Following a 2005 policy, episiotomy rates have reduced in France without an overall increase in anal sphincter injuries during labor, with more research needed to confirm the safest rate of episiotomies and the risks to specific subgroups

In your coverage, please use this URL to provide access to the freely available paper in PLOS Medicine : http://journals.plos.org/plosmedicine/article?id=10.1371/journal.pmed.1004501

Article title: Episiotomies and obstetric anal sphincter injuries following a restrictive episiotomy policy in France: An analysis of the 2010, 2016, and 2021 National Perinatal Surveys

Author countries : France, Switzerland

Funding: The French national perinatal surveys (ENP) were supported by the Ministry of Health (Direction de la Recherche, des Etudes, de l’Evaluation et des Statistiques (DREES), Direction Generale de la Sante (DGS), and the Direction Generale de l’Organisation des Soins (DGOS)), and, in 2010, by the Fonds d’Intervention en Sante publique, and in 2016 and 2021 by Sante publique France. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.

PLOS Medicine

10.1371/journal.pmed.1004501

Observational study

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Competing interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.