diff --git a/src/labthings/utilities.py b/src/labthings/utilities.py
index 9a4407c..f41a0cd 100644
--- a/src/labthings/utilities.py
+++ b/src/labthings/utilities.py
@@ -1,4 +1,5 @@
 import copy
+import inspect
 import operator
 import os
 import re
@@ -152,12 +153,12 @@ def get_docstring(obj: Any, remove_newlines=True) -> str:
 
     """
     ds = obj.__doc__
-    if ds:
+    if not ds:
+        return ""
+    if remove_newlines:
         stripped = [line.strip() for line in ds.splitlines() if line]
-        if not remove_newlines:
-            return "\n".join(stripped)
         return " ".join(stripped).replace("\n", " ").replace("\r", "")
-    return ""
+    return inspect.cleandoc(ds) # Strip spurious indentation/newlines
 
 
 def get_summary(obj: Any) -> str:
diff --git a/tests/test_utilities.py b/tests/test_utilities.py
index fecd685..eab062a 100644
--- a/tests/test_utilities.py
+++ b/tests/test_utilities.py
@@ -30,6 +30,10 @@ def test_get_docstring(example_class):
         utilities.get_docstring(example_class)
         == "First line of class docstring. Second line of class docstring. "
     )
+    assert (
+        utilities.get_docstring(example_class, remove_newlines=False)
+        == "First line of class docstring.\nSecond line of class docstring."
+    )
 
     assert utilities.get_docstring(example_class.class_method) == (
         "First line of class method docstring. Second line of class method docstring. "