In routine births, women without episiotomy were found to have less pain with faster resolution, and no greater or lesser risk of wound healing complications. In addition, the evidence showed that episiotomy did not protect women against urinary or fecal incontinence or pelvic organ prolapse in the first three months to five years following delivery.
“The literature we reviewed suggests that the outcomes with spontaneous tears, if they happen, are better than with episiotomy,” said Dr. Katherine Hartmann, the lead author of the JAMA article. She noted that women are more likely to suffer the most severe types of tears, from the vagina into the rectum, when they have an episiotomy.
A key message from such findings, she added, is that a mother-to-be should talk to her doctor about her wishes regarding episiotomy during her prenatal care because it will be too late to have an informed discussion in the delivery room.
“You’re in charge of what happens to you in your care. Your best bet to reach a clear understanding with your doctor about what this aspect of your birth will be like is to talk about it in advance.”
Hartmann is assistant professor of obstetrics and gynecology in the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s School of Medicine and of epidemiology in UNC’s School of Public Health. She also directs UNC’s Center for Women’s Health Research.
SOURCE: UNC Press Release
I was looking to post a comment to “More or Less Medicine?”, but the post a comment button seems to be sending me to this site instead. So, two comments:
Well…not sure what’s wrong with the system, but the third option “This is not MEDScoop” was meant to equal the “Too much” option, meaning that this is SCI-scoop!
I had assumed the question was about medicine’s use in society, and not medicine-related topics on SciScoop. If I had understood that, I would have chosen the “Just Right” option. In hindsight, my mistake seems stupid, but I doubt I’m the only one to make that mistake.
Gotcha!
I’ve been posting polls and discussing the nature of SciScoop for the past few weeks, so had assumed visitors would realise. But, I take your point. I wonder if voters thought the same thing when they voted for/against ads on the site. Did they think I meant in general rather than just on SciScoop?
Okay, so we’re pretty much even on whether the medical news content is just right or far too much. So, I think it’s time for another related poll (suggested by Wayne Goode) to see whether there’s a specific subject area that readers would prefer to see. Of course, if we were to follow a specific area, we’d likely lose some of those readers who don’t want to see that topic and get more readers from the search engines for those subjects we choose to cover. It would be self-perpetuating to a degree. Anyway, on with the poll.