In Latin America 90% of women have an episiotomy

A study of over 400 000 deliveries in 16 Latin American countries by Althabe and colleagues (p 945) shows that nine of every 10 primiparous women with spontaneous deliveries received an episiotomy. If this figure is applied to the 2.35 million primiparous Latin Americans who give birth each year, then 2.17 million will receive an episiotomy. This situation, the authors say, is inadmissible in light of current evidence, and this overuse of episiotomy needs to change.


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Relevant Article

Episiotomy rates in primiparous women in Latin America: hospital based descriptive study
Fernando Althabe, José M Belizán, and Eduardo Bergel
BMJ 2002 324: 945-946. [Extract] [Full Text] [PDF]

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