A few days ago a reader asked us if episiotomy is necessary in all deliveries. The answer is: of course not.
Recall that the episiotomy is an incision that is made in the perineum at the time of delivery to avoid tears. In certain cases it is necessary, but many women do not know that there are resources to reduce the chances of doing it.
They are mainly based on the exercise of the perineum during pregnancy, through Kegel exercises, perineal massages or spheodynamics, among other possibilities. There are also other circumstances that help to avoid it such as the vertical delivery position since the baby's own weight facilitates the expulsion without the need to enlarge the hole to be born.
From some sectors they consider it an aberrant medical practice that will tend to disappear. In fact, there is a campaign to eradicate routine episiotomy in childbirth, that is, without giving the mother a choice, whether she agrees or not.
A new study supports the theory that episiotomy is not harmless at all. According to a team of doctors from the University of Pittsburg the women who are being performed An episiotomy during the first vaginal delivery is more likely to suffer tears or lacerations in future births.
They explain that it was believed that "the cortecito" (which in some cases becomes a piece of cut) was considered an innocuous and even protective procedure against serious perineal lacerations but they have been able to prove that it is not so.
For this, they analyzed a database of women who had had consecutive vaginal deliveries. They found that almost half (47.8%) had an episiotomy in the first birth and 51.3% of them suffered lacerations in the second delivery. A much higher figure (almost double) than the 26.7% who suffered them in a second birth without previous episiotomy.
