No episiotomies anymore?!

Kristin83

Just curious if anyone else has heard this?  In our labor & delivery class the other night the teacher said these are NOT done at all anymore except for in extreme cases.  Instead they prefer you tear naturally and they use olive oil to help prevent this.  I was shocked....I just assumed episiotomies were standard procedure and that they would rather have that than someone tearing. 

As if I weren't scared enough, now I'm terrified.  I have a rare vaginal pain disorder, hence the fear about tearing.  The thought of an episiotomy was less scary for me than to think about tearing.  Because of my issue, the doctors did give me an option of a planned c-section or a vaginal delivery and I really thought I wanted to try the vaginal delivery.  Now I'm questioning if I made the right decision.  I'm going to talk to my OB more about this fear at my next appointment.