Not sure if this is exactly the history you wanted, but here's a quote from Robert Caro's biography of Lyndon Johnson:
“During the 1930s, the federal government sent physicians to examine a sampling of Hill Country women. The doctors found that, out of 275 Hill Country women, 158 had perineal tears,” Caro says, citing the the results of a study that noted, “many of them third-degree ‘tears so bad that is difficult to see how they stand on their feet.’”
I'm not sure how/if you'd be able to find the original study, but it sounds like at least in this area of Texas the midwives weren't doing any stitching.
drgonzo90 t1_izs9ya5 wrote
Reply to A question on the history of perineal stitches after giving birth by Endorion
Not sure if this is exactly the history you wanted, but here's a quote from Robert Caro's biography of Lyndon Johnson:
“During the 1930s, the federal government sent physicians to examine a sampling of Hill Country women. The doctors found that, out of 275 Hill Country women, 158 had perineal tears,” Caro says, citing the the results of a study that noted, “many of them third-degree ‘tears so bad that is difficult to see how they stand on their feet.’”
I'm not sure how/if you'd be able to find the original study, but it sounds like at least in this area of Texas the midwives weren't doing any stitching.