Editing Childbirth (section)

===Episiotomy===
{{Further|Episiotomy}}

For years an [[episiotomy]] was thought to help prevent more extensive vaginal tears and heal better than a natural tear.  [[Perineal tear]]s can occur at the vaginal opening as the baby's head passes through, especially if the baby descends quickly. Tears can involve the [[perineum|perineal skin]] or extend to the muscles and the anal sphincter and anus. Once common, they are now recognised as generally not needed.<ref name=NIH2010/> When needed, the midwife or obstetrician makes a surgical cut in the perineum to prevent severe tears that can be difficult to repair. Conducting episiotomy when necessary (restrictive episiotomy) appears to give a number of benefits compared to using routine episiotomy. Women experience less severe perineal trauma, less posterior perineal trauma, less suturing and fewer healing complications at seven days. Furthermore it does not cause a higher occurrence of pain, urinary incontinence, painful sex or severe vaginal/perineal trauma after birth.<ref>{{cite journal | vauthors = Jiang H, Qian X, Carroli G, Garner P | title = Selective versus routine use of episiotomy for vaginal birth | journal = The Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews | volume = 2017 | pages = CD000081 | date = February 2017 | issue = 2 | pmid = 28176333 | pmc = 5449575 | doi = 10.1002/14651858.CD000081.pub3 }}</ref>