J. Marion Sims

And we thought this was the perfect time to bring it to light.

And so we have James Marion Sims, the women behind the father of modern gynecology.

And yes, yes, there is another father.

Yeah, but I would argue that the women we're going to talk about are the mothers of gynecology.

Well, let's

do it.

What if the person known as the father of modern gynecology built his reputation by experimenting on women who had no legal right to say no? In the 1840s, James Marion Sims began operating on enslaved black women suffering from devastating childbirth injuries called obstetric fistulas.

conditions that could leave women leaking urine or feces through the vagina for years.

This goes back at least 200 years.

It certainly goes back to the Marion Sims experiments on vesicle vaginal you know, the fistula thing where he's basically torturing black female slaves in order to work out a procedure to, it is going to relieve suffering.

I mean, that is a scenario that's much written about.

But, I mean, let's go 200 years further.

On the morning of Friday, September 15th, 1944, The 2nd Parachute Battalion is shuttled in sealed trucks under military police escort to a cinema in Grantham for a special screening of the 1941 comedy Hell's a Poppin', starring the American comedians Chick Johnson and Ole Olsen.

Private James Sims considers it the funniest film he has ever seen.

American practice differs.

Units move from their sometimes far-flung billets into quarters on the airfields themselves and are briefed and prepared there.

Luckily, this thought of just automatically going to a hysterectomy didn't last long because in 1882, Max Samlinger made a strong case for uterine sutures, causing many to change their practice.

He used silver wire stitches that were developed by American gynecologist J. Marion Sims.

And these were originally intended to treat vaginal tears.

Yeah.

Taylor Dyson with an amazing free kick.

And then James Sims scores the equaliser from very close range.

And then Dyson is the architect again.

He chases down an errant throw from the FC United goalkeeper, gets around the side of the box and smashes it in on the high.

And it's really rooted in, I mean, you really got to do your history, right? Like you have to know your history.

and using black women as you know we were considered cattle and all of these things is rooted into medical into the medical space so if we aren't doing and that's the other part of my work It's talking about those things and asking for permission to say, hey, can we have a hard conversation? This is not your fault, but let me help you understand why this patient needs pain medication.

Why do we give? I remember one time I did a case study and one patient, they had very similar history, social history.