Scrubbing in before surgery to songs from the ‘80s. Elbow-to-elbow with medical residents in a cramped, cozy lounge. Squeaking down halls in Danskos, the trademark clogs clinicians often wear. And Thursdays, when there’s sesame chicken and broccoli stir fry in the hospital cafeteria.
“It’s my happy place."
But getting here wasn’t easy for OBGYN Norma Jones-Ives.
Many of her early memories are fraught. A sudden back injury meant her mother, single and a live-in housekeeper in Los Angeles, could no longer work. By age five, little Norma recalls couch- and public housing-surfing with her mom, leaving elementary schools almost as soon as she’d arrived, and sometimes dodging case workers from social services.
Before long, her stepfather materialized, and, with him, nearly a decade of sexual and verbal abuse.
“I saw the power dynamics, and, at a young age, I always said, ‘I want to make sure I’m educated, I have a good career, want to be either a doctor or a lawyer, so I won’t have to depend on someone.’”
By the time Norma was a teenager, she started working outside the house before finally landing a job at age 16 that would shape the course of her life: Disneyland.
“I started out as a float driver, I did some character roles for certain parades, like the Electrical Parade, Christmas Parade. It was amazing. Such a wonderful, perfect world.”
The Disney job built Jones-Ives’ confidence and network. She could buy a car, insurance, and, later, pay for college and ultimately medical school. It supported her during her residency at UCLA hospital, and even connected her to her now-husband, a musician in the Toy Soldier band
Disney also helped birth Jones-Ives’ passion for women’s health and drive to support other abuse survivors. Today, her backstory has everything to do with how she mentors the doctors and doctors-to-be at Riverside Regional Medical Center who learn from her during their obstetrics and gynecology clinical rotations. They call her “Mama Jones.”
Plastic speculums? Never let them click. A whole-body clench on the exam table? Slow down. Obesity or addiction? Always ask patients about a history of trauma.
“Whether it’s sexual abuse, physical abuse, whether they’re neglected, or abandonment, they sometimes turn to food as a source of comfort,” Jones-Ives explains.
Jones-Ives does gynecological surgeries, too, everything from hysterectomies to pelvic organ prolapses to “crash” Cesarean sections, which can deliver a baby in under two minutes.
But with patients, she is never in a rush.
“We kind of joke that OBGYN, like, we’re ‘gyno-chiatrists,’ because a lot of times women will save a lot all their, you know, issues, and a lot of problems that women have are related to kind of issues that are going on in their family and their past and all of that will affect their health,” Jones-Ives says. “It’s amazing when I look at our patients that there’s usually some trauma, pretty much all the time. And I think that’s what drew me to OBGYN. I felt that I could recognize which patients had issues, and that’s when I started sharing with them. I’m like, ‘It’s not your fault, and I’m here to help you.’"
“I feel like I want to care for them. I don’t know. Just … protect them.”
To those who might be survivors of abuse, she shares a bit of backstory, Spanish when necessary, and a lot of plain talk.
“This is a safe space. I go, ‘This is between you and me, nothing will go outside,’ so they feel comfortable and safe. And I try to tell them, ‘It happens, it’s one in three, and it’s not your fault.’ I think a lot of sexual abuse survivors, they have the guilt, the shame. And I try to reassure them that, ‘You’re not alone.’”
Free, confidential, 24/7 help is available for people who are victims or survivors of sexual abuse, both men and women. Reach the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-4673 or online: https://hotline.rainn.org/online.
This report, provided by Virginia Public Radio, was made possible with support from the Virginia Education Association.