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Pregnancy

22nd Jun 2019

Mum fuming after husband tells doctors to ‘stitch her up tight’ hours after giving birth

Keeley Ryan

He claimed it was a ‘harmless joke’.

A mum has been left fuming after her husband told doctors to “stitch her up tight” hours after she gave birth.

The woman explained on Reddit’s Am I The Asshole? forum that she had given brith a few days ago, and that her husband’s comment led things to become “rather fractured between us” since she got home.

In her post, she explained:

“After I gave birth, the resident OB had to stitch me up for mild perineal tearing. My husband was with him and joked to the doctor, ‘Make sure to stitch it up tight.’

“The OB kind of just ignored him but the nurse looked appalled. I told him, ‘Don’t be an ass’ in front of everyone. He was very embarrassed.

“After they left he got mad at ME for calling him out. He said I was overreacting to a harmless joke. I told him that I didn’t need this kind of drama.”

She added that now that she is home, things have become strained between the two of them.

She continued:

“I haven’t had a full conversation with him since before the labour.

“He says I’m being way too sensitive and acting like a bitch (his words, not mine.)”

The new mum wanted to know whether she was being unreasonable to be upset by his comment, or if he was out of line.

The general consensus from Reddit users? He was way, way, way out of line.

One person said:

“This is actually a real issue, that doctors will add an extra unnecessary stitch to the vaginal opening called a ‘husband stitch’ to make it more pleasurable for them when the couple has sex again, but it can cause so many issues for the woman.

“He may not know that, but he’s still an ass for making that joke. It was crass, and [original poster] just pushed a baby out of her body, which is pretty traumatic and he’s thinking about sex. Okay buddy.”

Someone else wrote:

“That’s an incredibly crude, embarrassing, and insensitive thing to say to your doctor about a very intimate, private topic. What an asshole.”

Another commented:

“It’s an insensitive, sexist and just plain stupid comment to make, and frankly if he’s embarrassed on being called out for saying it, maybe that should tell him that he shouldn’t have said it in the first place!”