I read an interesting debate over on Boston.com regarding male delivery nurses and male obstetricians in general. On the site, many women felt that male lady-part doctors are on the outs as far as the cringe-factor goes.
I had my first gynecological appointment around the time I turned seventeen. My first few gynos were women and, now that I think about it, my first gyno was a lesbian. I didn’t care. It didn’t bother me. Granted, the first time is always a little strange and uncomfortable (yeah, as if the subsequent visits aren’t, right?), but I was totally cool with the doctor being a lesbian chick. The first time I actually had a male give me an internal exam was when I was pregnant. Even weirder, he was my husband’s best friend’s father, but it’s not like his name was Seymour Bush or something. I’ll never forget that particular experience. He congratulates us on the baby, asks how the hubby’s parents are and proceeds to stick half of his hand up my ass as “protocol.” The experience was a little odd, yes, but primarily due to the fact that he was a semi-friend of the family.
Throughout my pregnancy, I saw this doctor off and on and gradually became more comfortable with this man checking out my nether-regions. It was imperative services and services rendered. Like anything else, if you’re exposed to it enough, you get used to it.
When it came time for my daughter to come into the world, I was notified that a midwife would be delivering her. At that particular point in time, I wouldn’t have cared if Sean Connery himself delivered the baby, I just wanted the child out. Three hours or so into labor, the baby starts to come hard and fast. However, despite my pushing and the midwife’s insistence that the baby was coming, each push and release only suctioned her back into my uterus, kind of like the soap that squeezes through your hands in the shower, but only in reverse. They brought in a tiny little man of a doctor, whom I had never met before. He told me as lucidly as possible that if I didn’t begin to try harder, that I would have to go in for an emergency Cesarean section, which I totally did not want. I began to push and push and this little Asian man did things to my vagina that I never thought could be physiologically done. After pushing and pulling (on my part and the doctor’s part, respectively), my little bundle of joy entered the world.
At the risk of being offensive, I think the women who are this particular about what gender delivers their child to be a bit, well, retarded. As far as this “big debate” goes, I think these particular women have entirely too much time on their hands. Do they really care that much or are they just seasoned pros at childbirth and it’s almost like upgrading to first-class after your first thirty flights or something?
Equally at the risk of sounding male chauvinistic, I wonder how a female car mechanic would feel if a man brought his car to her garage for repair and upon seeing that his mechanic was a woman, decided to go elsewhere.
What do you ladies think? Is it truly that big a deal?