To have never heard of a Symphysiotomy before?

[idsisatwat]

I’ve just read this article in the guardian www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2014/dec/12/symphysiotomy-irelands-brutal-alternative-to-caesareans#comments

Am absolutely horrified by what went on. These poor women are being denied compensation unless they have to agree that the operation was safe and nobody was to blame.

[agnurse]

I have heard of it before. Thankfully I have never seen one. I was taught that they should really only be used as an absolute last resort in severe shoulder dystocia that can't be resolved after you have tried everything. I have seen the odd shoulder dystocia but NEVER one that got that bad.

[StarbucksSmarterSister]

I hadn't either, until I read an article a few years ago. It makes me want to cry to think about those poor women. It's fucking barbaric.

[bobstersmum]

Absolutely bloody terrible it's like something out of Saw!

[Jozxyqk]

I read that article a couple of years ago, when someone on MN linked it. I had to hide the thread in the end. There was a more detailed article, if I remember correctly, in one of the other papers. Absolutely horrifying what those women went through in the name of religion.

[ItWentInMyEye]

Jesus Christ. Those poor women.

[idsisatwat]

It’s absolutely terrible. Those poor women.
The whole thing is horrific - the actual operation sounds like something from a horror film, as you say bobstersmum But they didn’t even tell them what was happening, or what the side effects would be.

[unintentionalthreadkiller]

I'm speechless. That's barbaric.

[Mirrorwriting]

Oh my God. I thought I’d heard it all.

At the time, the established medical consensus was that having more than three caesarean sections was dangerous, and that further pregnancies would have to be stopped by sterilisation or contraception. Spain considered this unacceptable... so instead they ripped women open.

... this was a mass medical experiment, and the doctors didn’t really study the long-term side-effects. In many cases it destroyed lives.

These operations were covert, and the women were generally not informed it was going to happen

[TheFairyCaravan]

I can’t begin to think of the pain those women went through.

I’ve had 8 surgeries on my pelvis so far because of the severe SPD and diastasis symphysis pubis I suffered. I was unable to walk when I was pregnant with DS2 and it’s thought the damage was done when DS1 was born with a ventouse.

My pelvic specialist says I should never have given birth vaginally but its too late now the damage is done.

[dubdurbs]

My grandmother was subjected to a symphysiotomy when my father was born. He had already been delivered, with no problems, when she was told she would have a "little procedure to help with possible future pregnancies" as she had had a geriatric pregnancy. Her mother had to move in with them to help look after my infant father as Nan was basically incapacitated for the first few years of his childhood. She never had another successful pregnancy, and suffered all her life with with excruciating pain. I think it's a lot more common than first reported, but sadly so many of these women have passed away, or suffered in ignorance of what truly happened to them at what should have been one of the happiest times of their lives.

[Hoopaloop]

How can it be reasonable or unreasonable whether you have heard of a word?

[Wowzel]

This is just awful :(

Those poor women.

I am so grateful that I had an emergency c section and not one of these.

[chocnvino]

omg, I have no words

[samewitches]

I read this and was shocked that Mary went on to have 3 more children, but then realised that she probably didn't have much choice in the matter other than complete abstinence and as a young woman with a husband that probably wasn't much of an option for her either .

[ElMarineroBaila]

Disgraceful. The sooner we get rid of all this fucking religious nonsense the better. I can't stand the thought that any woman has to go through hell, and literally be SAWN OPEN because someone believes in a magical sky fairy.

[TheFairyCaravan]

Those women will have felt their pelvises grinding as they limped along. They would have felt them moving as they moved. How they had more children, or even intercourse, is beyond me.

They will have been expected to get on with the chores too because there was no benefits and it was “women’s work”. Of course everything was so much harder back then too, no washing machines, hoovers, cars or online supermarket deliveries.

I’m so angry for them. It’s horrendous what they’ve been through.

[FermatsTheorem]

I read about it after a thread on here a few years ago, like a PP. it's horrific. Dub - your grandmother - after giving birth successfully they did that to her for no fucking reason at all.

[Pebblespony]

It's pretty depressing (and enraging) reading all the ways Ireland managed to fuck women over in the past. Hope we take a step forward today.

[4GreenApples]

I heard about this on Woman’s Hour on Radio 4 a few years ago.

It sounded utterly horrific and barbaric. And I couldn’t imagine how, medically speaking, tearing women open like this could possibly be better for future childbearing than a c-section would be.

[idsisatwat]

dub your poor grandmother. The doctors should be charged with gbh. It makes you think about the mindset of the medical professionals who actually carried this out, as surely they’d be aware of the consequences?

In the comments section , there’s a link to another article about it. It’s grim reading but has some accounts by women that were given to the UN
www.thejournal.ie/symphysiotomy-uncat-1356352-Nov2014/

[FermatsTheorem]

Fucking hell, dsisatwat, those first person accounts! How could doctors do something so obviously evil? (I know that occasionally the procedure is used on women who cannot be got to a hospital, where both mother and baby will die if it's not performed, but to do it for any other reason...)

[Shampooeeee]

Bloody hell, that’s horrific. So recent too.

I have a couple of friends who are English and live in Dublin. I honestly can’t imagine why a woman of childbearing age would want to live in Ireland (apart from growing up there, family ties, etc).

[earlybirdhasanap]

This is fucking awful. I'd never heard of it before.

[Pebblespony]

Jesus, that was hard to read.

[emmyrose2000]

I'd never heard of this until now. Bloody hell! It's utterly barbaric. Those poor women.

Disgraceful. The sooner we get rid of all this fucking religious nonsense the better. I can't stand the thought that any woman has to go through hell, and literally be SAWN OPEN because someone believes in a magical sky fairy
Exactly! It's no wonder I loathe religion, especially Catholicism, when I read horrific things like this.