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In what way did Ms. Williams receive sub-standard care?
Why is Ms. Williams'ignorance about standards of care and practice surprising?
If, as some writers to Salon report, it is common-knowledge among Ob-Gyns, and among women who have had children, that postpartum mothers sometimes experience lack of libido and/or dyspareunia (pain in the vagina or pelvis during sexual intercourse) it would seem very unusual that Ms. William's physician found no way of discussing these issues with her before or after the delivery or her first or second child.
But who is anyone kidding?
Obstetrics isn't some arcane field of medicine. The discipline's literature is vast and nowadays commonly available to all patients and physicians.
There really are such things as standards for care and practice. This isn't just Sparkyism. Any educated person with any reasonable familiarity with the way medicine is taught and practiced would notice a few very odd things about Ms. Williams' piece.
* Ms. Williams describes herself as a highly intelligent "Type A" personality driven to know in detail about the physical demands that human sexuality would require of a healthy adult female.
* Ms. Williams describes not one, but two, clinical situations in which she, postpartum, was told by her physician that she was physically ready to resume sexual activity, although this may or may not have been the case given the physiological outcome of her respective pregnancies.
The facts, as Ms. Williams has stated them, simply do not make good sense.
We are left with these obvious choices:
* Ms. Williams, given her education and intellectual capacity, for some reason we do not know, chose not to consult obstetric information commonly available to practically all pregnant mothers.
* Ms. Williams, for some reason we do not know, chose not to avail herself of the common-knowledge about postpartum sexual response and/or dysfunction that every woman who has had children knows as a matter of course.
* Ms. Williams' physician, although educated and trained in the care and treatment of women before, during, and after pregnancy, for some reason we do not know, chose to withhold from Ms. Williams any and all information regarding postpartum sexual function, although such information is commonly discussed in obstetrics literature and is commonly known by women who have had children.
I mean, y'all can continue your make-believe games as much as you want. But it's starting to sound a lot like "Intelligent Design." ("Science? What does Science have to do with anything?")
Like it or not, medical care is science. Some fields of medical science are of course more developed than others. But. I mean. Geez. Obstetrics is probably the one field of medicine that very consciously tries to make itself open and easily understood by the layperson.
I don't know *where* Ms. Williams is getting her medical care. I don't know *why* Ms. Williams chose to consult neither the medical literature, nor the anecdotal information, about postpartum sexual function and response that were very obviously available to her before she had either of her children.
