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Previous Volume 329:1956-1957 December 23, 1993 Number 26 Next

	Since this article has no abstract, we have provided an extract of the first 100 words of the full text and any section headings.

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Since the beginning of recorded medical history, vaginal delivery has been known to damage the pelvic floor. Vesicovaginal fistulae, fecal incontinence, and uterine prolapse were often the dreaded price of bearing children. In the past few centuries, trained midwives and obstetricians learned to intervene before prolonged pressure of the fetal head on the pelvic floor destroyed a mother's continence, her marriage, or even her life. Despite the progress that modern obstetrical care has made in reducing these problems, vaginal delivery remains a traumatic event with respect to the maternal perineum. Recently, there has been renewed interest in the mechanism of . . . [Full Text of this Article]

References

This article has been cited by other articles:

• Thacker, S. B (2000). Midline versus mediolateral episiotomy. BMJ 320: 1615-1616 [Full Text]