The husband stitch. Say what now? We must have been living under a rock, because none of us at MoM HQ had ever heard about this before!

US website Healthline published an in-depth article recently, that made many women realise how common the procedure actually is.

It is said to create a tightness on the perineum and outer vulva with stitching, although it’s debatable if sexual partners can feel it or not.

“For many women, the husband stitch is not a myth but a terrifying reality,” Healthline’s Carrie Murphy writes, revealing that one woman’s doctor said to her husband: “Yeah, let’s go ahead and add in another stitch so we can make sure this is nice and tight.”

Another woman didn’t discover she had been given the extra stitch until five years later, following years of “excruciating” pain during sex.

“I felt betrayed because something unnecessary was done to my body that I didn’t ask for,” Angela said. “It was a harmful decision made without my consent.

“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,” Stephanie Tillman, a certified nurse midwife at the University of Illinois at Chicago, said of the procedure.

“As much as we try to remove the sexualization of women from appropriate obstetric care, of course the patriarchy is going to find its way in there.”

There are no scientific studies that show how many women have been affected, nor is there a clear method for evaluating how prevalent the husband stitch truly is in obstetrics.

Read more of the shocking stories from women on Healthline. 

Were you aware of this procedure? DO you think it is necessary?

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