One of the things that women fear the most is damage being done during the birth of your baby. Tears are classed by severity, and involve different layers of the skin and muscle

  First degree tear

  A first degree tear is when the vaginal and perinial skin are affected. Often, no treatment is needed.

  Second degree tear

  A second degree tear is when the muscle of the perinium is damaged. This will require stitches, and often a pudendal block is given to stop the discomfort of this.

  Third degree tear

A third degree tear is when the tear goes right up to the outside of the anus. Often this will be stitched under general anesthetic or epidural.

A forth degree tear

Forth degree tear is when the tear has gone right through to the back passage This too, is done under a general anesthetic or epidural.

Episiotomy

An episiotomy   is when the midwife makes a cut to allow the baby's head to be born, and is often done if the birth is happening very fast or speed delivery if the baby is significantly   distressed. Natural tears heal better than episiotomys, so if you want to avoid one, make sure you tell your midwife. There are two types of episiotomy cut the mid line cut and the medio-lateral cut. The midline cut - is a cut going straight down the perinium. The medio-lateral cut - is a cut that goes at an angle from the vagina and perinium, into the surrounding muscle. Often a pudendal block will be given before this type of cut, unless you have had an epidural.