Opinion: There Is No Such Thing As Birth Rape

The cure...DON'T HAVE BABIES. That's your choice. Live with it.

i'LL REMEMBER THAT AT THE NEXT TRIP TO THE PROCTOLIGIST..SILLY COW

As a former labor and delivery nurse, you ought to know better.

I had my first child at 17 and at the time did not have medical insurance of any kind. I paid for all my Dr. visits with the help of my family and my child's father's family. Because I was underage and assumed to be on welfare due to lack of insurance the physicians thought it would be okay to have students and residents in the room with me while I was delivering my daughter. I told them this was not alright with me and they did not have my permission and they informed me there was a paragraph in the admission paperwork that allows them to observe so they completely disregarded my objections. I was screaming at them to get out, imagine 7-9 complete strangers huddled around my lower body as I gave birth at a very young age. This experience was very traumatic to me and really dampered what should have been a beautiful moment. I was young and scared to death as it was and here were all these strangers standing around watching and making comments. Some even joking saying "that will teach her to spread her legs at such a young age." I ended up taking the Dr's and hospital to court and won a settlement. However, I would never refer to this situation as "Rape".

To me rape is something completely different and to compare a traumatic childbirth experience to rape is unbelievable. I agree that these two types of occurances are both very traumatic but they are also very different from one another.

Yes, this issue needs to be addressed because there are a lot of invasions of privacy during childbirth but also during many medical procedures so people should chose their words carefully and they should not try to "sex up" what is a very traumatic experience.

I don't know what term will do for the procedure I'm having next month, but after I have my colon scoped I'm guessing that forced anal probing might suffice?
Is everyone a freaking victim nowadays? Stuff happens. You pick up and you go on.

that is the stupidest thing ive ever heard! how is a doctor sticking his fingers in a womens vagina during labor wrong?! how are they supposed to know how far dilated you are? i didnt enjoy at all during my labor, but i knew it was necessary! so is a pap smear also wrong and considered "rape"?

What are you doing in nursing? Have we become so PC in this country that now a doctor sticking his finger in your vaginal area to see if you are dialated now constitutes sexual harrassment? Go back to school and try another profession! Your comment is so stupid and so unprofessional!

Excuse me...dilated

Wow, Heather, you must've seen that episode of Family Guy where Peter sued his doctor for doing a prostate exam! Shame on you, unless you're just a troll who deliberately posted this to get things stirred up. I'm also an OB/GYN nurse with over 20 years experience, and in all those years I have NEVER seen ANYTHING that would even remotely be considered rape. Medicine sometimes involves an invasion of privacy and procedures that may be uncomfortable or even embarassing, but it is NOT rape.

Heather, you're full of crap. I don't believe FOR A SECOND that you are a nurse -- just some nutjob with an agenda who thought claiming to be a nurse would make her sound legit. All it did was make you seem even more ignorant (as in ill-informed, not as in rude). THERE IS NO WAY THAT AN INTERNAL EXAM OR AN UNEXPECTED C-SECTION EQUATES TO RAPE!!
AMY -- I could feel my chest and face getting red with ANGER as I read your post, not because of your point, but because of the inane argument that there is such a thing as birth rape. Thank you for this post. It was thoughtful, well-written, and from someone who experienced the unexpected shock of an emergency C-section, which certainly lends credence to your comments. Vaginal/internal exams are part of any birth that is expected to occur vaginally, to assess progress, and to identify potential problems. C-sections are necessary sometimes (yes, SOME drs. are too quick to jump to that, but others simply want to save an infant and a mother). If you are concerned about the possibility of your dr. being too quick to jump to a C-section, ask ahead of time his/her policies, under what circumstances, how much input you can have, etc. If you don't like the answers, get another dr. In fact, these are questions you should ask of your OB/GYN if you are CONSIDERING getting pregnant, so that you can switch before the pregnancy, not mid-stream. Despite how things may have been when you were growing up, you don't always get what you want in this world. If you WANTED a vaginal delivery, but NEEDED an emergency C-section -- be happy that you have a healthy baby and that you survived. That's much more important. If you feel that things could have gone differently, find a different OB/GYN for your next child. Using a stupid term like birth rape COMPLETELY dimishes what actual rape victims have gone through.
TO THE GIRL WHO WAS YOUNG AND HAD THE INSENSITIVE DR AND MED STUDENTS: I'm very sorry you went through that. It's appalling that that happened, and that such ignorant comments were not chastised immediately. I go to a teaching hospital for my gyne care, as I had had problems that could not be identified, even after surgery, by my other gyne. My new dr. was able to look at the pics from the surgery, as well as feel a thickness where I complained of pain (my first dr. said he couldn't feel anything). Because I was a rather "interesting" case (you never want to be an "interesting patient" :-) ), my dr. ASKED if med students could come in while he examined me. It was a teaching hospital, and I'm sure I signed something somewhere that said I agreed, but I was asked nonetheless. I said yes, so that others could learn from my experiences. Even though it was embarrassing, the students were very professional. If they hadn't been, I'm sure my dr. would have kicked them right out! What happened to you was WRONG, and I'm so sorry you had to go through it.
TO THE NUMBER OF WOMEN WHO ARE CONTRIBUTING WHO HAVE BOTH BEEN RAPED AND HAD CHILDREN: God bless you! You are very strong. Thank you very much for your contributions. Only you are truly in a position to comment here.

Bottomline, I think we live in too cushy a world at this point, when we have to look for problems. Women in some countries are being raped regularly,. and then sometimes killed by their own family for bringing "shame" on the family. And here, where we have so much, we create a whiny problem such as birth rape.

I sure am glad you weren't MY nurse. Blood boil? Sorry but the doctor doesn't FORCE his fingers inside a women. S/he has to check for dialation of the cervix (remember that Nurse Heather?) and feel to check the baby's well-being. Such acts are part of the process and they are NOT rape! The author of the article is quite correct in stating that comparing these things to an actual rape is demeaning to those who have been raped! As I health official I'd think you'd know the difference. Disgusting, this supporting of "everyone is a victim" if things dont go exactly as one envisioned it to go. Boo hoo!

Thank you for saying that Heather. I had two babies and felt very uncomfortable about the amount of people who had their hands up me during my labor. At one point someone had their hand up my vagina when someone else swung the door open for the world to see me (which included a janitor mopping the hallway) just to ask the nurse if she wanted some soup from the cafeteria. I was embarassed but helpless. I was even warned about the roving doctor who loved to come in and check on other doctor's patients. I think they finally got rid of him. Hospitals should really be more considerate of a woman's need for privacy during an event that could be blissful or disasterous.

I do agree that forcible vaginal penetration is never apropriate. But I don't see where an internal vaginal exam, while standard practice and care for pregnancy and assessing stages of dilation, is considered RAPE.
Pregnancy is not an illness. It is a natural process that is painful for a reason. I believe that epidurals are used way to much and should not be a part of the labor process. Mother of 5 all delivered naturally without drugs. It can be done. I am the biggest chicken when it comes to pain and procedures, YET, I practiced the techniques for Lamaze during my pregnancy and discovered I could control the discomfort of labor with my focus and breathing. Way healthier for mom and new baby. Save the drugs and intrusive interventions for emergencies.
A doctor / NP/Midwife would never professionally force an exam. If they did, they should be prosecuted through the state's licensing board and courts. 'Nuf said

Heather: Did you read the article? No one said anything about "forcing" - the phrase used was vaginal exam during labor.

You're an idiot. What if the baby has the umbilical cord wrapped around its neck? Should the doctor really take the time to ask if its okay to put his hand in there to remove it? I highly doubt you were a nurse of you would have thought of this already.

heather......the Delivery doctor put his fingers up my cervix because i wasnt dialating and stretched my cervix to 2 centimeters (mind you i had been in labor for over 12 hrs and no dilation). This is exactly what she was supposed to do. she made it able for me to get a epidural and thats not rape. if you were a real nurse you'd know what rape is and isnt. There is a very clear, concise line between sexual assault and a vaginal exam. what an idiot!

You, Heather, are a fool. It's scary to think you are a nurse. Obviously, you have never been violently raped (I have) or you would know the difference between it and a medical exam. I've had a couple rough exams over the years, but the big difference you seem to overlook is that an exam is voluntary. Certainly being in a hospital to give birth is voluntary. And it's NO surprise situation that expecting mothers get examined a lot. It seems to me that women are getting more and more STUPID about having babies. Birth always has been a violent and painful process, even in the best of circumstances. This is just another whine by a whiny generation.

Hey! As a person who has common sense I will say when you go to a hospital in order to give birth, your vagina is fair game! :O

Thrusting my fingers into a pregnant womans vagina AT THE PARK for a medical exam is sexual assault, a pregnant woman about to give birth at the hospital when you've spent the past 12+ years of your life dedicated to birthing babies is not a rape.

"HOW MUCH LONGER?!?" Wanna know? It involves a doctor touching your vagina. The end.

Did you even READ the article? That's not what it's talking about. Moronic comment.