The Association Between Perineal Trauma and Spontaneous Perineal Tears

Conclusions

Our study shows that the risk of spontaneous perineal tears at the second delivery increases with the presence and the severity of perineal trauma at the first delivery. These results support arguments for the prevention of perineal trauma at the first delivery and the selective use of episiotomy.

Acknowledgements

Dr Marcoux holds a National Health Research Scholarship from Health Canada.

Related resources

FOR PATIENTS:

• ParentsPlace.com—Perineal Massage: Your How-to Guidehttps://www.parentsplace.com/pregnancy/labor/qa/0,3105,13778,00.html
• Childbirth.org—Perineal Massagehttps://www.childbirth.org/articles/massage.html

FOR FAMILY PHYSICIANS:

• Obstetric Myths Versus Research Realitieshttps://www.efn.org/~djz/birth/obmyth/epis.html
• Wooley RJ. Benefits and risks of episiotomy: A review of the English-language literature since 1980 https://www.gentlebirth.org/format/woolley.html(the best one on episotomy)
• Carroli G, Belizan J. Episiotomy for vaginal birth (Cochrane Review)https://www.update-software.com/abstracts/ab000081.htm (Only the abstract is available free.)