Posted by My OB said WHAT?!?.
Mar
6
Posted by My OB said WHAT?!?.
“Are You Sure That’s Not Your Vagina…”
“Are you sure that’s not your vagina? It’s so loose though.” -OB to mother while repeatedly trying to do a cervical exam and was repeatedly told by the mother that the doctor was inserting her fingers into the mother’s rectum.
There are 57 comments to this post.
Liz had this to say,
Mar 6, 2011 @ 12:13 pm (Quote)
I hope the ob changed gloves. GBS anyone? And come on basic anatomy!
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Sarah Dorrance-Minch Reply:
March 6th, 2011 at 4:29 pm (Quote)
Yet another illustration of why NOT to go along with the traditional, and totally unnecessary, routine cervical exam as part of the prenatal/birth care package. Hello? Bacteria?
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Peyton-Leigh had this to say,
Mar 6, 2011 @ 12:15 pm (Quote)
Ummm…did someone not pass Anatomy? How could you even possibly be confused by which is which, as an OB?! And there is NO WAY the patient could be confused by where she was feeling those fingers!
W O W.
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Was the OB wearing a blind fold?? WTH??!!
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Louisa Reply:
March 6th, 2011 at 3:39 pm (Quote)
that was my thoughts too, where they not looking at what they were doing?!?!?! I do admit that the m/w didn’t look “there” when they were giving me VEs when I was in labour but surely this doctor would have looked the first time mum said “I think you are in the wrong place.” And seriously, unless she has an Epidural and can’t feel a thing, a woman knows what is where and where is what.
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Elizabeth S Reply:
March 8th, 2011 at 7:51 am (Quote)
Ummm…even with an epidural, I could feel where their hands were. There would have been no mix up in that regard.
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I have a fairly good sense of my -own- anatomy to the point where I know which hole is which. I have a pretty thorough understanding when I’m looking at a birthing client what’s where without having gone to med school for it. I understood it at the first birth I saw before ever becoming a doula.
Doc, how do you NOT?!
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Jessica had this to say,
Mar 6, 2011 @ 1:26 pm (Quote)
Makes me wonder how many times she’s doomed a mom to a C section for failure to progress because she’s checking the wrong opening. And rectums, just like vaginas, come in many shapes and sizes, so I don’t understand her defense of it being “loose.”
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Michelle the OP Reply:
March 6th, 2011 at 8:33 pm (Quote)
I did end up getting a c-section, but another doctor the actual OB did the cervical exam on me. I didn’t have many cervical exams. but even the nurses who did them knew what they were doing.
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Actually, I think most of the time when I’ve had a VE, the midwife hasn’t looked at where she’s putting her hands. She’s kind of unfocused and staring off at the wall because she’s concentrating on what she can feel and, I guess, is lowering the visual stim in order to focus on her fingertips.
That doesn’t make this OB right. It makes it more bafflingly WRONG, because I cannot imagine getting that wrong.
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alice Reply:
March 6th, 2011 at 3:57 pm (Quote)
How can no-one look where they are putting thier hands during such an itimate examination. I have to agree that during an exam I am pperforming I may ‘zone out’ a little to concentrate on what I’m feeling, but I have to damn well look at what my fingers have to delicately negotiate to do said examination!
Just to add, 30+ years ago, a rectal exam to examine the cervix in labour was the norm (in the UK at least) I can’t for the life of me think why this was prefered.
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Jane Reply:
March 6th, 2011 at 4:31 pm (Quote)
Well, maybe it is I who am not looking at the start of the exam…? LOL And then by the time I look up, the midwife is staring off into space and I assume she’s been doing that all along? 
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Heather Reply:
March 7th, 2011 at 1:20 pm (Quote)
I had an OB who stood slightly to the side and looked away–it was one of the gentlest, fastest and most comfortable cervical checks I had, actually. I had progressed since my last visit, too.
He wasn’t my usual OB and I should have just switched to him right then and there. He was the assisting surgeon in my unnecesarean (my OB was out of town) and I wonder if he’d been my primary OB in labor if things would have gone differently. Who knows.
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Well, if she was wearing really thick gloves, like the scrubbing/dishwashing ones, and all the lights were out, and …..nah, just really unbelivable incompetent! And to doubt that someone knew the difference between her own vagina and rectum? Way to try to pass off the stupidity as someone else’s!
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I am still having trouble removing my eyebrows from my hairline and picking my jaw up off the ground. Seriously ….
but, having said that, didn’t Friedman (how do you spell his name) come up with that famous curve that dooms to the knife or drugs so many of us by doing rectal exams on 100 women about 100 yrs ago to gauge dilation?
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I’m so grossed out thinking this dr. probably “tried again” (it says it was done repeatedly) without changing gloves. Ewww!
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Michelle Reply:
March 6th, 2011 at 8:27 pm (Quote)
She did change her gloves the 2nd time she missed. I sorta made a joke about not wanting any cross contamination in there.
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Janice Reply:
March 7th, 2011 at 8:46 pm (Quote)
She changed her gloves the **second** time she missed? Sorry Michelle. Hugs. It sounds like it was intentional when you put it like that.
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Janice Reply:
March 7th, 2011 at 9:04 pm (Quote)
Maybe Dr. Fogelson or someone who works in L&D will pick up this thread since there might be a medical reason for a rectal exam during labour.
Even so, it’s still green walls crazy that she made that remark about your sphincter muscles. It’s the kind of explanation you give when you know that you are doing something wrong. The old ‘oops I slipped, I can’t tell the difference’, followed with the classic ‘oops I slipped again’, then concluded with a change of gloves? Nope. Not buying that it was accidental.
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Sarah Dorrance-Minch had this to say,
Mar 6, 2011 @ 4:26 pm (Quote)
Is there an eye chart anywhere close at hand, before we try to continue with this charade? Let’s start with the top letter. I think you may have difficulty seeing it clearly.
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Plumpish Older Woman had this to say,
Mar 6, 2011 @ 4:26 pm (Quote)
Or maybe the woman was larger/heavier and the examiner didn’t take care… The old “don’t treat large persons with respect” thing.
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jaed Reply:
March 7th, 2011 at 5:59 am (Quote)
Being larger doesn’t move your openings around and it doesn’t make one feel like the other, though. I have trouble visualizing how this confusion could happen even for someone who’s not paying attention.
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Michelle the OP Reply:
March 7th, 2011 at 7:46 am (Quote)
I didn’t gain much weight at all and from the back I didn’t even look pregnant. Those two things sure feel very different and I was quite sure she had the wrong hole.
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Plumpish Older Woman Reply:
March 7th, 2011 at 11:21 am (Quote)
Yes, of course, the anatomy does not move. And this may have nothing to do with the OP’s experience. But sometimes due to a variety of factors the anatomy is harder to visualize especially if the patient is on her back. That doesn’t excuse the behavior one iota–it means the care provider needed to take some extra, respectful care.
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The Deranged Housewife had this to say,
Mar 6, 2011 @ 4:50 pm (Quote)
Sounds like someone received her medical training only on dummies or anesthestized patients… whoa.
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This OB must have went to med school at the same place where my ex husband went to sex ed. He tried this one *all* the time.
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My husbands comment: Shouldnt the doc know the difference between an arse and a pussy? I would hope so…
My comment: FTLOG my husband can tell the difference in the dark, half drunk and circumcised with a rubber on. *headdesk*
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Michelle the OP Reply:
March 6th, 2011 at 8:35 pm (Quote)
That’s what I was thinking! If a guy can tell the difference in the dark, even when drunk then shouldn’t a doctor be able to tel, especially if she’s looking?
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If my husband, who does not have ANY kind of degree at all can tell the difference between a vagina and a rectum, WHY THE HECK CAN’T SOMEONE WHO HAS BEEN TO MEDICAL SCHOOL!?!?!?!?!?
I mean, even a two year old could tell you the difference between a “pee pee” and a butt!
It’s really not that difficult.
I’m glad my OB practice has a policy where EVERY cervical exam must be “chaperoned” by another staff member with a medical degree. Hopefully, the second pair of eyes in the room will prevent this….
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Devil is in the details had this to say,
Mar 7, 2011 @ 7:17 am (Quote)
THIS OB WAS A WOMAN. EXCUSE ME, BUT SHE SHOULDN’T HAVE NEEDED AN ANATOMY CLASS, SHE HAS BOTH A RECTUM AND A VAGINA HERSELF. APPARENTLY SHE HAS NO LISTENING SKILLS SINCE SHE DID THE SAME DAMN THING TWICE! GEEZ. (And they wonder why I use the name Devil is in the Details)
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i think i just threw up a little in my mouth! please tell me you sued the pants off this perverted creep!!!
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