Perineums

Everyone has heard a story of a birth where the perineum was "tight" and just wouldn't stretch to allow the head to be fully born, and the midwife (or doctor) just had to either cut an episiotomy (it makes me wince to even consider) or massage it back around the baby's head.

Does this make biological sense? This makes as much sense as saying that a baby won't breath properly if not suctioned. ???? Um, no.

Any perineum that hasn't been mutilated by FGM will stretch as needed to birth a baby. Perhaps those women who have these so called 'tight' perineums need to be given more privacy, perineums unobserved, to give birth.

Sort of how our vaginas are soft and open up to our lover's touch but tense up when a stranger inserts a speculum.