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drgonzo90 t1_izs9ya5 wrote

Not sure if this is exactly the history you wanted, but here's a quote from Robert Caro's biography of Lyndon Johnson:

“During the 1930s, the federal government sent physicians to examine a sampling of Hill Country women. The doctors found that, out of 275 Hill Country women, 158 had perineal tears,” Caro says, citing the the results of a study that noted, “many of them third-degree ‘tears so bad that is difficult to see how they stand on their feet.’”

I'm not sure how/if you'd be able to find the original study, but it sounds like at least in this area of Texas the midwives weren't doing any stitching.

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BooksIsPower t1_izuz6ea wrote

Wow do you remember what this had to do with LBJ?

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Thanatikos t1_izviceo wrote

I think it’s in a chapter that focuses on how hard life was for people, particularly women in the region of Texas that LBJ represented.

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Original_Amber t1_iztmn3q wrote

Perhaps the women didn't want any more kids and this was one way to discourage their men from wanting to have sex.

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scorpiopath_ t1_iztz2yu wrote

Hard to believe they wouldn’t be in constant pain and discomfort

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