You’ve just been through the traumatic and exhausting experience of child birth. The doctor, the person you’ve put all your trust in, is stitching you back up when they say “Yeah, let’s go ahead and add in another stitch so we can make sure this is nice and tight.” You’ve just been given a “husband stitch”.
The “husband stitch” or “daddy stitch”, is an extra stitch given during the repair process after a vaginal birth, supposedly to tighten the vagina for the increased pleasure of a male sexual partner. It is said that in some cases it causes serious and painful problems for the woman who’s been stitched up.
But many people say that the husband stitch is just an urban myth. Medical professionals insist that doctors simply would not do such a thing; they are only concerned with the best interests of the (female) patient, not her husband’s sexual satisfaction. A source who has been in the medical profession for ten years – much of that time in gynaecology, reported that she had never seen this stitch preformed and if there ever was an extra stitch it was purely a medical accident which could be quickly and easily reversed.
However, she went on to say that perhaps in America where cosmetic surgery appears to be a very common occurrence, it would not be altogether surprising. Certainly there are many women coming forward, saying that they were stitched up far too tightly by their doctors; and for no medical reason.
(In case you don’t know why there is stitching of any kind after child birth: it is to help the woman’s body repair itself by bringing layers of skin closer together.)
According to obstetrician Jesanna Cooper, MD, if there is such a thing as the ‘husband stitch’ it would give no pleasure to anyone – not even the husband. “It would not affect overall vaginal tone,” Copper explained, “as this has much more to do with pelvic floor strength and integrity than with introitus (opening) size.”
For Stephanie Tillman, a midwife at the University of Illinois it Chicago, the very idea of the husband stitch represents the persistent misogyny inherent in medical care.
“The fact that there is even a practice called the husband stitch is a perfect example of the intersection of the objectification of women’s bodies and healthcare. As much as we try to remove the sexualisation of women from appropriate obstetric care, of course the patriarchy is going to find its way in there.”
So there you have it: even if the ‘husband stitch’ is a myth, it only serves to affirm patriarchy. Perhaps.
