FM Weekly Scripts 2020-2024 (so far)
Dear Subscribers,
It is hard to believe I’m close to wrapping up year four of FM weekly! Two of those years were my last in midwifery practice (for now), and two were during the coursework in my clinical ethics doctoral program. Before we get too far into 2024, I wanted to share the catalogue of scripts - the most recent year first - that those with a paid subscription can access through the archives. I was sure by this point I’d run out of things to say, but somehow I’ve got more to come! It’s really lovely to see the arc of content from clinical to ethical and all the spaces around and in-between. Looking forward to seeing what this year brings.
As an evergreen reminder, I offer all sorts of discounts / true sliding scale / year free for folks who let me know they want it - just reach out via feministmidwife@gmail.com to access those options. Would love to have you subscribe in whatever capacity works best for you. More details:
true sliding scale (including free!) for all
one year free for all queer folks and Black and Indigenous people of color
50% off for students (but also see the two points above)
for those with abundance and opportunity to support my work in offering points 1-3 a higher subscription rate (thanks to those who can!)
The FM Weekly I’m sending out later tonight has a script focused on why seeing a patient once they’re roomed, even if you can’t conduct their visit right away, is an important consideration in trauma-informed care and might be a supportive offer in terms of anticipatory guidance before future visits. I always appreciate hearing from folks who use similar language or suggest other approaches - would love to be in community with you as those conversations are underway.
As always, in solidarity,
Stephanie (Feminist Midwife)
2024:
Jan:
4.39: Script to call reps demanding a ceasefire
4.40: What to say since you should not start with “congratulations” when a patient / loved one has a positive pregnancy test (and why not to say congratulations)
4.41: Language from South Africa’s case against Israel’s genocide in Palestine at the ICJ
Feb:
4.42: What we mean when we say “Roe was the floor”
4.43: Recent ACNM Position Statements
4.44: Naming that hearing consent / following directions can be hard to do while dissociating
2023:
Jan:
3.49: Communicating about communication especially with adolescent patients
3.50: Language to partner with patients in telling a story / describing a diagnosis
3.51: Patients and providers discussing how students and clinician educators work together
3.52: Addressing necessary components of consent not otherwise included in an informed consent document
4.1: Describing personal experiences of medication (including storytelling of my multiple concerning experiences with anesthesia)
Feb:
4.2: Supporting patients who are scared
4.3: How to discuss “evidence-based” recommendations
4.4: Scripting from two recently authored publications: (1) trauma-informed care recommendations and (2) consent for pelvic examinations under anesthesia
4.5: Patient - “What if I don’t want to do any of that?” / Provider - “What if none of this works for you?”
Mar:
4.6: Responding to pressures to use binaried language in resources
4.7: Inviting informed refusal / decisions against recommendations.
4.8: The world being different, and us being different in it
4.9: “I know that I don’t know you, but I am here to take care of you.”
Apr:
4.10: The briefest phrase to ask a patient to tell their story
4.11: Welcoming more gentle language
4.12: Transferring the power to the patient to start an examination
4.13: Telling little kids what midwives do
May:
4.14: Intentionally calling forward tools to navigate a situation
4.15: Understanding how educational pelvic exams use patients as tools
4.16: Asking about… what to ask about
June:
4.17: On speed and how fast it moves
4.18: How all care is gender-affirming care
4.19: Pride is queer love
4.20: How abortion is gender-affirming care
July:
4.21: How to ask to be believed / how to express that we believe them
4.22: Supportive way to talk about body movement
4.23: Building, rather than taking a history
4.24: Video on talking a patient through alternative positions for pelvic exams
4.25: On knowing my / your worth
Aug:
4.26: A visual on why queer joy matters
4.27: On disclosing a known medical harm
4.28: Publicly advertising trauma-informed care
4.29: Passing the mic to @arielwatrissnp
Sept:
4.30: How to address institutional policies antithetical to ethical practice
4.31: Shifting language from “consent” to “decision”
4.32: Why some patients might not engage with a trauma-informed care approach
Oct:
4.33: Who is a “reasonable” patient?
4.34: Welcoming a patient in to differential diagnosis processes
4.35: Free Palestine.
Nov:
4.36: “This is how my voice sounds when there is an emergency.”
Dec:
4.37: Language for people who are scared of their bodies
4.38: Admitting, accepting, appreciating anger
2022:
Jan:
3.2: How a chaperone or patient can interrupt a problematic exam
3.3: Telling someone to pronounce your name correctly
3.5: Responding to requests for “virginity” testing
3.6: Quickly introduce yourself (as a nurse, provider, or patient)
Feb:
3.7: Succinctly describe the hurt of homophobic rhetoric
3.8 & 3.9: Managing awkward conversation during a breast/chest exam (using a clip from Fleabag as the example!)
3.10: Requesting for / documentation of chaperones
March:
3.11: Write a new bio!
3.13: Shifting from a patient’s self-reported need, to a provider’s urgent concern, and returning back to the patient’s need
3.14: Communicating boundaries
Apr:
3.15: Inviting discussion about anticipated or past harms and traumas
3.18: Discussing grooming
May:
3.19: Shutting down bad / incorrect / harmful examples or arguments (specifically with an anti)
3.21: Informing an anti that they need more information before attempting to debate you on something
3.22: Using the term “weight bias”
June:
3.23: “HAPPY PRIDE!” (that’s the script!)
3.24: Asking and offering alternative sizes / types / formulations / referrals / etc.
3.25: How to be an outward, active ally
3.26: Screening providers and colleagues for anti-abortion beliefs and practices
July:
3.27: Meta-thinking about language
3.28: Digital rectal examinations and “Stop. I did not consent to this.”
3.29: Asking about and discussing reproductive coercion
3.30: Offering ideas for care after a challenging visit / conversation / exam
3.31: Explicitly discussing an exam’s intimacy and invasiveness
August:
3.32: How not to offer two different options (providers, this is for you)
3.33: Giving equal weight to patient “experiences” and clinical “facts”
3.34: Imagining language that presumes provider holds zero power in a conversation or exam
Sept:
3.35: Marking the need for a pause when something important or heavy is said
3.36: Emphasizing the care in healthcare
3.37: Including social injustices in differential diagnosis considerations
Oct:
3.39: Discussing changes to fetal movement
3.40: Fetal cardiac activity versus heartbeat
3.42: Students declining to perform intimate examinations on one another
3.43: Shifting language from “Stop.” to “Ready.”
Nov:
3.44: Opening oneself up to critique.
3.45: “Reaching out on today’s Trans Day of Remembrance.”
3.46: Offering to hear / tell the story you’d tell a loved one.
Dec:
3.47: Shifting language away from “allowing” and “letting”
3.48: Openly discussing the parallels of social and clinical intimacy.
2021:
Jan:
2.8: How to discuss the delivery of normal test results.
2.9: Supporting someone to find the most comfortable position for them before an intimate exam.
2.10: Minority versus minoritized.
2.11: Starting discussions around covid vaccination.
Feb:
2.12: Stop saying “committed” suicide.
2.13: Some ideas for engaging through open-ended questions.
2.14: Taking a moment to ourselves after a particularly difficult interaction.
March:
2.15: Referring to the butt as anything but.
2.16: Suggesting scripting for sexual health intake.
2.17: Possible questions for protection and pregnancy prevention.
2.18: Stop saying “denies” when referring to someone’s self-reported history.
Apr:
2.19: Stop calling a patient a “poor historian” including in their medical record.
2.20: Debriefing after finishing an internal exam (don’t say “Great job!).
2.22: Stop saying “refuses” when referring to the patient’s autonomous right to decline anything and everything.
May:
2.23: How to pay attention and acknowledge someone’s cadence and need for more time during a visit.
2.24: Exams should not be expected to hurt.
2.25: Offering any and all positions (quickly!) during labor and birth.
2.26: Inviting someone to describe how their culture or background will influence their healing.
June:
2.28: Celebrating pride month with patients and providers.
2.29: Why “what’s the harm?” is harmful.
2.30: How to interrupt an actively traumatic intimate exam.
2.31: When a patient / provider / student is misgendered.
July:
2.32: How to not brush of “normal” things that are concerning to patients.
2.33: Responding when someone says they need more time or want to consult google / friend / family before making a decision.
2.34: STIs are “irresponsible” or “promiscuous.”
August:
2.36: Reminding patients that the safer / less traumatic care they experience with one provider should be the standard expectation with all providers.
2.37: Using the language someone else uses: wife versus partner, fetus versus baby, etc.
2.38: Referencing what is in someone’s chart to demonstrate preparation for the visit.
Sept:
2.40: Assume neutral pronouns unless explicitly told otherwise.
2.41: How to discuss possibly mishearing someone.
2.42: Accurate language to reference abortions.
2.43: Updated language about “who” midwives care for (hint: everyone).
Oct:
2.45: Documenting painful or traumatic exams in the healthcare record.
2.46: How to interject when a provider enters a room and says “it’s time for an exam!”.
2.47: An example away / boundary-setting automatic email response.
Nov:
2.48: Discussing each and every test being ordered, and its purpose.
2.49: Introducing yourself as a midwife / nursing student.
Dec:
2.51: An example of how to seek consent before starting an intimate exam.
2.52: Responding to someone doubting your credibility in discussing something.
2020:
Jan:
8: How to respond when a learner says a patient “refused” an exam.
9: How to introduce yourself when first walking into a patient’s room.
10: Brief all-options counseling when a patient says they feel conflicted about previous abortions.
11: Discuss Group B Strep (GBS).
Feb:
12: Refer to an identity concordant provider.
13: Respond when patient apologizes for smell / hair maintenance.
14: Express joy in our work when patients express disgust.
15: Open the conversation about what might hurt or has hurt in the past during a pelvic exam.
March:
16: How to respond when someone says something was difficult to share.
17: The only response when someone asks to take out a long-active reversible contraceptive.
18: How to address starting care later in pregnancy.
19: Using clinical and accessible language to describe healthy genitalia.
20: Responding with fierceness as to how we are not “just” midwives or nurses.
Apr:
21: Setting the stage for a trauma-informed referral.
22: Intro paragraph to describe trauma-informed care and precepting for students and residents.
23: How to move forward when something difficult has been said / happened.
24: Discussing routine / opt-out care as true consent and inviting someone to decline.
May:
25: Questions other than “how are you?”
26: Being grateful to care for people amidst moral injury due to COVID.
27: Offering or requesting speculum self-insertion.
28: How to sign-off at the end of telehealth visits.
29: Acknowledging community strife and grief after police violence and protests.
June:
30: A second script inquiring about how patients are feeling about racist police violence.
31: How to respond when someone says wearing a mask makes it harder for them to breathe.
32: When a patient tells us they’re worried we’ll be mad at them.
33: How to let patients know your clinic is free or sliding scale.
July:
34: Offering emergency contraception EVERY VISIT.
35: Suggesting options for support people to be involved in the visit if they cannot be physically present in the room.
36: Celebrating a patient’s personal wins.
37: “Tell me about you.” (that’s the script.)
August:
38: The quickest ways to discuss trauma-informed care.
39: Reframes to the common refrain “for me.”
40: Scripting anticipatory guidance.
41: Making sure the provider has understood everything / asked the right questions.
Sept:
43: Planning ahead for how to give abnormal or concerning test results.
45: Small hands can do atraumatic pelvic exams, too!
46: Inviting patients to tell us how to lessen their burden in fighting against morbidity / mortality as people of color.
Oct:
47: Inviting patients to tell us what has made their previous exams more comfortable.
48: Discussing the need to separate / move labia for a less painful exam.
49: How to communicate pain: pinch, pressure, scratch, cramp, scrape, etc.
50: Asking someone to self-identify what would be helpful in that moment.
Nov:
51: Discussing religion in patient care.
52: Function not eponym (stop calling anatomical parts by their “discoverer’s name”).
2.1: Starting to question what routine care just doesn’t feel quite right.
2.2: Not doing an internal pelvic exam as part of an intake obstetric visit.
2.3: Addressing when a patient feels betrayed despite our best intentions.
Dec:
2.4: Addressing a student’s emotional learning.
2.5: Stop saying “feel my touch.”
2.6: Stop saying “one finger, two fingers.”
2.7: My standard script for a bimanual exam.