Hawaii News Now - KGMB and KHNL HomeChildbirth Procedure Doesn't Help, Review Finds
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Episiotomies, the incisions that enlarge vaginal openings during childbirth, are linked with a higher risk of injury, more trouble healing and more pain, a new review of 26 research studies shows.
The findings, published in the May 4 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association, appear to reverse long-standing beliefs that the procedure is preferred to prevent spontaneous tearing and also helps women recover better after giving birth.
The review found that episiotomies had no effect on incontinence, pelvic floor strength or sexual function. Women who had the procedure waited longer to resume sex after childbirth. And their first post-birth intercourse caused them more pain, according to an Associated Press report on the study.
"This review puts together in one place all the evidence that we're not getting the results we want," said study author Dr. Katherine Hartmann, a researcher at the University of North Carolina.
She estimated that 1 million women each year have unnecessary episiotomies, citing studies that indicate they are done in about 30 percent of vaginal births. An Associated Press analysis of hospital data found there were 616,702 episiotomies in 2002, but Hartmann said the procedures are underestimated in hospital records.
The Agency for Healthcare Quality and Research, which funded the review, planned to post a summary on its Web site, the wire service reported.
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9/11 Stress Effects Passed From Mothers to Babies, Researchers Find
The effects of stress caused by the 9/11 terrorist attacks were passed along by some mothers to their babies, according to new research published online Tuesday in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism.
Markers of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) were transmitted to the babies of pregnant women who were present during the collapse of the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York City, the study found.
Researchers from Mount Sinai School of Medicine and the University of Edinburgh tested salivary cortisol levels in 38 women and their babies. Mothers who experienced PTSD in response to the attacks on the towers had lower cortisol levels than women who did not develop PTSD.
The study also found the babies of mothers who developed PTSD had significantly lower cortisol levels than babies of women who developed only minimal PTSD symptoms after 9/11.
The decrease in cortisol levels among the babies was similar to their mothers' hormonal response to PTSD, the study said. Lower cortisol levels in relation to maternal PTSD were most evident in babies born to women who were in their third trimester of pregnancy on 9/11.
"The findings suggest that mechanisms for transgenerational transmission of biologic effects of trauma may have to do with very early parent-child attachments and possibly even in utero effects to cortisol programming," principal investigator Rachel Yehuda said in a prepared statement.
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