An episiotomy can be a good thing during the birthof your baby, or a very bad thing. Find out thereasons.
An episiotomy can be a great thing to deliver a baby in an emergency situation but it also has the potential to be misused for sheer convenience to everyone involved, but leastly the mother having the baby.
An episiotomy is a cut in the perineal area when the baby is about to be born. It widens the area for delivery of the baby and is a straighter cut than a natural tear. But an episiotomy can also cause more tearing much like a small cut in a piece of paper makes a bigger rip more likely. The integrity of the perineal tissue is protected more if a cut is never made in the first place.
The main reason for episiotomies has traditionally been for the convenience of the practitioner delivering the baby. It makes it quicker and easier and less work trying to prevent a tear from happening. It also requires less patience to let the woman deliver her baby of her own accord. It gives the power and control to the practitioner, where it does not belong.
Women can do well on their own without episiotomies and walk away from delivery with not so much as a tiny tear if they are left alone. Particularly if they are free to be up moving around as they want they can adopt a position suitable for delivery. Since most physicians require women to deliver on their back in a bed it does not give the woman a chance to move as her body wants to for delivering a baby easier.
Sometimes physicians will say that an episiotomy is easier to repair for it is a straight line. This may be true, yet if one was never done at all there may be no requirement of any stitches at all. Making a cut does not allow that option.
A good reason for having an episiotomy is for a baby who is having a difficult time being delivered because of a very large head or shoulders that may become stuck in the birth canal. under these conditions everyone wants what is best for the baby's survival and cutting the tissue may be exactly that.
Recovery from an episiotomy can be very painful too compared to what might have been no tear or a smaller tear than what the intentional cutting has done. Typically an episiotomy will require ten stitches depending on how big it was. Though the cut is usually made when a woman doesn't notice it as the head crowns, some women do report severe pain when their tissue is cut.
Unless the situation is an emergency and the baby needs to be born immediately, having an episiotomy is truly unnecessary and a medical intervention that women should consider avoiding. All factors need to be taken into consideration before discussing this option with your health care provider. The trend is definitely moving away from routine episiotomies, yet it is still something that should be discussed prior to having a baby. A little forethought could prevent a lot of pain in a situation like this.
