A mother in the United States has revealed how a doctor refused her request for tubal ligation, citing reasons that a woman should not make that kind of decision on her own.
As it is with quests/challenges on social media platforms, a recent one on Tiktok had asked female users to recount the ‘most sexist thing a man has ever said to them’.
Responding to that, a TikToker, Sarah-Jo Baskin took to the platform to narrate her experience with a male doctor when she had just welcomed her second child.
Sarah was only 27 when she birthed her second child — a male — and she described the experience as traumatic due to the complications that erupted during delivery, complications which put her life and that of her baby in grave medical danger.
Having gone through this ‘traumatic’ child delivery, Sarah was taken to the brink and, as a result, decided to take the bit between her teeth, telling a doctor she consulted that she didn’t want to have any more children.
“Mine has got to be when I was 27 years old. I had just welcomed a second child, and consulted a doctor to discuss how to get my tubes tied, considering that I didn’t want any more children at that period. The labor and delivery almost killed me and my baby, so I was like, nope, that was it. Don’t want another child,” she explained.
Screengrab/TikTok
Bringing you up to speed, recall that tubal ligation is the process of tying a woman’s fallopian tube, which is a permanent form of birth control. Any woman who undergoes the process can no longer get pregnant. Given the circumstances, it is not too much of a request for a mother who nearly lost her life while putting to bed.
However, the male doctor Sarah-Jo consulted didn’t share the same thoughts, and he allegedly told her he would not be able to do it.
“I asked him why, and his response was, ‘You are not married.’ Then, I asked what that has got to do with anything.”
In response, the doctor cited reasons that he holds the belief ‘It is best if a woman and a man collectively make that kind of decision and that Sarah shouldn’t be making the decision when she’s not married yet’.
Stunned by what she had just heard the doctor say, Sarah-Jo asked once again, “What has that got to do with anything?”
“This is my body, and I want to have my tubes tied,” she added.
The doctor was adamant in his response, saying “I am not tying your tubes. I do not think a woman should make that decision on her own.”
@bfeedingmomma
In another video that surfaced later, Sarah-Jo further claimed that the doctor had suggested that her then-boyfriend got a vasectomy instead if they didn’t want any more children.
At the end of it all, Baskin was unable to get a tubal ligation and ended up birthing a third child, after getting pregnant unexpectedly. Thankfully, she had her pregnancy monitored closely this time to tackle any medical complications that could arise.
The video of Sarah-Jo Baskin has been a center of attraction since it surfaced online, with many other women commenting under it to share their similar experiences.
One lady even claimed a doctor has told her ‘unless she had a few children first’, he wouldn’t do a tubal ligation for her. But she actually didn’t want any children at all.
Baskin’s story reveals how difficult it has been for women in the United States to access reproductive measures that prevent pregnancies, despite the freedom that there is to do so.
Have you had any similar experience? Share your story with us in the comments section below.
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