Thanks for sharing your experience (really, sincerely). It's a really great description of the exhaustion and the "it must be me" resignation, and I hope it gives other people at some insight into what Jill went through. I really hope things are better now. :-)
Rocza
rocza
then they go write articles full of half truths about mindfulness thus spreading the misconceptions
I doubt that the medical professional husband/adulterer would be considered the patient for the midwife; it's possible, if midwives are legal in your state/country, that she violated ethical guidelines of the organization by sleeping with her client's husband. However, they could/would probably offer the defense that…
You'd hope there would be stronger sentencing guidelines, wouldn't you? Unfortunately, in the US, each state has a medical board governing licenses. It's more likely that he'll be stripped of board certifications than license, just because it's a "first offense" that was "no touch." As Erin noted in the article, it's…
Yeah but we don't, either!
Well, you and I (and presumably a lot of other people) see that, but we're also not the ones dealing with postpartum depression, or being told that this doctor is your only hope for treatment. Of course she wasn't under an actual obligation, but that's the genius manipulation of abusers, eh?
Welp.
I wish it surprised me, I really do.
After a few weeks
Not to mention, on top of everything else, he was literally her only way of being "well" in a way good for her and her family. If she cut him off, she cut off access to the therapy that was helping her postpartum depression.
Oh, I know the stories, sadly. (I used to edit a very well known bioethics journal that suffered a spectacular implosion in 2008. Prior to that, though, I pulled together an entire issue on that–government hospital/military medical care & ethics–particular topic,...)
Postpartum depression isn't exactly the same as "regular" depression, and abusers are very good at carefully grooming victims. Unfortunately, age doesn't confer privileges or defense against abusers, and Jill's circumstances–especially the inability to see anyone else for her postpartum depression–left her…
It's like a disease. (Ethics, that is. Once you're infected,...)
If you read the timeline in the story, you'll see that he wasn't hitting on her until after she sent him a Facebook message wishing his travel well. He'd said some things that made her uncomfortable, but she assumed that it was her fault and she was being overly sensitive, not that he was being inappropriate.
She was suffering from severe depression on top of just general new mom not feeling great about her body. So basically, a predator took a vulnerable woman for whom he was in a position of authority and power, and groomed her, just like most abusers do. What did she think? It's right there in the story: that it was her…
I don't want this to get lost in the beauty of Mal's perfect reaction, but as someone who actually is, by training and prior vocation, a medical ethicist, I wanted to give y'all the link for the American, British, and Australia/New Zealand medical association professional guidelines for social media use.
I'd say I've already used up all my outrage on the internet scolding Nature about printing misogyny, but please, I've still got that pesky medical ethics training. :p In reality, after posting that I was off to get the AMA and BMA guidelines on social media for doctors with patients. ;-)
I missed that O at first and didn't realize Dean is a he and uh, yeah. Yeah. That.