I coached as my wife was delivering our third child. She was at the final phase of delivery where the last few pushes would result in the birth of our second daughter. As the crown of our daughter’s head protruded slightly from the very end of the birth canal, my wife’s obstetrician yelled, “Stop! Don’t push…”
He quickly positioned a hypodermic needle and injected anesthetic into a section of my wife’s perineal tissue - the skin between the vagina and the anus. Next he grabbed a scalpel and carefully addressed the freshly anesthetized area. The attending nurse and I instinctively wheeled our heads to the side so that our eyes could not see what happened next. “I never watch this part,” she told me, as the doctor quickly performed a simple procedure known as an episiotomy. Our daughter was born minutes later. As mother and daughter were meeting face-to-face for the very first time, the doctor was busy stitching the incision created during the episiotomy.
The idea behind performing an episiotomy is twofold. The first reason is concern for the baby. Passing through the vaginal canal is the most stressful time for a baby experiencing a traditional vaginal birth. Cutting the perineal tissue creates a wider opening so that the baby can slip through more easily. The second reason is, in theory, to prevent out-of-control tearing of the mother’s perineal tissue. The idea is that, by making an incision, the area affected by cutting or tearing is controlled to a certain extent by the attending physician. The problem is that not all mothers experience tearing, so the laceration can be unnecessary.
According to an article by Salynn Boyles published on WebMD (http://my.webmd.com/content/article/110/109783.htm), The Journal of the American Medical Association (Vol. 293 No. 17, May 4, 2005) reports that researchers screened nearly 1,000 medical resources published in the past 60 years looking for data measuring the effectiveness of the procedure. Data from twenty-six articles contained relevant content and were aggregated to form conclusions.
The article reported that there was “fair to good” evidence that the results of routine episiotomy were not advantageous over the results of those with restrictive use of episiotomy. In cases where episiotomy was performed routinely, the severity of the laceration, the degree of pain suffered, and the amount of medication needed to treat was no better than for cases where episiotomy was not routinely performed.
Though most of the individuals were not followed late into life, relevant studies have shown no benefit from episiotomy for the prevention of urinary incontinence or pelvic floor muscle relaxation. Studies have also shown that “impaired sexual function - pain with intercourse - was more common among women” who had the procedure. A report published in the British Medical Journal in January of 2000 reported that women who received episiotomies during delivery had a significantly higher incidence of anal incontinence - the inability to control bowel movements and gas - than their counterparts who did not receive the procedure.
At best episiotomy is something no one wants to observe; at worst it can cause pain, lengthen the time it would normally take for a couple to resume sexual relations, and cause anal incontinence. The ideal situation would be to not only avoid episiotomy, but also to avoid tearing.
Informed mothers are learning more about this subject and taking the time to speak with their obstetricians about it, well in advance of their scheduled birthing date. They are adopting a strategy that includes special exercises using a device called EPI
Tags: apgar, baby, birth, childbirth, episiotomy, incontinence, kegel, midwife, ob/gyn, perineal, pregnant, women