Table 3.
Quantitative parameters assessed during pregnancy and after childbirth.
| During pregnancy (n = 99) |
Spontaneous delivery (n = 61) |
Vacuum extraction (n = 19) |
Cesarean section (n = 19) |
||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Mean value (s.d.) |
Mean value (s.d.) |
p-value* |
Mean value (s.d.) |
p-value* |
Mean value (s.d.) |
p-value* | |
| LAM contraction | 2.96 (1.05) | 2.75 (1.20) | 0.45 | 2.82 (1.19) | 0.60 | 2.97 (1.09) | 0.96 |
| (Oxford score 0-5) | |||||||
| Length of introitus (cm) | 2.85 (0.58) | 2.93 (0.61) | 0.407 | 2.88 (0.69) | 0.83 | 2.75 (0.77) | 0.10 |
| Length of perineum (cm) | 3.77 (0.80) | 2.96 (0.59) | 0.0018 | 2.78 (0.53) | 0.001 | 3.06 (0.47) | 0.0029 |
| Thickness of M. *sphincter ani ext. (cm) | 0.83 (0.17) | 0.79 (0.15) | 0.248 | 0.78 (0.16) | 0.23 | 0.83 (0.19) | 1.00 |
| Thickness of M. sphincter ani int. (cm) | 0.20 (0.06) | 0.21 (0.08) | 0.611 | 0.21 (0.07) | 0.51 | 0.19 (0.06) | 0.50 |
LAM - Levator ani muscle, * t-test comparison against values during pregnancy; bold numbers: significant difference with p < .05