Detailed instructions can be found in Pregnancy, Childbirth and the Newborn by Simkin, Whalley, and Keppler on pp 204-5. They are too long for me to type in here. Perineal massage does help to reduce tearing, but your best bet in that respect is to have a caregiver who rarely does episiotomies, to ease the head out in between contractions, and to give birth with legs comfortably apart, not so wide apart that the perineum, the tissue between the vagina and the anus, is already at full stretch.
-- Henci |