Awful practice of symphisiotomy - WARNING harrowing details

[schoolvolunteer]

I'm ashamed to say that I had never heard of this and am absolutely appalled that medical professionals could have carried out this butchery. The reasoning behind it too, to allow the women to be pregnant again and again and "suffer" the rite of a painful childbirth in accordance with a religious doctrine. Irish womanhood has not been served well by the Catholic church.

Please be warned that the details are excrutiating to read and relate to a procedure used during childbirth that left many women crippled and in pain. I would not have wanted to read this if I was pregnant. I think this is akin to FGM.

link here

That it horrendous. I couldn't read it all. The church has a lot to answer for

And we now know you can have more C sections anyway than they used to think so even their medical basis for doing it is now known to be wrong.

BoogieWoogie - it was considered 'better' than a caesarian because, at that time, it was considered unsafe to have more than three caesarians, and women were advised to be sterilised after three. Obviously this went against Catholic teachings on contraception, and meant that the woman wouldn't be able to have lots of babies, whereas the symphisiotomy meant she ought to be able to have plenty.

I honestly do not think that a loving God would want women to suffer and be butchered in His name. But I don't think this was about God or love - it was about religion, and men having power over women and their bodies - and it is sickening.

Those poor women. So sad. Religion has so much to answer for. Makes me very grateful for being born into a secular society.

That's barbaric. I had no idea. I could barely read much of the article in the OP, those poor women

Evil, evil bastards perpetrating horrific acts against women in the name of religion. Can they be prosecuted? They should be prosecuted.

I could never have imagined anything so barbaric - not only the procedures but the horrendous care those poor women endured after. The doctors responsible must have had something warped within them to use religion as an excuse for those atrocities.

I couldn't read it either - having had SPD in my last pregnancy, and knowing how fucking painful that was, the thought of this "operation" is making me shiver.

Utter fucking wanker bastards, to do that to women.

I couldn't finish the article. Absolutely horrific, those poor women.

I felt faint reading that. Had to go and lie down with my feet up when I got to the end.

There was such outright hatred of women in Ireland in those days and you still see it on the part of the medical 'profession' and other vested interests whose aim is to keep women in their place. Poor Savita Halappanavar who was killed by the doctors in Galway encountered exactly the same attitude that she was merely a woman, a vessel, and her life was expendable.

Ireland was worse than Afghanistan if you were a woman, and in some respects still is. I would never, ever put myself in the hands of the Irish medical profession in a hospital if I were ever pregnant. I thank God every day that my DCs were born in America and that I had my four MCs there. The woman who said vets treated animals better was dead right. Animals had value.

Unspeakable viciousness and it comes from the top down.

Good God. I don't know what to say to that. It's unbearable to read.

Fucking sick warped bastards.

Thank you for bringing this to attention OP.
It is truly horrific and I had never heard if it. I made myself read it all as these poor woman had to endure it so I feel like I should listen.
It was when one lady talked about the reason she was refered over to these butchers (they could never be subscribed as doctors to me), that there was a problem with her pelvis that would not allow a vaginal birth. That's when I realised that had I been unlucky enough to be of that time and place this would have been done to me.
I ended up with a crash section under general with my first after a 36 hour active labour. I was left too long as it was and myself and dd came close to death, I developed bad SPD in my second pregnancy most likely due to the many hours spent in stirrups trying to push dd out. They discovered after they finally delivered dd by section that my pelvis has problems with its internal shape that make a baby of any size unable to fit through (dd was a month prem and tiny, still didn't fit). I still suffer from the tramas both physical and mental of that labour now 9 years on. Next to these ladies I have not suffered at all, I simply can't imagine it and that breaks my heart.
It has maden blood run cold to realise that would have been me and from the events of dd's birth and how very, very close we both came to death (crash carts were called) neither of us would have survived this brutality.
These woman are so very brave to speak up and it chills me to think of the many woman and babies that died and can never have their voices heard.
My life has given me so much reason to hate the Catholic Church, I didn't think I could hate it more yet here we are. It troubles me greatly as I believe in the core of the church, I live the core message of the church but the organisation is just so sickeningly ugly it taints my faith.

FB -- 'like' if you support the survivors?

Horrific brutalisation of women and yet what are we going to do about

Where are the feminists why isn't this being raised in parliament

These women like the ones who's children were taken for forced adoption should get together and sue the living day lights out of church and the dr's

The way it's done in Ireland is a fund is set up in hopes that throwing a little money at them will shut them up, and nobody talks about it.

A little money fuck that it's a human rights violation

I bet a good soliciter could argue on the basis to a family life you can't have one if some arsehole has damaged you beyond repair like this and even sexual discrimination

Come on Mumsnet here's a good cause if we can't stand bounty reps in maternity wards what about this ?

They are: www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-26563124

Interesting that that BBC story refers to it as '...widening' a woman's pelvis - that is such a sanitised and benign way to describe the procedure!

Yes "widening" doesn't begin to describe it does it? Really minimises the brutal truth. Perhaps that's why many of us haven't heard about it before. Prissy reporting about "wimmin's troubles"

It's a shame there isn't a comments section on that page, otherwise I'd have complained about their choice of wording.

Not read the article as too squeamish but I do know what it is. It's fucking barbaric and anybody who does ought to be struck off in this day and age when perfectly caesarians can be carried out. This procedure is carried out by sadists who hate women.

*perfectly safe CS

There is no more entrenched or powerful or conservative group in Ireland than the medical profession.