they wrap it up with vetwrap, a bandage material. Hope it helps,

~Dakota