On my womens health placement I initially had a bit of trouble getting my head around all the things we had to say and educate the patients on. Some of the things we had to teach were quite sensitive issues (e.g. perineal pain, bowel and bladders problems). I had sat in with the other physios when they were seeing patients and they seemed to go over these issues with no problems.
Eventually after I had done a few post natal educations of my own I realized that after birth patients are so used to people asking about their bowel and bladder habits and their perineum that it does not bother them anymore and they are more than happy to disclose the details to a physio student. Also as a result of all the antenatal edu pts get many of them know the technical terminology associated with womens health which makes it much easier. However some patients did not understand English very well and therefore did not understand what ‘Have you opened your bowels yet’ or ‘Did u have any constipation during your pregnancy’ meant. Initially this was difficult but I soon realized that if you didn’t get embarrassed or make a fuss about it the patients always thought it was funny if you re- phrased it and asked them ‘if they’d done a poo’.
This prac has show me that even if you are embarrassed about the things you are asking if you act confidently and are not immature then patients are less likely to be embarrassed and more likely to divulge important information to you.