All Female OB-GYN Practice: A Personal Perspective

Sometimes (often?) lawyers get caught up in impersonal debates over legal doctrine — it goes with the turf. But real people are involved and it is valuable to get a dose of the personal - irrespective of the laws' "logic."

Our post last week about whether an OB-GYN practice can remain all-female without running afoul of the anti-discrimination laws drew a lot of comments, but Sheilah Burnham, a nutrition teacher in upstate New York gave us a very personal view:

"I'm afraid I can't give you a straight "yes" or "no" answer. As a women, I must admit that I have had a preference to female doctors for my own personal care. However, I did have a fantastic male doctor that I quickly became acquainted with when I had an emergency situation. Before my emergency, I avoided his office simply because he was a man and that fact alone made me uncomfortable. I like to think that I'm a fairly reasonable person though, and when it came time for me to have a different kind of care, he was definitely the better qualified and it is quite likely that I am still here today because of his actions as and OB-GYN and surgeon.

As a wife and mother of 4 boys, I asked the "men" in my family who they wanted as a doctor when we switched our insurance. I would certainly not expect them to be just as comfortable with a woman as they would with a man and I was simply being respectful of their wishes. As it turns out, we have ended up with a family doctor that is another man, but my last "OB" visit was actually with a midwife.

Health Care can be a "sticky-wicket". If...

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