Abstract
Aim
To investigate the effectiveness of interventions to prevent the occurrence of perineal
trauma in parturients.
Methods
A bibliographic search was carried out in Cochrane Library, MEDLINE via PUBMED, LILACS
via Virtual Health Library (VHL), Embase, Scopus, CINAHL, Scielo, Web of Science,
and PEDro databases. Randomized clinical trials evaluating the effects of any intervention
to prevent perineal trauma during pregnancy and/or childbirth were included. There
were no temporal or language restrictions. The risk of bias assessment was performed
using the Revised Cochrane Risk-of-bias Tool for Randomized Trials.
Results
Fifty studies, with a total of 17,221 participants, were included in this meta-analysis. No intervention during childbirth was effective for the prevention of perineal
trauma (RR = 1.07, 95% CI [0.98.1.18], p < 0.01, I2 = 83%) when compared to no intervention. However, a lower risk of perineal laceration
was verified with techniques performed during pregnancy, when compared to no intervention
(RR = 0.81, 95% CI [0.71, 0.93], p = 0.05, I2 = 47%). Among them, highlight the effects of perineal massage in preventing lacerations
(RR = 0.69, 95% CI [0.54, 0.87], p < 0.01) when compared to no intervention.
Conclusions
The techniques performed during pregnancy, especially perineal massage, are associated
with a lower risk of perineal laceration.
Keywords
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: February 17, 2023
Accepted:
February 11,
2023
Received in revised form:
February 7,
2023
Received:
October 18,
2022
Identification
Copyright
© 2023 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
