episiotomy

MLK officials credit round-the-clock staffing with an OB and midwife with driving its notably low rates of C-sections and episiotomies, measures widely used to gauge the quality of maternal care.

He did not honor her request for an episiotomy — an incision near the vaginal opening to make it larger for childbirth — and she suffered a painful tear, she says.

Some parts of the birth story I can only hope to forget: induction, complications, “failure to progress,” interventions, fetal distress, “poor expulsive effort,” tearing, episiotomy, hemorrhage.

I remember looking at my episiotomy scar and it looked tiny.

But the continuously monitored mothers are subjected to significantly more interventions—oxytocin stimulation, forceps deliveries, episiotomies, C-sections, etc.—with their attendant expenses and complications.