Commentary: My pregnancy caused crushing pain. Why didn’t my doctors think that was a problem?

When I was pregnant with my second child, the pain in my pelvis was extraordinary.

“It’s normal,” my white obstetrician said. I told her I had never felt such pain. She instructed me to walk with small steps, “like a geisha.”

When giving birth, I again said that something was wrong. My pubic bone felt broken. The same obstetrician assured me that the pain I was feeling was normal. I told her that a nurse had recommended, during an earlier visit, that I labor on my side