From one woman to another, we are special!!! Anatomically speaking that is. But the truth is OB/GYN has never been my thing. I prayed for my rotation to end from the first day. And lets not talk about the first delivery I assisted. I had sworn to never have sex. Delivering babies...not for me! Yet I could not run away. The unfortunate (or fortunate depending on how you see it) thing about being a General Practitioner aka GP in da house, is that you get to do EVERYTHING. Even sticking your hand in strangers' vaginas! How many times have I wanted to defer genital exams. I'd stare round the room looking for a valid excuse, but when you're dealing with vaginal complaints, not doing an exam is medical malpractice. I just needed to make myself a reason. So I focused on the anatomy. Truth is I had shun away from vaginal exams so much during my cores that I wasn't even sure what to feel for. I mean, it was easy like ABC; all you had to do was stick your finger in there (uurrgh), but really, what was I looking for? So I had to read up! Labia majora, vagina, cervix- long, short, effaced, closed, 4cm dilated, posterior. At first, all the same to me. But the more I examined the better I got.
But let's not get carried away. I can't forget that night when I was on call. The nurse came to fetch me to meet the woman in labour. Honestly, I'd known that the day would come when I would be alone in a situation like this. God had already warned me: I had delivered a placenta, not the baby. This time, it was the real deal: a huge belly and a handful of nurses looking up to me. Somehow I had to live up to their expectations so I started with what I was good at: the genital exam.
Cervix was posterior, 60o/o effaced and 4cm dilated, but because she was primiparous I wasn't expecting her to birth anytime soon. I guess God decided to have mercy on me (and on her of course) because I had hardly worn gloves when I was already maneuvering the baby out of the vagina. When the baby was out and I had clipped off her umbilical cord I got this amazing feeling that I've never had before. Man, my first delivery!!! I was in heaven like for real. Too bad, the feeling didn't last as I remembered that I wasn't done. As I sashayed my arm around the genital tract I realized that I barely knew the owner. Also that I'd been right all along: OB/GYN wasn't for me. But since I get to do little bit of everything as a GP, why not enjoy this opportunity until I start a residency? Till this day, I've done several other genital exams and deliveries.
