Primiparous Women's Understanding of Episiotomy Wound Management at Chengalpet Hospital

Abstract

The objective of the study is to assess knowledge of perineal self-care practices on an episiotomy wound among primiparous women and to identify the association between knowledge of perineal self-care practices and selected sociodemographic variables. During this critical recovery window, postnatal mothers routinely experience a combination of severe physical and emotional discomforts that can significantly compromise their overall quality of life. A primary driver of maternal exhaustion is acute sleep deprivation, which is continuously exacerbated by the unpredictable, round-the-clock feeding demands of a newborn infant. This baseline exhaustion is frequently worsened by external environmental factors, such as an influx of well-meaning household visitors and persistent ambient noise, both of which strip the mother of their opportunities for restorative rest. Compounding this severe fatigue is the acute, localized physical pain originating from a perineal episiotomy wound. For a first-time mother, this localized surgical discomfort transforms basic daily movements—such as sitting, walking, changing positions, and comfortably nursing the infant—into major physical challenges, heavily intensifying the psychological stress and feelings of helplessness. In developing nations like India, these universal postpartum challenges are heavily magnified by deep-rooted sociocultural barriers and systemic gender inequalities. Within these traditional family frameworks, young primiparous women often possess very limited autonomy over their own lives, finding themselves completely dependent on their husbands and older family elders for essential healthcare decisions. This lack of personal agency, combined with widespread maternal illiteracy and a lack of access to community health resources, creates a dangerous knowledge gap. Many women remain entirely unaware of the immense clinical benefits of structured postpartum hygiene. Consequently, maternal health conditions frequently deteriorate across rural communities, driven by the cumulative strain of frequent pregnancies, associated maternal illnesses, and preventable secondary infections localized at the unhealed episiotomy site. The methodology of the present study was a non-experimental descriptive research design. The sample for this study consists of 30 primiparous women with episiotomy wounds at Chengalpattu Government Hospital. A purposive sampling technique was used for the sample selection. The tools used for data collection standard tool consist of two parts: part one was socio-demographic data, and part two was perineal self-care practices on an episiotomy wound questionnaire. Descriptive statistics (frequency, percentage) and inferential statistics (Chi-square) were used to analyze the data and to test the hypothesis. To assess knowledge of perineal self-care practices on episiotomy wounds among primiparous women with their selected demographic variables. The results showed that 3(10%) had adequate knowledge on perineal self-care, 19(63%) had moderate knowledge on perineal self-care, and 8(27%) had inadequate knowledge on perineal self-care. The recording showed no significant associations between knowledge of perineal self-care practices on the episiotomy wound among primiparous women. The demographic variables showed that age (X2 =2.345), parity (X2 =0.78), educational status (X2 =1.2836), place of residence (X2 =0.993), history of present illness (X2 =3.439), birth weight of the baby (X2 =3.322), types of episiotomy (X2 =0.390), occupation (X2 =4.906) types of family (X2 =5.624), body built (X2 =2.837), indication of episiotomy (X2 = 1.661) these demographic variables showed there in statistically significant association of knowledge on perineal selfcare practices.