When Jason and Ana Ware moved from Ashton, Md., to a smaller house in Rockville, Md., they knew they would have to get rid of what had once been the centerpiece of their home: a vintage gynecological examination table.
“It was just a beautiful piece of furniture,” said Jason. Examination Bed For Clinic
The couple bought it in 2013. Both were nurses at the time — Jason still is — and they came across it at a consignment shop in Baltimore’s funky Hampden neighborhood.
The circa-1930 wooden table was, in its way, handsome, with rosewood inlay and milled corners, along with drawers for medical instruments, an upholstered top, a porcelain bowl and, yes, stirrups.
“Somebody put a lot of effort into the aesthetics as well as the functionality,” Jason said. “We decided, okay, this will be our first big furniture piece that we buy together.”
They paid about $350 for what they soon dubbed “the vagina table.”
You should know that in addition to eclectic tastes, Jason and Ana have the slightly twisted sense of humor often possessed by people who work in the world of life and death.
At one point, the couple used the table as a bar. Its frayed electrics — the table has an outlet, probably for an exam light — were repaired and a blender was plugged into the socket. For a while, the table became the centerpiece of a coat rack.
“It always had a featured location in our home,” said Jason, 46, an oncology nurse at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center.
And when the Wares’ younger daughter, Indigo, was born in 2015, the table … well, it wasn’t used. Indigo was born at home, but in the dining room in a baby pool, with Ana squatting, not reclining, a position they believe is more natural for birth.
The couple knew the table wouldn’t fit in their new, downsized home. Ana is an interior designer, and she and Jason hoped it would go to someone who would appreciate the table and its history.
After the family moved in 2019, the table spent a few years stored in the garage of their new house, but, said Jason, “We had to find a good home for it.”
He says they did. Last month, the Wares donated it to the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. The table is outside the conference rooms at ACOG’s headquarters on 12th Street SW in Washington.
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“I was very grateful that instead of going to the transfer station or out to the curb, it’s become part of the history of that organization,” Jason said.
What thoughts, I wonder, will go through the minds of modern gynecologists who see it?
“There are plenty of equipment innovations that have happened over time,” said AnnaMarie Connolly, chief of education and academic affairs at ACOG.
Methods and medications have evolved and improved, too. But the table hasn’t really changed that much, she said. An obstetrician-gynecologist would easily recognize a 100-year-old table and an OB/GYN from back then would probably recognize today’s table.
And anyway, said Connolly, “it’s not about the table. What I see as the biggest evolution is centering the patient and prioritizing the patient’s voice in the patient-OB/GYN relationship.”
Jason said he doesn’t know anything about the table’s previous owner.
“I don't know the provenance,” he said. “My guess is it was in a home office, like a home practice from when babies were delivered in a country doctor’s home.”
Jason thinks that the quality of its construction — the decorative details and the sheer reassuring weight of the thing — showed that whoever owned the table was proud of their job.
“It’s got a good home now,” he said. “It’s nice to know there will be people walking by it and having a similar affection for it.
Surgical Pendant “There’s a history there. People’s lives literally started on that table. Human history took place on this piece of furniture. That story doesn’t stop with us. It keeps going. Future OB/GYN educators and policymakers will be able to reflect on this and on their chosen profession.”