"I still don't have words."

Back in my OB rotation in med school, we had a pregnant woman who was supermorbidly obese with a BMI in the 70s. During her first prenatal visit, the resident was asking about her pregnancy history, past difficulty with fertility and conception, problems with the pregnancy so far, etc. Pretty standard stuff as far as I understood at the time.

Husband then chimed in about the conception. Turns out they had no trouble conceiving... He then went into detail about how the conception went and blew my little inexperienced mind. Basically, the wife's mother and sister had to help with conception by holding the wife's thighs out of the way enough that he could get in to do the job. I still don't have words.

LesP

"He tells a story..."

Dad is a 30+ year ob/GYN. Now retired. He tells a story of a hyper-religious couple (Muslim) who came in about difficulty getting pregnant. He examined the woman alone and discovered that she was actually a hermaphrodite/intersex... male gonads, undistended... no uterus, normal vulva/ vagina.

The woman was mortified to learn this at 18... she feared her husband would be violent, believing he had been "gay" by having sex with her.

My dad gave her the option to call the police, or ask for help. He and the nurses gave her phone numbers for counseling and offered discretion when talking to the spouse. She declined everything and asked that they tell the husband together.

The man was super upset, and they eventually left the office both in tears.

Dad never saw her again, and wonders what happened.

whatsmyline

"I once had a guy ask me..."

I once had a guy ask me if his girlfriend had been sticking tuna...down there.

ItsKnightTime101

This is why sex-ed is important.

It doesn't work like that, dude.

"The nurse took him to the sink..."

Not a mind-blowing thing that was said, but still kinda funny. When I was in medical school, I did my OB rotation in the High-Risk area (medical students were generally scared of this area, so I was the only student with an awesome attending and got to do a lot). We called the attending on this service a random thought generator... if he thought of something, he would say or act on it.

We had one patient that showed up on our service in active labor. She had a very uneventful pregnancy and we couldn't figure out why she was on our service, but, hey, we'll take a normal patient. She arrived with perfect makeup, perfect hair, and she had the perfect epidural and was in no pain or distress. The attending looked at me and said that I'd be doing this delivery. Okay, I thought. No problem. Then he looked at the father and said, "No. You'll deliver this one."

The father got wide-eyed and the mother started laughing. "He's an air traffic controller. I've never seen him panic before!"

The nurse took him to the sink, gave him a scrub brush, and had him start washing his hands. We turned back to the mom ("OK, push 1, 2, 3.....10. Relax.") We looked at the dad and he's still washing that same finger he started with. OK, that's good enough (a delivery is by no means sterile), but this, this, and this on. Our attending didn't put women in stirrups, but would instead deliver straight onto the bed. He sat the dad on the bed with him on one side and me on the other side and the dad delivered his own healthy child.

angmarsilar

"When I was working the night shift..."

When I was working the night shift in the mother/baby department, a couple came in very concerned because the pregnant woman had started bleeding. The admitting nurse asked the color and amount of the blood (it's relevant) and the chick says, "There's still some on his chin there, that's what color it was." The guy looked embarrassed and the nurse kept a straight face long enough to get out of the room and tell the rest of the unit.

lactorsion

"He became visibly upset..."

We had this guy that thought his wife was going to deliver the baby out of her a-hole. He became visibly upset when we told him it comes out of the vagina. True story.

DeepDrones

This is probably...

...more common than some people would like to admit. We'll say it again: Sex-ed is important.

"Nobody is reacting at all."

Not my story, but an OB I work with once delivered a baby for a couple who were tall, pale, Scandinavian stereotypes. He met them about halfway through the pregnancy, they were this funny, loving couple that seemed super into each other.

Baby starts to crown––dense, thick black hair. Baby comes out- very obviously mixed-race. OB puts baby up on mom's chest, bracing for the meltdown. Mum starts to cry happy tears. Dad starts to cry happy tears, shaking as he carefully strokes his baby's wet bloody afro.

Nobody is reacting at all. OB's mind is melting- do they... not notice?

Turns out that loving partner wasn't baby-daddy. Met mom when she was in early pregnancy, totally aware that the baby wasn't his, totally aware of the race of the dad. Neglected to mention any of this to the OB, many chortles were had later when everything was cleared up.

57555557

"Men frequently ask her..."

My friend is an OBGYN in a hospital. Men frequently ask her "When is the doctor coming?" despite the fact that her name badge says "Doctor" in red letters.

stupidgregg

"Turns out..."

Medical student here - on my OB/GYN placement a married lady came to the clinic saying that she was worried she was infertile as she'd been having problems conceiving .... turns out that they weren't having vaginal sex and instead he was putting his penis in her belly button because "that's what his friends do when they have sex." It turns out they were both brought up in very religious households with no sex education at school. Felt so bad for them both!

ramenlover45

That was a wild ride.

The lesson we've learned today: Sexual education is important and can save everyone––patients and OB/GYNs alike––a lot of awkward conversation. Things would be a lot simpler.

Have some of your own stories to share? Feel free to tell us about them in the comments section below!