ABSTRACT

THE NURSE DESCRIBING THIS INCIDENT told my daughter Jenny thatshe was distressed that there was no support either for the woman or the staff.

For some women, medical procedures in pregnancy and birth bring back overwhelming memories of sexual violence, events they had pushed into the back of their minds and apparently forgotten. Jenny interviewed 39 survivors of childhood sexual abuse and wrote articles to help doctors, nurses and midwives understand 81

We were catheterising an old, blind woman; she must have been about 90. It took four nurses to carry out the procedure – three of us were needed to hold her down. And all this old woman was saying was: ‘Please don’t do it daddy, please don’t do it daddy.’ We all went silent. It was never discussed, nobody dared mention it.80