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Women's experience of episiotomy: a qualitative study from China
Siyuan He1,2, Hong Jiang1,2,3, Xu Qian4,2,3
1School of Public Health, Fudan University, Shanghai, China.
Objective:
To describe women's experience of episiotomy in urban China.
Design:
This is a semistructured, indepth interview with women after episiotomy. We analysed transcriptions using thematic analysis in Chinese. Emerging themes were debated in English to finalise interpretation.
Setting:
Two community health centres and four hospitals in Shanghai, China.
Participants:
Purposive sampling of 30 postpartum women who had experienced episiotomy; 25 were primiparous and 4 had deliveries by forceps. We interviewed health providers to complement the data.
Results:
We identified four main themes: (1) women's views of the procedure vary considerably; (2) pain interferes with daily life for weeks; (3) long-term anxiety is a consequence for some, described as a 'psychological shadow'; and (4) societal norms assume women will not complain.
Conclusion:
Women receive little information in advance about episiotomy, yet the procedure has a wide range of physical and psychological consequences. This includes long-term anxiety about the damage done to them as women.
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