Conan O’Brien Needs A Friend

OBGYN Baaaaby

19 min
May 14, 202617 days ago
Listen to Episode
Summary

Conan O'Brien interviews Dr. Jessica, an OBGYN from New Jersey, who discusses her medical practice, the miracle of childbirth, and provides candid insights into obstetrics and gynecology. The conversation blends humor with genuine discussion about pregnancy, delivery, and women's health education.

Insights
  • Healthcare professionals maintain emotional connection to their work despite exposure; Dr. Jessica still finds wonder in every birth and heartbeat
  • Patient education gaps exist around basic female anatomy; many men lack fundamental knowledge about women's bodies
  • Birth timing remains unpredictable and disruptive to work schedules; medical professionals must adapt to patient needs rather than business hours
  • COVID-19 reinforced the continuity of life and human connection during crisis; healthcare workers witnessed ongoing miracles amid global uncertainty
  • Community-based medical practice creates deeper professional relationships and personal fulfillment for healthcare providers
Trends
Delayed cord clamping and skin-to-skin bonding becoming standard hospital practice for newborn careShift toward patient-centered birth experiences with emphasis on bonding and comfortUse of non-pharmacological pain management techniques (music, sugar pacifiers) in pediatric proceduresHealthcare worker burnout and scheduling challenges in obstetrics due to unpredictable patient needsGrowing recognition of gaps in sexual health and anatomy education among general population
Topics
Obstetrics and gynecology practiceChildbirth and delivery proceduresNewborn care protocolsFemale anatomy educationCircumcision proceduresCord clamping and delayed cord clampingSkin-to-skin bondingHealthcare worker emotional resilienceWomen's health advocacyMedical school and physician trainingHospital nursing and bedside careCOVID-19 impact on healthcare deliveryPatient-provider relationshipsSexual health education
Companies
Shopify
Mid-roll sponsor providing e-commerce platform and business management tools for entrepreneurs and small businesses
People
Jessica
Guest discussing her obstetrics and gynecology practice, childbirth experiences, and medical education
Conan O'Brien
Podcast host conducting interview and engaging in comedic discussion about healthcare and anatomy
Sona Movsesian
Podcast producer and contributor participating in conversation and providing commentary
Matt Gourley
Podcast producer mentioned as being on paternity leave with two children
Fabio
Referenced as former intern on Conan's show who kissed guest's mother at 1999 taping and was later hit by goose
Quotes
"The day I'm like, oh, this is not amazing is the day I should just hang it up. Every time I do an ultrasound, I see a heartbeat for the first time for a patient. I'm amazed every time a baby takes its first breath and cries."
Dr. Jessica
"I think a big thing that sometimes men don't know is that women have more than two holes. They have three holes."
Dr. Jessica
"As far as I'm concerned, that's Sasquatch. You hear a lot of talk, but I've seen no evidence."
Conan O'Brien
"During COVID, we were delivering babies nonstop. That does not stop. So even though we felt like the world was ending, you saw that it doesn't. It just keeps going."
Dr. Jessica
"As a woman, the relationship we have with our OBs is such an important relationship. To be able to say whatever we need to say about our bodies, it's awesome."
Dr. Jessica
Full Transcript
Conan O'Brien needs a fan. Want to talk to Conan? Visit teamcoco.com slash call Conan. Okay, let's get started. Hey, Jessica. Welcome to Conan O'Brien Needs a Fan. Hi, guys. Thanks for having me. Hey, Jessica. How are you? Oh, this is a dream come true. I'm having a great time. Okay. Well, you're masking it very well. I just finished office hours. I was like, I took a per panel all too. So I'm like, beta blocker up, you know. Well, I love my colors to be drugged up. That's the best way. Listen, I'm a doctor. I can get these prescriptions easily. Jessica, where are you right now? I am in New Jersey, like Jersey Shore, Monmouth County. Okay. Very. And you are, it says here you're an OBGYN. Is that correct? That's right. That's right, baby. Very good. Is that how you always respond when people say, are you an OBGYN? Yes. I'm baby. They're in stirrups and I'm like, hey, baby. It doesn't go over well every time, but. Wow. Okay. I'm a very specific type of doctor. I get very specific type of patients. Yeah. Well, there's so much to talk about here. First of all, have we met before? Because someone said you came to a taping or two back in the day? I mean, yeah, when I was in high school, I lived in Jersey. We would pop into the city. So I went to a lot of your tapings. Oh, wow. Cool. And yeah, I mean, obsessed. And then my mom has like a ticket stub from one time we went to see you in 1999. Wow. Cool. And we had met Fabio at that taping. Oh my God. I should point out Fabio was an intern at the time for our show. Yes. And so we took this picture. It was before Smartphone. So it was one of those throwaway cameras. And then after my mom took the picture with him, he grabbed my mom, dipped her backwards, kissed her on the mouth in front of my dad, and then like walked away. And then a month later, he got hit in the face with the goose on the roller coaster. Do you remember his face exploded on a roller coaster? That's such an incredible. What an incredible sentence. Let's think about that sentence. He did my mom backwards, kissed her on the mouth in front of my dad, and a month later got hit on a roller coaster by a goose. What an amazing, you know, incredible piece of writing that is. It really is. A series of images cascading into each other. At the lampoon, you wish. You wish. I know. Oh, never. I never could have thought of anything like that in my glory days. So, OK, well, it's a lot to, as my wife would say, there's a lot to unpack there. So Fabio was kissing women. I hope that's been discouraged on Fabio now. I would have carried a spray bottle around Fabio and sprayed him like a bad cat. You would you spray him with? I can't believe it's not butter. OK. Remember that was his big campaign. That's right. He was the shill for I can't believe it's not butter. I would have tongued it. You would have tongued Fabio. My mom would have. She was like, let's go. Then you would have been full throttle. So I would have bent him over backwards. So I probably your hair. He has his hair. So it is twice as strong as as Fabio. Wow. OK, so that's so nice. I'm glad you came to the shows and I hope you had a good time. Was your dad traumatized by seeing your mom attacked by Fabio? My dad's from Brooklyn, so he wasn't having it. And I think my dad has some sort of superpowers where he put some sort of hex like on Fabio and that's why he got hit by a goose in the face like a month later. Have you? Have this is a pretty famous piece of tape. I guess he was on a roller coaster and and he and his nose is bleeding and everything. And yeah, and yeah, there he is bleeding. There it is. And it was apparently it was apparently a Brooklyn goose. The goose was paid by your dad. And Christine, his face was here. Yeah, Christine never again, never again. He so I want to talk to you about your profession. You are first of all, this is an incredible, incredible job to have. You're around so many births and you're bringing new life into the world. Tell us about that. Does it you get jaded or do you still see the miracle every time? I think the day I'm like, oh, this is not amazing is the day I should just hang it up. Every time I do an ultrasound, I see a heartbeat for the first time for a patient. I'm amazed every time a baby takes its first breath and cries. I'm like, this is so amazing. Shout out to Gourlie, who I know is on his paternity leave. He's on paternity leave. Yeah, he's on paternity leave. He's got two children now and we're all excited for him. And Son, of course, has experienced this miracle herself with twins. Yeah, but you got over it real fast. So I was just like, let's get on with it. Yeah, let's do this. Get them out. Let's go. Yeah, hit the club. She took her newborns to the club. Well, I only have one daughter. I was one and done and I feel like it's because I do so much with my patients. I really live through their pregnancies with them. And it's it's a beautiful thing. I wish it happened during normal business hours. I think it's kind of a bummer that they like to come in the middle of the night. The babies pretty rude. Is it true that you you've been accused of trying to induce between nine and five? Oh, well, that's always like any kind of bank holiday. They're not born. Everyone's like, oh, you have to go play golf or something like I don't play golf. Like, here is this. Yeah. But yeah, so I wish it happened during normal business hours. It doesn't. But I picked this when I was in my twenties now in my forties. I'm feeling a little old, a little schleppy, but it's OK. I still love it. So I'm curious. There's so many things to what are the things that you do immediately after the birth? What are the what happened? The baby's born. And I have been through this twice with my kids. I was there very present, very present for both. Why do you emphasize it? I saw I saw so many things and I and then it's so funny how you can kind of forget. I don't know what you can you can kind of almost black out afterwards. And so I'm trying to remember what happens. I mean, yes, there's the cutting of the bill. The court, the dads black out a lot. They literally pass out. I didn't pass. I didn't pass out. But thank you. Thank you so much for that because the dads are always falling down and we're always like, we don't have time for you right now. Little bitches just like pick your. Yes. Smelling salts like, come on. But the cutting of the cord. Yes. The dads like to do that. I'm not sure how that became a thing. But if that makes them feel included, I'm all for it. So funny because I didn't ask to cut the cord, but the doctor said now you cut the cord and handed me the scissors and I thought, well, I'm getting paid here. You know what I mean? Oh my God. I'm serious when I have a plumber over and he hands me the wrench. I'm like, okay, I want to am I getting a third? So that was my. You should have been compensated. And I was worried about unions. I don't want it to be a union violation. Right. Right. Okay. So that was my. I always tell the dads it's thicker than you think it's like cutting chicken because they kind of like take like little bites out of it, but you got to really go for the gusto. It's thicker than you think. Yeah. Um, but the baby goes right on mommy's abdomen. We do delayed cord clamping, get some blood flow back into baby. We want to do that skin to skin for that first hour. A lot of bonding. Our hospital's really about mom and baby bonding and, uh, but yeah, we get them to stimulate and cry and give us that good first really. You get them to cry. You just tell them sad stuff. What do you? Yes, actually, I tell them no. You're shocking number Americans can't read. I'm babies like what? I hold them up and spank them on the butt, but we don't do that anymore. 40% of government buildings have asbestos. Right. So I just sometimes flick it's little foot like underneath its foot. You go like this. Yeah. And it pisses them off. Sure. This is me off just hearing about it. I know. It's all about pissing the babies off, getting them that good cry, but we have such a great team at our hospital. Our nurses are so great bedside. So I'm very lucky and I do really love my job. This is a paid ad for Shopify. You know, I started this business. Remember? Yes. I'm single-handedly. No one helped me. Oh, I just said, I know a lot about podcasts and I should start one and I built all the equipment and, um, everyone believes you. Yeah. Uh, but it's intimidating. It's a lot. You have to wear a lot of hats when you're someone like me who does everything all by himself looking for a tool that not only helps you run your business, but simplifies everything. That sure would help me try Shopify, the commerce platform behind millions of businesses worldwide. Shopify helps you use pre-made templates to build a beautiful online store. You can easily create email, social media campaigns too, and take advantage of Shopify's expertise, spending everything from inventory management. I could have used some help there to international shipping and processing returns. I have to tell you that Shopify sounds like a be the right tool for me. Yeah. And I'm sure someone in this room is you Shopify. You probably believe you Shopify. Yeah. I've always got some side hustles going on. You have a lot of side hustles. And Shopify is great. In fact, I think this is your side hustle and your other things are more important to you. I, that's, that's okay if it is. Well, I mean, importance is, uh, yeah, I like to say busy and Shopify helps me get what I need to get done. Well, it's incredible. Yeah. I've, you know, this is all stuff that could have helped me a lot when I was putting this whole podcast empire together single-handedly without anybody's help. Everybody helped you. You had no idea what you were doing. I built this microphone. You didn't know. Turn your big business idea into reality with Shopify on your side. Send up for your one pound per month trial and start selling today at Shopify.co.uk. That's Shopify.co.uk. What kinds of things could you teach me? You're very hyper aware of the female body and there are probably things, uh, believe it or not that even I wouldn't be aware of. What? You know what I mean? And maybe this is a good, this is a good chance for me to know some things if you can impart to me any wisdom. Well, I think knowing anatomy is really important. Erogenous zones. What are those things that could, right? Well, man, we got to really start from the beginning. Yeah. Um, just, I think a big thing that sometimes men don't know is that women have more than two holes. They have three holes. So that's always interesting. What are we talking about here? What are you talking about? Wait, what? Yeah. No, these more specific because I honestly, suddenly it's a bowling ball. What do you? What's that? Right. Huh? What's that? Urinate. Urinate. Yeah. Peepies. Peepies. Yeah. Yeah. Uh-huh. Peepies. Pupus. Yes. Of course. Right. And then baby come out of the vagina. Yeah. So that's three. He's scared of the word vagina. But it's the urethra of the vagina. Oh really? The sputtle. Urethra of the anus. Anus, right, Sona? We're going to use our doctor words. Yeah. I said peepee and poo poo. So. Tell me about your medical school. Right? How did that even happen? So, I'm sure you went to poo poo, poo poo you. So, um, okay. So the erogenous zones, you could help any man know about the erogenous zones. Yeah, where the clitoris is. I feel like that's really, there's a great book. Like there's a clitoris. Listen, there's a book you should read. As far as I'm concerned, that's Sasquatch. You hear a lot of talk, but I've seen no evidence. Here's a blurry photo of a clitoris. Yeah, I've seen that photo. Look. If you're going to be talking bullshit on this thing. I am a clitoris denier. I, uh, I. I. We have enough misinformation online. We can't. We have flat earthers. Now we have clitoris deniers. I love a guy having. He's got a blurry photo from 1938 of a clitoris running between two trees. See it right there? I don't know. This was taken by a Scottish hiker. Uh, wow. Okay. Well, um, yeah. A clitoris denier. Oh, wow. I could teach you how to do a circumcision. Oh, okay. Hey, how do you do those? I'm curious. I mean, how do you, how does one, what's the tool that's used for a circumcision? I've been to, I have been to many bristles. Uh, and, um, I've many, many Jewish friends and I've been to bristles, but you can't really see what's going on. And I've tried to fight for good look and they say that's inappropriate. I've been shoved by rabbis. Cause it's weird when a guy is saying, hey, I want to see that kid's dick. People get freaked out. You know? Hey, let me in there. I gotta see that kid's dick. People get freaked out. I don't know why. So, um, and I know that now. I can see why that's an issue. But what is the tool that's used? So different people use different tools. I like to use something called a mogon. So it looks like a cigar cutter and you just pull up the foreskin and you go across and then you clamp it down and then you lop it off of the scalpel. And does the kid cry a lot after that? So, no, we actually do dorsal nerve blocks. I'm injecting lidocaine. They get a sugar pacifier. We play music. It's like a spa experience. So it's not traumatic for the kid? I mean, it might be. They can't tell me, but we try not to make it dramatic. Hey, how convenient for you. Honestly, they're the best patients. Yeah. That's interesting. So you do the old chop on the foreskin. Then we have the calamari piece. I love this. Yes, we love that. That's your joke. I steal it. My favorite joke to do at Briss is to say, hey, man, that calamari was really good because they always have a meal afterwards. They always serve food at a bris. And I say, I love the calamari. And then the person goes, we don't have calamari. And I go, oh, now that joke works because he ate the foreskin. You get it? Yeah, I got it. I'm glad you love that joke. I don't have to do circumcision. Who would? If anyone said that's my favorite thing to do, that's the red flag right there. You know what I mean? And I try to avoid penises. I'm doing what I do. And then they're like, oh, you have to do surgery on the smallest penis possible. So that's a little weird. I don't remember booking an appointment with you. Home run. Home run. Well, for you. Just to deep well, you are so happy. Let's do the chart on this conversation. I'm the guy with the smallest penis in the world who insists on checking out a kid's dick at a bris and doesn't believe there's a clitoris. Right. That's going to go in your tombstone. Yeah. I'm going to play out comedically. No one lays out more awful information about themselves than I do. I don't know why that delights me. But you know, I will say on the serious side, that is what an incredible job to have. Because I do think in the modern world we get removed from birth and death. We've anesthetized ourselves to it. And so it's amazing to just to be around so much new life would be, I think, very affirming. Right? It would be pretty amazing. And it just keeps going. You know, during COVID, we were delivering babies nonstop. That does not stop. So even though we felt like the world was ending, you saw that it doesn't. It just keeps going. Life is just going to keep rolling along. And it really grounded me and helped me to see that there's so many beautiful things happening every day, even though it felt like the world was ending. You guys were a huge part of what got us through COVID too. Just listening to your podcast was so important. Kept us laughing, kept us going. And now that we're through that, I definitely have a deeper relationship and understanding with my patients. And I love what I do. I love what I really do love my patients. I get to practice where I grew up. So I feel connected to my community and I'm very lucky. That's cool. I think it's great. I love that you were this teenager coming by checking out our goofy tapings. And now I'm talking to you all these years later and you're just, you're a very impressive person, Jessica. Really, seriously. And very, very cool to talk to you. And I love talking to people that have these jobs that are just so impressive. Yeah. As a woman, the relationship we have with our OBs is such an important relationship. To be able to say whatever we need to say about our bodies, it's awesome. I mean, I love my OB. It's awesome. I'm not crying. My voice is doing something weird. So you're saying you don't have that relationship with me. You don't feel like you could tell me anything about your body. Absolutely. Do you want to hear about perimenopause and all the symptoms that I'm having? I don't want to hear about any of it. See, this is the problem. You don't want to hear about the word vagina scares you. I don't want to. We're not doing this right now. To quote my father, we're not talking about that right now. Not right now. He would say that about any time anything came up that he didn't want to deal with. He'd be like, we're not talking about that right now. Oh, I guess we're not. Man ever. Well, Jessica, really lovely talking to you. And I hope we... This was a dream come true. You guys are all awesome. I hope we cross paths in person. That'd be really cool. And then we can hear more about this fabled clitoris. I can draw you a picture. Yeah. Might as well draw a unicorn as far as I'm concerned. Thank you for your time, guys. I'm an idiot. Thank you, Jessica. Bye. I'm dream. Have a green one. Conan O'Brien needs a fan with Conan O'Brien, Sonam of Sessian and Matt Gorely. Produced by me, Matt Gorely. Executive produced by Adam Sacks, Jeff Ross and Nick Leo. Incidental music by Jimmy Vivino. Take it away, Jimmy. Superbizing producer, Aaron Blair. Associate talent producer, Jennifer Samples. Associate producers, Sean Doherty and Lisa Byrne. Engineering by Eduardo Perez. Get three free months of SiriusXM when you sign up at SiriusXM.com. Please rate, review and subscribe to Conan O'Brien Needs a Fan Wherever Fine Podcasts Are Down. Thank you.