Stirrups (not the horse kind)

[slemslempike]

When you go for a smear test (or similar), are there stirrups?

I've usually heard Americans talking about stirrups for such incidents, while I'm under the impression that I've only heard British women refer to them for ante-natal use. When I go, I just have to do that frogs' legs thing (which is awkward if the table is against the wall on one side).

I was watching Jo Brand on Live at the Apollo, and she talked about stirrups as if they would of course be used for a smear. Have I just always had lo-tech medical care? I don't feel like I have had a particularly sheltered outlook, at least four medical professionals have investigated my nethers.

Comments

[alltheleaves.livejournal.com]

I've never had stirrups for anything gynaecological and I go to a good hospital with very up-to-date medical care. I think it's a progressive thing not to have them as they seem very backward to me. I know in the US, some places still use stirrups for a woman to put her feet in to during the labouring process which is very different to the "get in the position that feels most comfortable and we'll adapt to what suits" attitude that has mostly been adopted over here (based on various friends' experiences). And even if they don't have that attitude here, there are still no stirrups.

[slemslempike.livejournal.com]

I think I would much prefer not to have stirrups, even if Rachel in Friends did say that they were very comfortable. I've only heard a very few British women mention stirrups at all, so maybe this was not very recently that they used them. I was very surprised that Jo Brand talked about them.

[alltheleaves.livejournal.com]

I think Rachel lied.

I can't imagine anything worse, you're in a horrendous amount of pain and you're going through an incredibly hard (but hopefully rewarding) experience that will take it out of you physically, mentally and emotionally and you're essentially being told that you have to stay in one position during it.

I've read things about how the traditional labour position, lying on your back, is wholly invented as a doctor's easiest position to work with and doesn't work for labour at all. If a woman wants to work with gravity, which if you're trying to bring a heavy thing out of your body, makes sense, how does being flat help? Added to that, I see it as a very submissive position that creates an enormous sense of vulnerability for a woman going through something, which has I described above, involves so much. While I recognise it was originally created as the birthing position because that's what was understood to work and the doctor's view was the most important, I find the continued enforcement of it very misogynistic.

Sorry you were just asking about whether stirrups are used for smears and I've gone very far from that, but I find the practise of medicine related to women can still be extremely outdated and it makes me Angry. As you can see.

[slemslempike.livejournal.com]

I think she was just having an examination rather than when she was giving birth. The only thing I remember about Rachel giving birth is that Janice appeared.

I've read a few things about the lying on your back being easiest for doctors as well - it's something I should try and find out a bit more about, I think.

Yes, medicine and women often makes me very cross too. I read a book about women entering the medical profession quite recently, and that was really interesting, about how a lot of them wanted to treat specifically women because they weren't being treated right by male doctors.

[alltheleaves.livejournal.com]

Can you imagine a situation where, if a vaccine had been invented that could prevent a male-specific cancer that was partially linked to sexual activity, the use would be vetoed by a government? Where people would prevent adolescent boys being vaccinated because it might encourage them to be sexually active. Medicine and women makes me want to scream.

[yiskah.livejournal.com]

I found Naomi Wolf's Misconceptions pretty good for this sort of info (though, obv., it's specifically about pregnancy and childbirth, rather than pregnancy more generally) - I know a lot of people don't get on with her, and friends who are mothers have dismissed the book for not telling them anything they didn't already know, but from my non-mother point of view, I found it really interesting.

[cangetmad.livejournal.com]

And also, like, gravity? We've known about that for a while. Why have many places not yet figured out that when you're trying to push something out of your vagina, it might be a good idea if your vagina is pointing down-ish? Or at least not up-ish?