Choosing a doctor is sometimes not easy. Even less when it comes to his so-called “intimate” health. When the situation presented itself to her, Jessica, 28, did not ask questions, and opted for the same gynecologist as her mother. After several trials of poorly tolerated pills, she considers inserting an IUD but her practitioner refuses. Exasperated at not having a voice in the matter, the young woman decides to go see a midwife. The latter will upset his certainties. “There was a speaking space that immediately gave me confidence. There were no "dumb" questions. I finally had someone who listened to me, respected my choices, she says. After that, I didn't want to see any other practitioner."
Jessica is part of this generation of twenty-somethings who turn to midwives to ensure their gynecological follow-up and no longer to gynecologists.
In the field, the professionals (97% women) attest to this development.
“It's obvious, comments Hélène Sautirau, a midwife in Digne-Les-Bains, not far from Manosque.
At the beginning of my career as a liberal seventeen years ago, I barely saw a young woman aged 20 to 30 a month for an IUD insertion.
Today, these women represent two-thirds of my consultations”.
Same story with her colleague Sophie Courtois, who has been practicing since 2019 at La Riche, near Tours.
“My installation coincided with strong demand from female students.
They represent more than half of my patients today”, indicates the nurse.
Read also “
Clitoris, pleasure, sex education… twenty-somethings confide in a doc without taboos
In video, "My name is clitoris", the trailer
Word of mouth
Before pushing the door of a practice, most of the women interviewed did not know that midwives could take on this role. However, since the Hospital Patient Health Territory Act (HPST) in 2009, these professionals can provide contraception, preventive gynecological monitoring of any woman, pregnant or not, from puberty to menopause and prescribe a medical abortion. They can also accompany sterilization, screen for STIs or endometriosis. In case of suspicion of pathology - for which the caregiver has been, among other things, trained during five years of university studies - she is required to send the patient to a general practitioner or a gynecologist.
Thus, these "new" patients land in front of a midwife by a combination of circumstances, via word of mouth or social networks.
Annabelle, 25, made her discovery on Instagram.
“I was looking for information on the contraceptive implant and I came across the account of @charline.sagefemme, she says.
I found her gentle and reassuring in her way of explaining, even funny.
Why hadn't anyone told me before?
"Satisfied" patients
The young women interviewed here are full of praise for the gynecological follow-up they discover.
By browsing forums and networks, many testimonials abound in this direction, always with the same adjectives: “gentle”, “reassuring”, “kind”, “attentive”, “pedagogue”… All ages combined, 99.4 % of patients say they are “satisfied” with their care, reported in February 2019 a survey by the National Association of Liberal Midwives (ANSFL).
In fact, it is this famous listening that takes precedence.
Salomé, 20, can attest to that.
Recently, the psychology student urgently consulted a friend's midwife on December 31.
In question ?
A "cracked" condom and the worry of a potential unwanted pregnancy.
“I rushed into his office, completely frozen because in the panic I had forgotten my coat, she recalls.
The midwife smiled at me and made me sit down in a chair.
I then saw him take a blanket out of his closet and put it on my shoulders.
"Are you settled like that? Are you all right?" she said to me, turning on and bringing her small electric heater closer.
I burst into tears in front of these attentions full of sweetness.
Even better than an episode of "Sex Education"Mathilde, 27
“I felt like an actress in care”
Mathilde, she was seduced by the pedagogy of the professionals.
The 27-year-old will never forget her first cervical smear with a midwife.
Noting her apprehension, the caregiver suggests that she start by inserting a small plastic speculum herself, without having to perform the smear afterwards.
“I found this approach brilliant, I felt like an actress in the treatment.
She offered to take a mirror to watch me, it was even better than an episode of
Sex Education
, ”she quips.
The midwife does not lead the dance but follows the patient, holding her handMaï Le Dû, midwife and social science researcher
The situation does not surprise Maï Le Dû, midwife for thirty-one years and researcher in social sciences.
“If the doctor's gaze is oriented, through his training in pathology, the midwife, she accompanies the physiology and all the bodily changes that the woman will encounter from puberty to menopause and beyond.
Clearly, she does not lead the dance but follows the patient by holding her hand.
“The place of the human and social sciences is significant in the training of a midwife, confirms Isabelle Derrendinger, president of the Order of Midwives.
From the second year of their training, there are lessons on the rights of users during which the voice of the latter is valued.
Shorter waiting times
To obtain an appointment, the waiting times are also shorter than those with a gynecologist.
This is what also motivated Jessica, 28, to leave her gynecologist in Montpellier.
"I had to wait three months to get a consultation and when I got there, I still had to wait one to two hours in the waiting room because of the delay and the emergencies," she recalls.
Even though my concerns weren't pathological, it was unmanageable for me and my schedule."
According to the National Federation of Colleges of Medical Gynecology (FNCGM), you should actually wait between two and six months for an appointment, depending on the reason for the consultation and the territory.
The Order of Midwives gives him deadlines of less than two months.
The duration of the consultation is also different.
"On average, it is 30 minutes with a midwife compared to 20 with a gynecologist," says Béatrice Kammerer, journalist and co-host of the podcast
Les cigognes ne pas deliver les enfants.
, of the National Association of Liberal Midwives (ANSFL).
These discrepancies in availability can be explained.
Between 1984 and 2003, the training of medical gynecologists was stopped and deepened medical desertification in France.
According to a recent Senate report, the French average is 2.6 gynecologists for 100,000 women of consulting age.
Among midwives, the figure climbs to 158.
Traumatic experiences
For some, it is "the bad experience" that has brought them here. Maria, 28, recounts the verbal abuse of a gynecologist hitting her "ironically" that "(her) overweight problem" would come more from a "problem of plate than platelet". And to add: “You will have to think about losing weight if you want to have children”. "I wanted to cry, to tell him that it was disrespectful, but I didn't say anything," she laments.
At 19, Blanche confides that she felt despised and ignored in her distress at the time of a medical abortion.
“The sky was falling on my head and in return, I felt dispatched rather than heard,” she says.
When she is pregnant for the second time barely three years later, the young woman prefers to go to a midwife.
“It was no longer a doctor in front of me but someone who really wanted to help me.
She explained to me the reasons for this important fertility and why an IUD would be more suitable for my situation,” she continues.
Said IUD had previously been refused to her by her gynecologist, on the pretext that “she had no children”.
Restore trust
Émilie Cruvelier, liberal midwife and secretary of the ANSFL, claims to receive this kind of testimony every day. “Some women arrive terrified. Recently, a patient asked a colleague if the collection of consent before each act was “a code” specific to midwives”, the health professional is surprised.
Here, the journalist committed to patients' rights, Béatrice Kammerer, makes a connection with the outcry around gynecological and obstetrical violence in the 2000s, and the emergence of the hashtags #PayeTonUtérus or #JeNaiPasConsenti.
"Midwives have been impacted by this crisis of confidence, but much less than gynecologists," she observes.
This is due, in my opinion, to the postures adopted at the time.
While some doctors returned to a form of resistance or even denial, we saw midwives like Anna Roy publicly admit to having been abusive and denounce an entire abusive system.
There are not bad doctors on one side and nice midwives on the otherIsabelle Derrendinger, President of the Order of Midwives
“These negative feedbacks were heard and a questioning was necessary at all levels of care, reacts Isabelle Héron, president of the National Federation of Colleges of Medical Gynecology.
This can be felt in the training of medical students, who are made aware of good treatment, respect for the patient's consent and choices.
“It is not a problem linked to the profession and to gender, there are not on one side the bad doctors and on the other the nice midwives, insists Isabelle Derrendinger, president of the Order of midwives.
On the patient side, we confirm.
Gynecologist, general practitioner, midwife... whatever the title of the health professional, concludes Maria, 28 years old: "What we want above all is a
'safe'
practitioner , who takes all of them into account. bodies, all sexualities”.
(1) Evaluation questionnaire administered online to 1,444 women aged 18 to 62 and supervised by sociologist Marie Mathieu.
The editorial staff advises you
Consent, desire, pleasure... What does twentysomething sexuality look like?
Pregnant at 40: "You shouldn't be afraid"
"If there was a real desire for men, the male pill would already be on the market"
