To think that episiotomies are more common than my midwife claims at hospital births?

[Lovinglife2019]

I don't know that many people who've had children recently at a hospital, maybe 6, but ALL of them "had to have" an episiotomy. 1 of them was due to requiring a forceps delivery, but the rest seem to be because the staff told them they would tear really badly otherwise and this was the best thing for them. None of them found the recovery that easy and most of them aren't convinced they actually needed one after talking to other friends who didn't have them and delivered at a midwifery led unit or at home. Don't know how true this is.
When discussing birth preferences, I raised this with the midwife and she said it was just coincidence and actually episiotomies aren't that common.
For medical reasons I will have to deliver at the hospital, and would like to avoid an episiotomy unless medically necessary but am concerned it might be pushed on me.
Am I being unreasonable to doubt the midwife or have lots of people out there had hospital births without episiotomies and it is just coincidence?

I refused on for a forceps delivery and instead had a second degree tear that healed well. I did get a double prolapse but that was due to 3 hours pushing etc and not a tear.

Two episiotomies and a tear with third.

I had two so assumed it was quite common! Both done by doctors though, one for an instrumental delivery, one not.

Third one (midwife only) - no episiotomy or tear.

I must say though I had absolutely no problems from the episiotomys though, they healed fine.

Can I just butt in and say that I didn't have a midwife perform my episiotomy I had a doctor do mine so all these statistics aren't really including doctors who perform them vs midwives.

Former midwife. In 5 years of practice I performed 1. Most are done for an instrumental births, or to speed up birth if baby shows signs of distress.

I had one nearly 5 years ago, it got infected, and still suffer with pain from it. The GP said recently that I have appalling scarring. She has just prescribed a cream to apply to deaden the pain but if that doesn’t work then the only other option is to have it performed again (not a chance).

I’m interested to hear so many women say it barely hurt when it was performed - I found it to be sheer agony and, on top of the existing labour pain, I thought I had lost my mind with all the pain. When DS was placed on my chest I was so out of it with the pain I told DH to take him which is something I feel a bit angry about. Maybe the episiotomy wasn’t performed right which was why it was so agonising and I have this ‘appalling scarring.’

Pretty sure everyone i know who had a vaginal birth had n episiotomy or a tear with their first baby. I thought it was a given.

I have had 2 hospital births and no episiotomy.
With my first I did tear slightly, not that I noticed until the midwife told me. With my second I tore on the scar from my first, but again didnt notice until I was told by midwife.

Mebeforeyou

I can totally believe that. Mine didnt hurt because i had an epidural. Even though it healed very well with minimal scarring the scar still hurts sometimes. Can only imagine what it would be like with bad scarring

I had one ten years ago.

It was fine, took a while to heal but they stitched me back up nicely. Everything is as before down below.

Don't worry op

I had one with my second, but no one told me about it until after baby was born. I was told they were going to try forceps. No mention of it which is annoying. My son was 7lb 5 oz so not exactly a big baby. I had considered putting it in my birth plan, but thought that they would at least inform me beforehand if they did it. Took a week before I could walk a block and thankfully by day 10 I could walk to pick my son up from nursery. Had to wear massive incontinence pads because my stitches rubbed against ordinary ones or would get caught into it.

I had one. It was awful, I'd had an epidural that only half worked so I could still feel a fair amount of pain and they decided I needed a n episiotomy. They unwrapped the sterile scissors, and I could hear one whisper to the other, these scissors are not sharp enough, they look blunt. My ex heard them too, they suspected we had heard them and said they needed to do it and fast so my ex watched them hack away at me whilst I cried. I needed far more stitches than I would have had the scissors had been sharp enough.

I tore and then had an episiotomy. Dd is nearly a year and the episiotomy part has healed much better and left much less scarring than the tear. It also saved me from likely having a 3rd degree tear.
I was generally very sore, swollen and uncomfortable down there for a good couple of weeks after the birth but tbf I’m tiny and had a rather large baby who got a bit stuck so o think it was more down to that than the episiotomy!

Not more common.. maybe more likely?

Check out these stats:

www.nice.org.uk/news/article/midwife-led-units-safest-for-straightforward-births

It shows the average amount of episiotomies and other interventions per 1000 births depending on the birth setting.

2 babies:- tore on the first, nothing on the second, yet second was bigger.

I’m not an expert by any stretch (ha) but I remember reading that episiotomy increased the incidence of serious tearing - something about being like making a tiny cut in paper then pulling it - it will tear much more easily than if you hadn’t made the cut in the first place.

I’m sure there are more qualified MNers than I to answer though. (If sharing anecdotes I haven’t had one nor a tear)

I had one the first time in an emergency situation (prepped for CS, but birthed by forceps after failed ventouse). The second time, I had a 3rd degree tear along the previous scar. The tear healed brilliantly. The episiotomy didn't heal well at all :(

My mum also had an episiotomy birthing me.

I had one in theatre with a spinal so didn't feel anything thankfully. Apparently it healed fine but still have pain in that area and can feel scar tissue. It's pretty big though as baby needed rotating and was due to be big. Won't be doing that again.

I was told 2% of women have episiotomies and was told I probably wouldn't have one then I had to have one! I'd been in labour for ages though and pushing for hours and needed one to get the baby out apparently. I'm thankful I didn't need any other intervention. Stitches afterwards were painful but now I wouldnt even know where I had it done. I thought it was painful and affecting sex after giving birth but it turned out the pill I was on was drying me out and making things uncomfortable sorry if TMI!

The only people I know who had them also had forceps. It was painful for her and took much longer to heal.

I think I’d rather tear naturally. Mine was a complex second degree tear but healed fine.

I had one, healed beautifully, tiny scar very neat, good as new. Unlike my close friend who tore terribly, took months to heal and claims it's never been the same since. It's not necessarily a bad thing.

I don't know anyone else who had one, lots of emergency C sections though. I had an episiotomy because I had forceps, thankfully they've healed absolutely fine and I didn't have much pain afterwards; like many things I guess it depends on the skill of whoever is carrying it out maybe? I think many things during birth are more common than antenatal classes etc let on. One of my friends tore and is still having issues over a year down the line.

The midwife would not lie to you op. They have to tell you the truth about medical stuff.

Lol. Doesn't mean they do tell the truth when they think it's inconvenient.

Episiotomy and forceps with first - painful. Tear with second - no pain whatsoever.

I had an episiotomy after 2.5hrs of pushing. The doctor performed it in preparation for ventouse but as it was, I pushed DS out immediately after. The stitching was easy, recovery as easy as it could be and the scar is neat.

In my case it was necessary as he was in distress and I was exhausted.