Abstract:

Background: An episiotomy is one of the widely practiced obstetric interventions performed to minimize the risk of severe tears or to enlarge the birth outlet during childbirth at a time when the fetus’s head descends. It helps in avoiding potential intracranial damage to the infant, prevents low Apgar score, and avoids severe and irregular perineal tears. The procedure also helps to prevent the relaxation of pelvic floor muscles and the incidence of cystocele and rectocele. Even though seven different types of episiotomy have been reported in works of literature, two major types are routinely used the median and medio-lateral episiotomy. Mediolateral episiotomies are most commonly performed in Europe, whereas midline episiotomy is common in the USA. World Health Organization (WHO) expressed a lack of evidence to perform routine or liberal use of episiotomy for women undergoing spontaneous vaginal birth and recommended restrictive episiotomy, despite its particular rate not being suggested. There is a need to embark on the proper indication that are needed to perform routine episiotomy and its associated factor. This study will be conducted to determine magnitude of episiotomy practices among health care workers and factors associated with episiotomy practises among women delivering at Bugando Medical Centre.

Methodology: A cross-sectional study involving 138 women delivering at BMC labour ward and 78 health care workers (C2) was conducted from May 2023 to July 2023. Sociodemographic and other relevant information was collected using structured questionnaires from each consenting woman. Data was entered into the Microsoft excel sheet for clearing and coding then analysed by using SPSS version 20.