4.1 Outlook
Episiotomy rates vary globally from 9.7% in Sweden to 100% in Taiwan[6]. Some countries have succeeded in dropping their episiotomy rates in the early 21st century, for instance, the United States managed to reduce episiotomy rates from 60.9% in 1979 to 24.5% in 2004[3]. In 2003, the incidence of episiotomy was 13% in England, and 16.3% in Scotland[6]. It appears that episiotomy rates are particularly high in the Middle East, the region of our study. Oman has an episiotomy rate of 66%[7], while in Lebanon, the rate was found to be 73.3% in 2014[8]. In Nigeria the episiotomy rate was 46.6% in 1998[10].