How did anyone think this was ever acceptable?!

This came as a complete and utter shock to me. The fact that this would even pass as remotely ok is beyond my comprehension. And it's apparently standard practice in Canadian teaching hospitals. Bad Moms Club ranted about this yesterday and I have to weigh in.

Apparently:

(being a woman) + (being unconscious due to surgery) = possible nonconsensual pelvic exam

Yes, you read that right. It is entirely possible if you've had surgery in a teaching hospital that you may have had a number of medical students poking around in your girly parts. This happens REGULARLY! And it's not occuring to the medical community that anything is wrong with that?! A woman needs to give implicit consent for that to happen, in my opinion. Does this not sound a bit rape-y to anyone else?

From the Globe and Mail article:

"The long-standing argument in favour of allowing these exams to be done on surgery patients is that it provides a unique opportunity for students to practice the delicate, invasive examination without causing the woman pain or embarrassment.

There is also an assumption that women would never accept pelvic exams by students while conscious so sneaking them in, while not ideal, is acceptable."

This, to me, is also a glaring example of why the medical community needs to operate more as midwives do. Midwifery is all about informed consent, whereas doctors and the medical community seem to operate under the mindset of "just do this because I know best." Some of it is a lack of time doctors have, but it leads to a much bigger issue overall.

But, I digress...

I still just flabbergasted over this. Here is a link to an open letter regarding these practices. Please leave your comment as a show of support to getting this policies changed - and changed NOW. This is nowhere near the realm of 'OK'.