Thread by @Amit_B_Dhage

During clinical posting in labour room in final year MBBS, as we used to witness such harassment by senior doctors/nurses, it was a hot topic of debate among students. Both boys and girls were divided on whether slapping a woman during labour was necessary or unethical! (1/n)

https://twitter.com/RemaNagarajan/status/1540883359454244864

I am sure, this was the exact time when most of us formed our strong opinions on the subject to never revisit them again. A large majority of students would get impressed by the confidence of senior residents/ nurses with which they would justify the slapping and cursing.(2/n)

They would say- 'Women won't cooperate during labour unless you abuse them', 'Many times women exaggerate their suffering', 'If a woman doesn't focus on attempting to push the baby out, labour gets prolonged & baby suffers', 'Hitting is the best way to get a woman to focus'(3/n)

All of such justifications would trickle down among final yr MBBSstudents every year, every batch and they would practice the same during their internship, where senior residents/nurses would encourage abusing women. It was like we're being trained to abuse women in labor.(4/n)

Students would further justify things saying 'You know what, that senior resident/nurse is actually a good human, it's just that this abuse is a part of their work'. Those of us, who would take stand against such abuse were termed as very (unnecessarily!) sensitive and (5/n)

tender hearted or extremely idealistic and not practical. These debates are, I assume, that perpetually the part medical college environment, and very few would come out the 'necessity(!)' part of the debate. I remember how happy I was to realize that there was actually (6/n)

a 'national program for safe and dignified motherhood'. I witnessed the same picture while working in a primary health center in a tribal area of Gadchiroli, I was able to change it for that time, being a MO in charge. This abuse had a different paradigm in that setting. (7/n)

ANM and staff nurses mostly belonged to non tribal castes and served women in labor that belonged to tribal groups. There already was a cast/class bias working here, similar to the class bias that I could see in medical college labour room. (8/n)

No resident would dare to speak in raised tone, if any local politician/influencer was associated with any woman. Even one of my distant relatives brought their daughter for delivery in our college expecting that I would be there to take care. I only stood there with her, (9/n)

and all of staff greeted her well and the labor was smooth, without stress and abuse. Those relatives still remember me for that time. In PHC also, I experienced a quick popularity among tribal villages for being a doctor who wouldn't hit/abuse a woman during labour.(10/n)

Footfall increased and the PHC had the most productive year ever since it's inception. It is bitter truth that abusing a woman during labour has been a long medical tradition, more than just a routine practice and it gets normalised each year by upcoming students.This must end.