2.2 Study sample
There were a total of 1731 vaginal deliveries during the four-month period of the study. All patients who delivered vaginally after 24 weeks gestation were included in the study. Patients who delivered before completing 24 intrauterine weeks, which by hospital protocol is considered an abortion, and those whose episiotomy status was undocumented in hospital records were excluded.
Based on the exclusion criteria, 186 patients were excluded from the study. A total of 1545 patients were therefore included in the study.