Nudity during pregnancy

I have heard recollections from between the 1960s to the 1990s of ladies being totally nude during examinations from both before and after the birth and during birth itself and also for contraception follow ups.

How true is this?

DFG

Interestingly my first leap into thinking about med play was at a postnatal 6 week exam. This was back in the early 80's ... the girl was a good friend of mine, the biological father vanished long befoe the baby was born. At any rate I ended up driving her to the appointment and she asked me to come with her and watch the baby. I ended up in the exam room with the baby.

After the basics the nurse had her strip, gave her a sheet, no gown , which she basically wrapped up in. The doctor came in, acted as if I was not there, he was basically all business about things. He had her drop the gown, proceeded to give her the most complete exam I've seen even up to now...and sure enough after the breast exam he got her in the stirrups, the sheet came off...and the rest of the exam she layed there completely nude. He finished things up, declared her ready for sex, discussed birth control, and they left her on the table to get up and get dressed.

I'm not sure that this really relates to a typical exam during or after pregnancy but it was quite memorable...and started my playdoc activities

Greg

Here is a question, doesn't the Dr consider the patient's warmth. If you're in the delivery room nude what about feeling cold was that ever in the consideration of the Drs' minds.

Qv, when a woman is in the delivery room she is there because she is in labor. Labor means work, and trust me when I tell you, it's hard work, very hard work. I can't speak for you, but when I work hard, the last thing I am is cold.

In a regular exam room maybe, but I would be hard pressed to find a woman complain that they were cold during labor.

Mashie, I agree. If anything, women in labor perspire a lot.

Well as a man I have never been in a maternity ward that is why I asked the question.

Please forgive my ignorance about a woman in labor not caring about warmth.

I understand nudity occurs in a water birth scenario.

It isn't that we don't care about warmth, we ARE warm. Even it the movies you always see people wiping perspiration off our faces--because that's really how it is.

I was with my wife for the birth of both of our children and it was a real experience. My wife is very attractive and about 115 pounds normally. Anyway, both of our children were born large. The first was 9 pounds and 3 ounces and the second 3 years later was 9 pounds and 5 ounces. The first birth was in Florida at a military base. She was in labor for hours and hours and she finally gave up on trying to push him out and they had to do a c-section. During the time that she was in labor, she was nude from the waste down and the only ones in the room was the doctor and 2 nurses and me. But during the birth of our second child it was a different story completely. We were stationed in Okinawa and we were in a military hospital again. When she went into labor she started with a gown that was closed at the top and open at the bottom because her legs were wide open. She tried to push and push for about an hour with no success. After a while it was apparent that there was going to be a problem. So 2 more doctors came in to help and give their advice as they were in the area. Then some more nurses stopped in as they passed by. The room was very open and there was my wife laying there trying to push every few minutes. At one time I counted 9 people in the room besides her and I. There was no privacy at all and for once my wife didn't care because she was too focused on the pushing and the strain of child birth. It was great. At one point they had her stand up and try to push and then the gown was in the way, so they removed it. Then when she layed back down she was completely nude and legs spread and completely open to everyone for another hour or so. Even people walking by the room could see her laying there open! Everyone in the room could look up inside her and see the top of my daughter's head as her vagina was opening up but my wife could not push her out. So, she ended up with another C-section and my daughter was born fine. It was quite an experience to see my wife laying there completely exposed for hours to virtually anyone that walked by the open room which had a big 10 foot glass window and a double door that was propped open. It was not the normal hospital room at all. I really tried to stay focused on the birth but during the times in between the contractions when she was just laying there resting with her legs spread wide open to everyone, it was a sight to behold.

Fantastic responses guys

DFG

I was with my sister when she had hers and she got so hot she took hers off, so I never bothered with a gown when mine were born.