It wasn’t the heart attack she believed she was having as she lay there on the table, bidding farewell to her husband and infant before being brought into an operating room.
Without saying a word or giving her any warning, a male doctor “ripped the placenta” out of her body.
As a nurse, Ms. Metcalf is aware that the intervention was required, even if it was quite unpleasant. She was bleeding, perhaps fatally, because she was unable to push it out normally.
She had never “seen or met this man before,” though, and she can’t get over the notion that her agreement “meant so little” during one of the most painful events of her life.
I needed to feel more than just a bystander in what was happening to my body; it felt like a violation.
Thousands of Australian women have come forward to share their stories, including Ms. Metcalf, after the federal government brought together an expert team to address what it refers to as “medical misogyny.”
Thus far, research has shown that a startling two-thirds of women across the country have experienced prejudice or bias based on their gender while receiving healthcare.
Additionally, a lot of people claim that it happens when they are most vulnerable, including during private exams or, in the case of Ms. Metcalf, during labor. Others claim that their suffering was dangerously misdiagnosed or dismissed.
For this story, the news spoke with six women. Their experiences of being called were mutual.
