While repair of the perineum may be medically necessary, an extra stitch is not, and may cause discomfort or pain. Use of the term in the medical literature can be traced to
Transactions of the Texas State Medical Association in 1885, where a doctor claimed to have performed one. The term is also referenced in
What Women Want to Know (1958), and in
The Year After Childbirth: Surviving and Enjoying the First Year of Motherhood, written by
Sheila Kitzinger in 1994. Some medical practitioners have asserted that the procedure is mostly an
urban legend, and false attribution, The
American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, according to a report by
Fatherly, does not deny that the procedure happens but alleges that it "is not standard or common". However, there are several accounts of women who claim to have undergone this procedure without their consent. There have been several journalistic investigations on the existence of the husband stitch, trying to determine if it was real. They have overwhelmingly determined that the practice does exist, as seen in reports by Chelsea Ritschel, by Anam Alam to Thred, and in reports from French newspapers
Grazia, and
Le Monde. The husband stitch has also been referenced in a 2004 study about the abuse of episiotomies in
São Paulo: Similarly, in Cambodia, the practice has been linked to high rates of episiotomy: ==Popular culture==