Lab Coats

I got to wear a white lab coat today! It made me feel special :) Except I was probably dwarfed by it, it was so large. I just have one question though: why do they have large slits in them next to the pockets? Such a conundrum. I feel like it'd be easy to try to slip something into your pocket and have it go through the slit and smash onto the floor. Imagine doing that in front of your patient! It would probably either put him or her at ease because their doctor is so comical, or else make them nervous that their doctor is so dumb that she can't even figure out where her pockets are.