We don't know exactly how many women have a tear in the perineum during childbirth. Doctors and midwives don't always record small tears. Experts think that at least a third of women in the United States have a tear large enough to need stitches.

 

 

 

 

 

Source:
Graves EJ, Kozak LJ.
National hospital discharge survey: annual summary, 1996.
Vital Health Statistics. 1999; 13: i-iv, 1-46.

 

 

 

 

 

¹

 

 

 

 

 

Source:
Audit Commission.
First class delivery: improving maternity services in England and Wales.
London: Audit Commission Publications, 1997.

 

 

 

 

 

²

In one study from the United Kingdom, more than 8 in 10 women had a tear or cut during a vaginal birth.

 

 

 

 

 

Source:
McCandlish R, Bowler U, van Asten H, et al.
A randomised controlled trial of care of the perineum during second stage of normal labour.
British Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology. 1998; 105: 1262-1272.

 

 

 

 

 

³ And about 7 in 10 needed stitches.

Bad tears, which go all the way from the vagina to the anal opening (third-degree or fourth-degree tears), happen less often. But we don't know exactly how many women in the United States have a bad tear. In one study from Canada, about 7 in 100 women who give birth had a bad tear.

 

 

 

 

 

Source:
Sultan AH, Kamm MA, Hudson CN.
Anal sphincter disruption during vaginal delivery.
New England Journal of Medicine. 1993; 329: 1905-1911.

 

 

 

 

 

⁴

Your chance of having a cut (episiotomy) depends on where you live. In the United States, about a quarter of women have a cut. In some eastern European countries, nearly all women have a cut during delivery.

 

 

 

 

 

Source:
Graves EJ, Kozak LJ.
National hospital discharge survey: annual summary, 1996.
Vital Health Statistics. 1999; 13: i-iv, 1-46.

 

 

 

 

 

¹

 

 

 

 

 

Source:
Wagner M.
Pursuing the birth machine: the search for appropriate technology.
In: Wagner M. Pursuing the birth machine: the search for appropriate technology. Ace Graphics, Camperdown, Australia; 1994.

 

 

 

 

 

⁵

 

 

 

 

 

Source:
DeFrances CJ, Hall MJ, Podgornik MN
2003 National Hospital Discharge Survey. Advance Data from Vital and Health statistics No 359
Advance Data from Vital and Health Statistics 2005.

 

 

 

 

 

⁶

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