[Episiotomy and puerperium at home]

This article reports on an observational and prospective study by means of a telephone questionnaire carried out between three and six months after childbirth via vaginal delivery among 100 women; its purpose was to discover the differences among episiotomies, large, small and with tears, and their effects during puerperium, in order to make professionals aware of the importance of pain and the consequences of a episiotomy. 82% of the women contacted by telephone responded to this questionnaire. 74.4% of these patients had undergone a right mediolateral episiotomy; 12.2% of these patients had undergone a left mediolateral episiotomy. The delay in starting to have sexual relations was significant among those women who underwent a large episiotomy (> 4 cm) p < 0.001. Another finding was that the duration of dyspareunia increased significantly in relation to the size of the episiotomy, p < 0.0059; as well as the difference in hemoglobin before or intra-birth and postbirth, p < 0.0153 in the skin and 0.026 in the vagina. The relationship among pain, analgesia and size was significant in the skin readings, p < 0.007.