Twitter Thread Reveals The Shocking Practice Of Slapping Women In Labour. What Is Happening?
Labour pain is the most unbearable pain a woman can experience. But what happens in a labour room is not really known to anyone, however, there is a Twitter thread that has exposed some really inhumane practices the doctors and nurses carry out inside a labour room. The Twitter thread also discusses a debate among the final-year MBBS students on whether or not it is right to slap pregnant women in labour rooms. Yes, you heard it right. The tweet exposes details that will make you furious about how doctors and nurses can be insensitive towards women during the most crucial times of their pregnancy.
The Twitter thread is by Amit Dhage who belongs to the same profession. Amit’s first tweet of the thread starts about how during the final years of MBBS, students have to witness their senior doctors and nurses abusing pregnant women in labour. The tweet states that the practice has become a wide topic of debate among MBBS students on whether such a practice is necessary. Honestly, this is not even a debatable topic. Amit Dhage also talks about the reasons that the doctors give for such a practice which was hard to believe. He writes that the justifications given by the doctors for this practice are that some women in labor fail to cooperate unless they are abused. They further also reasoned the act saying that women also “exaggerate” their pain and “hitting the women is the best way to get them focused”.
During clinical posting in labour room in final year MBBS, as we used to witness such harassment by senior doctors/nurses, it was a hot topic of debate among students. Both boys and girls were divided on whether slapping a woman during labour was necessary or unethical! (1/n) https://t.co/E7GRhWv01d
— Amit Dhage (@Amit_B_Dhage) June 26, 2022
I am sure, this was the exact time when most of us formed our strong opinions on the subject to never revisit them again. A large majority of students would get impressed by the confidence of senior residents/ nurses with which they would justify the slapping and cursing.(2/n)
— Amit Dhage (@Amit_B_Dhage) June 26, 2022
The Twitter thread also highlights that the junior doctors also go ahead with this unethical practice because they are trained to do so, and also are motivated by the senior doctors during their internships. Amit Dhage further says that if any student stands up against this practice, such students are straightaway termed as “unnecessarily sensitive”. Backing up his statement, Amit also gives an example of how he witnessed this practice in a primary health center in a tribal area of Gadchiroli but since he was the MO of that center, her could end this. Through this example, the Twitter thread also brought to light the caste biases that happen in a labour room and that nobody dares to raise a voice against it. It also states that such a bias is also witnessed in a medical college labour room.
They would say- 'Women won't cooperate during labour unless you abuse them', 'Many times women exaggerate their suffering', 'If a woman doesn't focus on attempting to push the baby out, labour gets prolonged & baby suffers', 'Hitting is the best way to get a woman to focus'(3/n)
— Amit Dhage (@Amit_B_Dhage) June 26, 2022
All of such justifications would trickle down among final yr MBBSstudents every year, every batch and they would practice the same during their internship, where senior residents/nurses would encourage abusing women. It was like we're being trained to abuse women in labor.(4/n)
— Amit Dhage (@Amit_B_Dhage) June 26, 2022
Students would further justify things saying 'You know what, that senior resident/nurse is actually a good human, it's just that this abuse is a part of their work'. Those of us, who would take stand against such abuse were termed as very (unnecessarily!) sensitive and (5/n)
— Amit Dhage (@Amit_B_Dhage) June 26, 2022
tender hearted or extremely idealistic and not practical. These debates are, I assume, that perpetually the part medical college environment, and very few would come out the 'necessity(!)' part of the debate. I remember how happy I was to realize that there was actually (6/n)
— Amit Dhage (@Amit_B_Dhage) June 26, 2022
a 'national program for safe and dignified motherhood'. I witnessed the same picture while working in a primary health center in a tribal area of Gadchiroli, I was able to change it for that time, being a MO in charge. This abuse had a different paradigm in that setting. (7/n)
— Amit Dhage (@Amit_B_Dhage) June 26, 2022
ANM and staff nurses mostly belonged to non tribal castes and served women in labor that belonged to tribal groups. There already was a cast/class bias working here, similar to the class bias that I could see in medical college labour room. (8/n)
— Amit Dhage (@Amit_B_Dhage) June 26, 2022
No resident would dare to speak in raised tone, if any local politician/influencer was associated with any woman. Even one of my distant relatives brought their daughter for delivery in our college expecting that I would be there to take care. I only stood there with her, (9/n)
— Amit Dhage (@Amit_B_Dhage) June 26, 2022
The thread ends with a clear statement that this practice has been imbibed in medical students over the years and has become a medical tradition. Calling out the practice, the Twitter thread demanded this to end.
and all of staff greeted her well and the labor was smooth, without stress and abuse. Those relatives still remember me for that time. In PHC also, I experienced a quick popularity among tribal villages for being a doctor who wouldn't hit/abuse a woman during labour.(10/n)
— Amit Dhage (@Amit_B_Dhage) June 26, 2022
Footfall increased and the PHC had the most productive year ever since it's inception. It is bitter truth that abusing a woman during labour has been a long medical tradition, more than just a routine practice and it gets normalised each year by upcoming students.This must end.
— Amit Dhage (@Amit_B_Dhage) June 26, 2022
Also Read: This Twitter Thread Underlines Why Men Need To Stop Comparing Their Experiences With Women’s. Women Live In Fear Every Day
The Twitter thread has made me furious. It is not even a debate whether this practice should be considered necessary or not. I mean justifying such an act by saying that women exaggerate their pain is the most insensitive comment coming from the doctors. Does any woman want to endure such a painful experience? Simply saying that they do not cooperate is not right, such a situation demands cooperation from the doctors and nurses instead. Are not medical practitioners encouraging abusing women as being very normal and necessary? Glad, that somebody called out this practice and gave us the real picture of what other kinds of trauma a woman goes through inside a labour room. This should definitely end.
Image courtesy: iStock
