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Serial

The Retrievals S02 - Ep. 3

August 07, 2026 • 54m

Summary

⏱️ 17 min read

Overview

This episode of The Retrievals tells the remarkable story of Susanna Stanford, a British woman who transformed the medical field's approach to pain during cesarean sections after experiencing a traumatic surgery in 2010. Despite not being a doctor, Susanna became a leading voice in obstetric anesthesia, authoring influential papers, developing national guidelines, and fundamentally changing how the medical community addresses and researches patient pain during C-sections.

The Problem of Pain During Cesarean

The episode opens at a medical conference where doctors acknowledge that severe pain during C-sections is a widespread but rarely discussed problem. Despite being experienced by medical experts on a daily basis, the issue has been largely ignored, with women continuing to suffer severe mental health complications, including suicidal ideations years after their surgeries. The impact on patients is devastating, with birthdays of children becoming nightmares for mothers who experienced trauma during delivery.

  • Most doctors in the room have had patients with severe interoperative pain in the last month
  • Women experience mental health complications including suicidal ideations years after traumatic C-sections
  • Children's birthdays become nightmares for mothers who experienced surgical pain
" I mean, even the sight of the logo made me angry. Walking the hall made me angry. I couldn't believe I had to be there. I couldn't believe I was back. "
" The mental health complications, I have women who are still having suicidal ideations years later. Their birthdays of their children become nightmares. The impact is so severe. "

The Reporter's Perspective: A Different Kind of Investigation

Reporter Susan Burton frames this as an investigation, but not of a traditional crime—rather of a deviant practice. She observes the feminine nature of the story, from the tiny hotel room with crisp white duvet where documents are spread, to the folder of papers handed to a reporter. The episode self-consciously examines its own narrative tropes while telling a story about how women's suffering has been systematically ignored and how one woman worked to change that.

  • This is an investigation of a deviant practice rather than a traditional crime
  • The reporter notes how feminine the story is, from setting to subject matter
  • Traditional reporter tropes are acknowledged and examined throughout

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