Posted by My OB said WHAT?!?.
Aug
17
Posted by My OB said WHAT?!?.
“Wait!! Wait!! Wait!! I’ll Get You A Sheet!”
“Wait!! Wait!! Wait!! I’ll get you a sheet!!” – OB at a 24-week checkup as the mother was about to pull up her dress so OB could use the doppler to hear baby’s heartbeat. The mother was wearing underwear.
There are 35 comments to this post.
I only look at naked vaginas all day, not clothed ones!
LOL – Obviously if mom was comfortable with it, then why wasn’t the doctor?!
They saw MUCH more as medical students, and as OB/GYN’s go they see more than most men!
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adrienne Reply:
August 17th, 2012 at 3:28 pm (Quote)
they look at naked vaginas out of perceived necessity, not for shits and giggles. only the abdomen needed to be shown at the time, so the doc wasn’t expecting anything else. my husband is a trauma nurse, blood is his profession, but when he was home and our son needed stitches, it took him completely off guard because he wasn’t in the zone, so to speak.
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Diamond C. had this to say,
Aug 17, 2012 @ 2:44 pm (Quote)
I had to chuckle at this one, because in Germany they don’t bother with sheets-if you ask for one they make a comment about American’s and their modesty. They expect you to just drop trou, without even leaving the room. So after having two babies there, I don’t even think about whether my docs here in the states have a sheet or not. I just start taking my pants off and hop on the table! : P
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Dee the Doula had this to say,
Aug 17, 2012 @ 2:45 pm (Quote)
Yeah…I don’t mean any disrespect to the OP, but this actually seems considerate. There must be some back story.
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Someone was REALLY afraid of a lawsuit.
Do you even need a sheet? Assuming dopplers are what I think they are (the mic-and-gel thing, right?) then whenever my health carers used one, it was easy enough to pull my shirt to my bra and just lower my pants to my pubic bone. So presumably the dress would be fine without and if doc really felt more comfortable with a sheet, they could drape it over the legs once the mum laid down. In which case the ‘wait wait wait’ is unnecessary.
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Laura Reply:
August 17th, 2012 at 3:59 pm (Quote)
The issue being that with a true dress, it’s all one piece, so you can’t pull one bit down and one bit up – to expose the belly you must fully expose the underwear (or what they’d cover if you weren’t wearing them), plus legs. The doctor presumably did not want that much exposure. Of course, when they saw this woman was in a dress, why not offer her a sheet BEFORE starting the topic or lead in with offering? But even so, it’s a lot easier to do the over-the-belly ultrasounds modestly with shirt-and-pants or shirt-and-skirt than a dress, and I think that’s where this OB got flustered.
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Lee Reply:
August 17th, 2012 at 7:29 pm (Quote)
ho, I absolutely agree. I think I worded my reply a lirtle badly. I meant she could flip it up as high as necessary and if the doc was bothered by the lady’s bottom half, Doc could drape the sheet over her legs then. Or, as you said, offered to hold it up before she started. Although that doesn’t make sense since when she lies down, the doc would have to join her under the hanging privacy sheet and see everything then anyway wouldn’t he? Sorry, I don’t think I’ve ever needed a sheet for an exam where I’m fully covered anyway (seems like a cultural thing from the comments) so I’m trying to wrap my head around it.
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lee Reply:
August 17th, 2012 at 7:31 pm (Quote)
*no, I’m not calling anyone a ho! lol And apologies for any other typos too.
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Laura Reply:
August 17th, 2012 at 9:13 pm (Quote)
Oh! I don’t think a hanging privacy sheet was meant. At OB appointments where there will be a VE, I’m offered a plain sheet – in some dialects I believe a drape? – to lay over myself when they’re not actually looking.
I think this doctor wanted her to put such a sheet over her undies and legs in lieu of pants/skirt.
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My first and final thoughts are that this is not something I would consider considerate. It makes me think “wtf? you deal with women and their lady regions everyday, why are you making this a big deal?” And probably make me feel a little insecure(I get extra sensitive when pregnant). Here in Germany, there’s no getting someone a sheet or most of the time walking out while the woman is undressing for that matter!
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Jespren Reply:
August 17th, 2012 at 5:37 pm (Quote)
Totally off topic but you reminded me of the German exchange students I knew in high school. We took them shopping for pants at the Gap (their request) and, impatient with the long line for the changing rooms the girl started to take her pants off to try on the new pants in the store floor. They didn’t understand when we stopped them. Apparently that was acceptable where they were from.
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paranoid android Reply:
August 18th, 2012 at 1:51 am (Quote)
No, you’d get a lot of strange looks for that in Germany as well. In a store, anyway.
This country is much more relaxed about nudity in general, though. In the summer you often see people sunbathing in their underwear on river banks and in public parks. Children under the age of three run around naked a lot. In saunas you’re expected to strip completely; there are even signs marking “textile-free zones”. Sweating with clothes on is considered unhygienic.
Breastfeeding in public isn’t a big deal either. My mom says she used to do it a lot.
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This is another one of those cultural things. I’ve lived in a few countries, and it is only in the USA where sheets, gowns etc are used. But then again, in most of the rest of the world, you dont’ get undressed and talk to the doctor in stupid gowns. Talk about embedding the power imbalance!
So, yeah, the gown / sheet thing is, in my experience, a peculiarly North American thing.
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This reminds me of something that happened to me.
When I was late in my pregnancy I wore a skirt to my ob appointment and chose to just take off my underwear for a pelvic exam instead of removing everything. I found it weird that after I sat up to talk to her (My skirt put back into place) she took the provided sheet and placed it on my lap. I was obviously more comfortable in my own clothes than with the flimsy sheet so I was puzzled.
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lys810 Reply:
August 17th, 2012 at 6:15 pm (Quote)
I wear skirts to ALL my OBGYN appointments where clothing removal might be necessary, so I only have to remove my underwear.
They ALWAYS use the sheet in addition to using my skirt to ‘cover’ everything, and always put the sheet on my lap after I sit back up, too.
I think they just don’t know what to do with themselves when people choose to remain in their clothes. They just kind of do what they always do, kwim? I don’t see it as a bad thing though, I just see it as a little extra ‘modesty protection’ lol.
I prefer it to the OB’s who insist on making you change into one of those stupid gowns, or just using the sheet.
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As a HCW (not birth-related), I would like to say that the modesty of the patient isn’t the only one that needs respecting. I am always throwing sheets and johnnies at patients who may feel perfectly comfortable without them, but they’re not the only person in the room & by default get to decide the comfort level of all. Maybe I misread the OP, but this MOBSW seems mildly annoying, not super-offensive/ignorant like most of the posts on this site.
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Well, I don’t come to read them for one day and one of mine gets put up!!
Those of you who read it as me thinking it was more humorous than anything were right on. Incidentally, this was one of the appointments I also submitted from a couple of days ago where she asked me for the THIRD time if I’d signed the waiver for TOL after cesarean. She was pretty scattered. But no, I didn’t feel disrespected or offended, other than I was like, geez, why are you acting like I’m approaching you on the street as a random stranger and flashing you? It wasn’t even the first appointment, and she’d done the PAP smear at my first prenatal, so she’d certainly seen much more of me than she was about to when I went to lift up my dress.
Also, I wasn’t like a three-year-old standing there and then lifting up. I was sitting on the table, we’d been talking for a few minutes, and I laid back and went to scoot my dress up. My legs were together hanging over the end of the table. It was even close to laundry day, so they were granny panties, at that. As I said in a reply further on up the page, and as others have mentioned, my reaction was, lady, if you’re worried about seeing my underwear, you are in trouble in a few months. What do you think you’ll be looking at when I give birth?
I just thought it was a pretty weird reaction, all things considered, including the fact that the only part of my body that was going to be exposed to listen to the heartbeat that she didn’t see if I was wearing a skirt/top or pants/top were my upper thighs, and since when does anyone get freaked out over upper thighs?
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Can I ask why you had a pap during your prenatal?
It’s not done here in the UK. I didn’t have a VE or pelvic exam during my entire pregnancy.
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Details Reply:
August 18th, 2012 at 12:24 pm (Quote)
I rec3ently learned that Ob Gyn’s lose “quality control” points from the insurance industry if a patient comes in and doesn’t get a Pap every 12 months. If it has been more than 12 months since your last one they want their gold star regardless of the increase in false positives on the actual test results. I happen to have a friend who is an RN who does these audits of the files. Yes, she is actually grading doctors on how complete their paperwork is.
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In the United States, medical professionals are trained that one of many important ways to respect patients as human (versus animal, chart, or condition) is to preserve the patient’s modesty. It sounds to me like this OB only had that in mind.
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Add Your Comment.
OP, what was the tone of voice behind this comment? Was it disgust or what? I’ve had something like this said to me and it was simply the doctor trying to protect my modesty, not at all offensive. Just wondering what the back story is here.
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Kristy Reply:
August 17th, 2012 at 2:02 pm Kristy(Quote)
Knowing it wasn’t a Thursday post I was hearing a “Ew gross, not the lady parts!!” tone of voice. I’m quite modest myself and I can imagine being very offended if the doc was suddenly acting like I was some sort of exhibitionist going out of my way to flash him.
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Tee Reply:
August 17th, 2012 at 2:55 pm Tee(Quote)
I was thinking along those same lines, Kristy. Tone of voice is so important for sites like this one!
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Stephanie Reply:
August 18th, 2012 at 9:13 am Stephanie(Quote)
She seemed totally freaked out. It wasn’t disgust, per se…more like complete and utter mortification that I would even consider pulling up a dress to expose my stomach.
Kristy is right on with how I took it–it was like she was like “holy God, lady, what are you trying to show me?!?” I’m not especially modest myself, but I was like, you ARE an OB, and my OB at that…you do realize that, considering I’m attempting a VBAC, you’ll be looking not only at but UP my vagina in a few months’ time, right? I guess I really wasn’t so much offended as I was like, what are you concerned about seeing that you don’t see at least once per day?
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Stephanie Reply:
August 18th, 2012 at 9:14 am Stephanie(Quote)
Hmm, I’m the OP and I told it to “pink my link,” but I guess it doesn’t when it’s on a reply!
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Tee Reply:
August 18th, 2012 at 2:17 pm Tee(Quote)
I have to admit that I find the whole thing a little funny! I agree with the way you think… she is an OB, you think a bare belly would be normal!
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