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- Newsgroups: misc.kids
- Path: sparky!uunet!destroyer!ncar!uchinews!gargoyle.uchicago.edu!owens
- From: owens@gargoyle.uchicago.edu (Christopher Owens)
- Subject: Re: episiotomies.....your doctor is lazy
- Message-ID: <owens.721958559@gargoyle.uchicago.edu>
- Sender: news@uchinews.uchicago.edu (News System)
- Organization: University of Chicago Computing Organizations
- References: <1426@emoryu1.cc.emory.edu> <BxtuKG.EuL@acsu.buffalo.edu>
- Date: Tue, 17 Nov 1992 00:02:39 GMT
- Lines: 28
-
- One thing that has become really clear is that the way to minimize
- your chances of having an episiotomy is by selecting your practitioner
- carefully, not by trying to argue it out either before or during the
- actual delivery.
-
- My wife's OB said:
-
- "I only do them when medically necessary, Of course, everybody says
- that; all I can add to reassure you is that my rate of doing them
- is statistically pretty low (she gave us a number which I forget).
- But the decision really is a spur-of-the-moment one. Tears do not
- always happen gradually over several contractions; sometimes the
- perineum reaches its limit and then ruptures explosively. I can't
- promise you that I won't cut, but I can promise that I'll be with
- you during the pushing phase of labor, massaging and stretching the
- perineum as gradually and gently as possible. If you do end up
- with an episiotomy, I'll be able to honestly say that I did
- everything I know how to avoid it."
-
- That's the kind of answer I'd look for in response to the "what about
- episiotomies?" question, rather than a doctrinaire "I never do them,"
- or "Everybody needs one."
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