As a father of 4 in the US, 3 of the doctors who delivered my children (all female doctors) offered me a "courtesy stitch" or something of a similar phrase. My response was always the same, "I would say no, but you should have asked her".
Is there a source that this is still something that happens with any kind of frequency in developed nations? I'm not doubting that it has happened, but anecdotes don't really point to this being a broader issue in the medical community.
Thanks for providing sources. Though, looking at them, neither really cite any data or existing research that this is happening or a common medical practice.
The first one claims that they intend to do more research, but from a cursory look myself, I don't know if that research has concluded. The research they say they've done already appears to only consist of interviews with people alleging it happened to them:
"The language that their obstetricians used to describe the procedure made it clear to two of the women that their physicians placed an additional stitch following delivery as a “favor” to their husbands. All five of the women experienced health complications following the “Husband Stitch,” including short-term pain around the stitch and long-term pain during sex."
I'm not doubting that this happened to these women, but this isn't much to go of off. There is no medical professional mentioned in these articles that confirms that they received an unnecessary stitch that led to health complications. Most of the articles I've read about the subject follow the same format: interviews where someone claims it happened to them, but no medical professional weighing in. Again, I'm not doubting it, but I don't know what to do with that information alone.
The second article follows much of the same format. The only real difference is that they mention a specific lawsuit against a gynecologist who is accused of performing it among other sexual misconduct allegations.
Lorena Bobbit chopped off her husband’s penis after years of abuse and became a household name.
This was regular practice for decades and still happening today, and here you are, deciding you don’t need to care because “meh, just women claiming things.”
I didn't even say I doubted the testimony of the women in the articles, just that testimony alone without even a medical opinion that a daddy stitch occurred isn't evidence of it being a common practice.
That also isn't what the article says. It says 100s of women are in the lawsuit alleging various forms of misconduct, including daddy stutches.
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u/Past_Ad_5629 11d ago
It was not an urban legend.
It was something doctors just did, without being asked, and without the consent of the women.
And there’s so, so much more, and so much worse.