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Perineal Trauma and Its Impact on Women’s Health

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Perineal Trauma at Childbirth

Abstract

Giving birth is one of the major positive life events in a woman’s life. In the vast majority of women, vaginal delivery is not associated with direct complications or consequences for her health in later life. However, in some women childbirth impacts on both the physical and psychological health of a woman. Injury to the pelvic floor can occur through direct perineal trauma, damage to the pelvic floor muscles and connective tissues and pelvic nerve injury. The majority of women who sustain perineal trauma during childbirth as long as it repaired appropriately and provided with good postnatal care, will heal reasonably quickly with no long-term morbidity. However, complications can occur that lead to problems at the short or even the longer term. Such complications include, infection, wound dehiscence, granulation tissue formation, pain, sexual dysfunction as well as urinary and bowel problems, e.g. urinary retention and incontinence and anal incontinence. This chapter aims to provide health care professionals caring for women with childbirth-related perineal trauma with an insight into such complications and their consequences hence enabling them to provide timely interventions to mitigate such risks.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Birmingham Women’s NHS Foundation Trust, Birmingham, UK

    Sara Webb

  2. Oslo University Hospital, Ullevål, Norway

    Katariina Laine

  3. Ikazia Hospital, Rotterdam, The Netherlands

    Jan Willem de Leeuw

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  1. Sara Webb
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  2. Katariina Laine
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Correspondence to Sara Webb .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Birmingham, Birmingham, United Kingdom

    Khaled M. K. Ismail

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Webb, S., Laine, K., de Leeuw, J.W. (2016). Perineal Trauma and Its Impact on Women’s Health. In: Ismail, K. (eds) Perineal Trauma at Childbirth. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-14860-1_8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-14860-1_8

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