I caught the end of this NPR story about episiotomies when I got in the car last night.
A new study in the Journal of the American Medical Association finds no benefit from episiotomies, a commonplace procedure performed on women during childbirth. The procedure is intended to help prevent additional injury during birth. Melissa Block talks with Dr. Katherine E. Hartmann, who is lead author of the study.
Wish we had our speakers hooked up so I could hear the rest! The full journal article is here (empasis mine): " . .. relevant studies are consistent in demonstrating no benefit from episiotomy for prevention of fecal and urinary incontinence or pelvic floor relaxation. Likewise, no evidence suggests that episiotomy reduces impaired sexual function—pain with intercourse was more common among women with episiotomy. "
Funny how doctors have to do a study to prove something that midwives have been saying for years. I feel like shouting out a big "Duh!" to the medical community in general.
I heard it too, this morning, and I was jumping around saying, "Duh!" too. And I think there have been previous studies on it, too -- why is this a big surprise?
Posted by: bizarrogirl | May 05, 2005 at 04:40 PM
I don't know! I know I've read in several places the same thing they're saying now, so I don't know why it's all over the news this time.
Posted by: Amy | May 05, 2005 at 04:46 PM
All I know is that I really DO NOT WANT another one unless I'm trying to give birth to an elephant. I swear, tearing probably would have ben easier to recover from than my 4th degree episiotomy. They may as well have removed my legs.
By the way, I never even heard that people actually believed that about incontinence or sexual function. I just assumed they were done for the same reason as my doctor had, concern that I would tear wildly which would be harder to stitch up and hurt more during recovery (at six weeks post-partum I *finally* stopped taking painkillers every day!). If someone wanted to give me one for either of those two reasons, I'd flip.
Posted by: canadian sherry | May 05, 2005 at 10:17 PM
Gosh, I guess I was one of the lucky ones. I had an episiotomy after 2 1/2 hours of pushing, and than Sydney popped right out. I feel like that might have actually helped me avoid a c-section. And, I haven't had any of the problems associated with them. Intersesting stuff, though!
Posted by: Steph | May 05, 2005 at 10:21 PM
I think a lot of the problem stems from the doctors who do them routinely---the chick in charge of the study said on NPR that there are many, many doctors who do them no matter what, that the doctors know before they even get into the L&D room that they're going to do one. I want to know how in the world that makes sense---why do it if it's not even needed and if tearing is the better option?
Posted by: Amy | May 05, 2005 at 10:24 PM