Childbirth related perineal trauma wound assessment tool development
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Childbirth related perineal trauma wound assessment tool development
IRAS ID
344143
Contact name
R K Morris
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Birmingham Women's and Children's Hospital NHS Trust
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 4 months, 31 days
Research summary
Every year in the UK, approximately 450,000 women experience a tear from giving birth vaginally. Eighty percent of women who give birth vaginally will experience a tear. This can be a tear into the skin, muscles, or tissues around the vagina and perineum (the area between the vagina and the back passage). This is called childbirth-related perineal trauma. If required, this tear is often repaired by a midwife or doctor using stitches immediately after childbirth.
Problems after a tear can include pain, infection in the area, and incontinence. These problems can lead to wider-reaching issues such as difficulty caring for the baby, mental health concerns, or longer-term issues such as difficulty having intercourse. After having a baby, general care is provided by midwives, obstetricians, gynaecologists, GPs, and other healthcare professionals, such as health visitors or physiotherapists. Many of these healthcare professionals say they lack knowledge in assessing wound healing from childbirth tears—it is important that any wound healing problems are detected quickly and accurately to prevent further complications.
Our overall aim is to develop a new wound assessment tool to assess wound healing after childbirth-related tears. We will initially do this by pooling a range of potential tool items to later be assessed for usefulness by a range of healthcare professionals. Healthcare professionals have said that for a wound assessment tool to be useful to them, they require photographs as examples of normal and abnormal healing. There are currently no photographs available for this use in an appropriate range of skin colours; therefore, our aim in this application is to take these photographs.
This study will develop a comprehensive photo library documenting wound healing up to six weeks postpartum in women of various ethnicities who have experienced perineal trauma during childbirth, capturing different healing stages.REC name
Yorkshire & The Humber - Bradford Leeds Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
24/YH/0276
Date of REC Opinion
11 Dec 2024
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion