ArticleBMC pregnancy and childbirth2022
Choice in episiotomy - fact or fantasy: a qualitative study of women's experiences of the consent process.
Article in BMC pregnancy and childbirth, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 8 papers.
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Who cites it
8 citing papers in PubMed.
- "Instead of just a drive by": Clinician and birthing person perspectives on consent for toxicology testing during pregnancy.Pregnancy (Hoboken, N.J.) · 2026Article
- Medical Interventions and Women's Perceptions of Respectful Intrapartum Care: A National Survey-Based Cohort Study.BJOG : an international journal of obstetrics and gynaecology · 2025Article
- Patient perception of consent processes for epidural analgesia in induction of labour: a qualitative study.Anaesthesia · 2025Article
- Development and validation of the Disrespect and Mistreatment during Childbirth Questionnaire: risk factors and effects on parenting stress.Frontiers in psychology · 2025Article
- Prevalence and predictors of episiotomy among puerperal women accessing postnatal care in the Kumasi Metropolis.BMC pregnancy and childbirth · 2024Article
- The ethics of consent during labour and birth: episiotomies.Journal of medical ethics · 2023Article
- A Catastrophic Outcome of Ineffectual Episiotomy Causing Acquired Vaginal Atresia: A Case Report.Cureus · 2023Article
- Quality of Informed Consent Practices around the Time of Childbirth: A Cross-Sectional Study in Italy.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2022Article
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Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundConsent to episiotomy is subject to the same legal and professional requirements as consent to other interventions, yet is often neglected. This study explores how women experience and perceive the consent process.
methodsQualitative research in a large urban teaching hospital in London. Fifteen women who had recently undergone episiotomy were interviewed using a semi-structured interview guide and data was analysed using thematic analysis.
resultsThree themes captured women's experiences of the episiotomy consent process: 1) Missing information - "We knew what it was, so they didn't give us details," 2) Lived experience of contemporaneous, competing events - "There's no time to think about it," and 3) Compromised volitional consent - "You have no other option." Minimal information on episiotomy was shared with participants, particularly concerning risks and alternatives. Practical realities such as time pressure, women's physical exhaustion and their focus on the baby's safe delivery, constrained consent discussions. Participants consequently inferred that there was no choice but episiotomy; whilst some women were still happy to agree, others perceived the choice to be illusory and disempowering, and subsequently experienced episiotomy as a distressing event.
conclusionsConsent to episiotomy is not consistently informed and voluntary and more often takes the form of compliance. Information must be provided to women in a more timely fashion in order to fulfil legal requirements, and to facilitate a sense of genuine choice.
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