By far the most common injury during a vaginal delivery is perineal tearing (aka tearing in the space between the opening of your vagina and the opening of your rectum). GOOD NEWS!! There is strong evidence that you can reduce the risk of grade III and grade IV (the most severe) tears by starting to implement perineal massage during your third trimester.

FYI: there currently is NOT strong evidence for allowing a health care practitioner to practice perineal massage when you are actively delivering. What I recommend instead to help reduce tearing risk is asking your midwife/nurse/OB to use warm compresses on the perineum. The heat helps muscles lengthen and increases blood flow to the area

You also can ask to use a hand-held mirror (or bring your own with you) to look at your pelvic floor during pushing to get visual feedback of what the muscles are doing. Making sure you see the muscles relaxing/lengthening when you are pushing vs tightening up can help reduce the total time of labor and decrease tearing risk