COMPARISON OF WOMEN WITH DIFFERENT PERINEAL CONDITIONS AFTER CHILDBIRTH.
Contributors: University Of Illinois At Chicago, Health Sciences Center.
Published: 1987
Number of pages: 307
Subjects: Health Sciences, Nursing.
Description: Women with different perineal conditions after birth--episiotomies, intact perinea, lacerations, and cesareans--were compared in four areas: postpartal perineal pain, postpartal sexual function, perineal muscle function, and perception of the perineal outlet. Perineal perception was compared postpartally in 438 women with different perineal conditions after birth to find that all vaginal birth groups perceived no difference postpartally in the tightness or looseness of the perineal outlet.

One hundred and two women were compared over a six-month period after childbirth in areas of perineal pain and sexual function. Women with intact perinea and first-degree unsutured lacerations experienced significantly less perineal pain lasting a significantly shorter period of time than women with either episiotomies or sutured lacerations. Women with episiotomies experienced a higher level of pain than women with lacerations, but the differences did not reach statistical significance. Women with intact or unsutured perinea were found to resume intercourse significantly sooner than with episiotomies or sutured lacerations. Women in the sutured laceration group resumed intercourse over a week sooner than women with episiotomies, but the difference did not reach statistical significance. Women with episiotomies were found to have a significantly higher incidence of dyspareunia at six months postpartum than women in other groups.

Perineal muscle strength and endurance were tested before birth and at six weeks and six months after birth. Postartum muscle function was similar in all perineal outcome groups. Women with intact perinea and with cesareans had the highest muscle function scores after delivery. Women with second- and third-degree lacerations had the lowest scores both before and after birth. All perineal outcome groups experienced increased muscle function after birth except the episiotomy group, in which muscle strength and endurance decreased significantly.
Notes: Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 48-10, Section: B, page: 2924.

Thesis (PH.D.)--UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS AT CHICAGO, HEALTH SCIENCES CENTER, 1987.

School code: 0806.