Male midwife facing 29 charges of misconduct,

Obs and gynae is becoming increasingly female-dominated too, about 85% of newly qualified drs in that area are female in both the UK and USA which is amazing when you consider only a few decades ago it was the other way round. Apparently this in turn is making it harder for men to train as women are more able to say no thanks to a male doctor and exercise their preference to be cared for by females. There was a moany article about it in the New York Times a while back with some unhappy male obgyns. It’s predicted men could disappear from the field completely if the trend keeps up.

I often do find that, when talking about birth experiences, women often say ‘I was lucky/fortunate that all the staff in theatre were women’ I definitely think there’s a huge shift in the dynamics and atmosphere having strange men present or not during birth.

See with this particular case, many of the things he did, who could have been doing on any other ward if he was a nurse. Some were unique to maternity but certainly not all. So if he was barred from maternity on the grounds that he was male alone, would that make women safe? The contempt for women would be still be there...

It still would be down for colleagues to challenge. Is it because it was an all female staff, bar him, that was part of the issue too (ironically)?

This man was quite simply unsuitable to be working on ANY ward.

She would, in all likelihood, concede ‘for the baby’.
Not to kick up a fuss
Not to speak up and receive eye rolls abs sideways glances.

What option is there exactly? No option..

Same goes for male Obsgynae too.

I don’t know what the answer is.

Apart from for men to stop abusing women, perhaps.

I’ve posted up thread a fair bit. I’m not against male midwives - I had one when I came around after having my DD under general anaesthetic and he was great. He was new to the job - delivered his first baby that day and helped me to express colostrum.
I didn’t get a say in the matter however..
Just saying it’d be nice to be asked..
And that was before I was sexually assaulted by my daughter’s paediatric consultant- had it been afterwards I’d have complained on the spot.

@MananaTomorrow there is that!!!

I would not have had any idea I could say I’m not comfortable with a male midwife when I had my children.

If it isn’t being made clear to all women then they don't actually have a choice. Only the more confident articulate women have a choice.

It can also be intimidating to report a male colleague, I think the onus should be on the man to not be inappropriate rather than wondering why it wasn't reported (more to the point acted on, things get reported frequently and nothing comes of it).

The Missing Stair theory might apply here – that creep everyone learns to work around. I look back and there were so many men like that where I grew up.

*I wonder if this is Best of the best in action…

Women (surgeons in this case) will be more frequency discouraged, drop out, receive far less benefit of the doubt than male counterparts.
Be more likely to be sacked for a single mistake (like people of colour) than men.
Be more likely to undertake childcare than men.*

This was my immediate thought BUT there was no difference for male patients on whether they were operated on by a male or female doctor.

Also I think with regard to some of his creepy comments women are likely to just ignore or think they've done their bit with a sharp put down and basically tolerate it, perhaps feeling it's not report worthy. When someone new arrives they are likely to see it in a different light and be less inclined to ignore it, perhaps.

"Mr Joshi told the panel that Mr Johnson was jokingly referred to as the 'Scarlet Pimpernel' due to his habit of disappearing while on shift without telling colleagues where he had gone.
It is alleged that, during one such absence, he told a colleague he was moving his car, but subsequently messaged the co-worker he was in a relationship with that he had gone to an adult shop."

It certainly shows how secure he felt in his position that he could just disappear for a while and nobody challenged it. He was lucky to get away with this behaviour for so long without being caught out eg an emergency situation arising when his presence would have been expected and needed.

@Chillyseadippin, I’d rather think that men aren’t as good as they make out to be

This thread is a fascinating read. It's amazing how many women, even in maternity situations, accept the socialisation that women are not real people who have a real, independent, important existence of their own in their own right, going along with the belief that women only truly exist to demonstrate how terrific, just terrific, men really are.

I'm going to let you bright gals in on a little secret - NAMALT.

Some of them are absolute pigs.

RedToothBrush I agree. He was there for 18 years, and it (possibly, I am reading between the lines) took someone new to come in and say, this is wrong, when he started commenting on her body in an interview - right from the start he was overstepping, doing that thing that bullies are so good at of flattering one person at the expense of others.

None of what is reported sounds like sexual assault, more a deep contempt for women and the job itself.

But as you say for that behaviour to go on for so long, for him to be untouchable, suggests a much bigger problem within that hospital.

Women (surgeons in this case) will be more frequency discouraged, drop out, receive far less benefit of the doubt than male counterparts.
Be more likely to be sacked for a single mistake (like people of colour) than men.
Be more likely to undertake childcare than men.

What is left is the very very ‘best’ most determined women with very specific home life circumstances (of course many many of those pushed out one way or another were also very very good).

Why did they do that? As I say - this isn't just about him - its about the culture in that department and that hospital in which he was able to become the 'sacred caste' and wasn't dealt with much earlier

It absoluetely matters why staff were too afraid or indifferent to behaviour that crossed the line.

But many many men go through years and years of training to gain access to women and girls. Larry Nasser, Serge mombo, Andy king Jerry sandusky and the Mali basketball coach to name a few in sports.

Listen to "Where is George Gibney" on BBC Sounds. GG was, until relatively recently, Ireland's top swimming coach. And a serial rapist who is still at large, and whose behaviour should be a national scandal in that country. Why would he do all those early morning training meets? Why would he bother dealing with the arse ache that is organising galas? Why would he shlep around the country/world with a load of swimmers who will never make it big? Why would he put himself out doing all the Coach/Judge/Swim Manager training? Why would he bother? Why? Because in doing so he became a national hero, lauded in the press and by the government, beloved of parents with ambitions for their children. And that created a massive facade of respect for him, and meant his victims were not believed, or felt they would not be believed so didn't report his rapes. They just dropped out of their beloved sport, turned to drugs, ended up in institutions, suicide, scarred forever.

Yeah but NAMALT

"Interesting thing" is the wrong wording - I mean telling.

The interesting thing about this story is that he told a colleague she had a "gorgeous figure" and would bring some "glamour and youth to the team."

So he was a being a creep and overstepping boundaries by commenting on her body.

He was also being rather nasty about the other women on the team - ageist and judgemental.

Possibly this new recruit was the one who complained, while everyone else had been bullied into submission, was scared of him, or felt there was nothing they could do about someone more senior.

For there to be 29 counts he must have had some degree of power and was in with the right people higher up. He has lost his job, which is a good thing.

I agree, which is why there should be a blanket policy of recording all complaints, no matter how small or who they're about.

Complaints are not necessarily all allegations and certainly shouldn't be landmines. When you're in a situation of being almost entirely 1-1 with patients without oversight there needs to be a mechanism where they can feedback on manner or even minor concerns and be listened to, as well as the more serious stuff. Currently I can only think of PALS which, as you said, I'd only consider for something major. Patient experience should be about setting a higher bar than "wasn't sexually assaulted or told to fuck off".

I work with a male midwife
I am his manager
One of the first things I said to him was - without fail - do not - see / examine / discuss / offer any kind of treatment or examination without an escort
He fully understands the situation and we are protecting him and the public

I wouldn't have wanted a male midwife myself but he is qualified , kind , empathetic , patient and very knowledgeable so I support him and have only had one lady refuse his care , which is fine

[quote WorkingClassWoman]Not all male midwives are sensitive to the needs of women who want female only environment.

Chris Butt (a practising midwife) threw a hissy fit when he requested to attend a female only breastfeeding session of the NCT and was directed to an alternative group that wasn’t female only ie. One where male partners could also attend. The NCT is a private organisation that is not part of the NHS and women pay to attend for additional support. The only difference between the group he asked to attend and the other is that the one he wanted to attend was for women who had requested a woman only group . He didn't go to the other group so can’t have been that interested in learning about how to support breastfeeding.

www.dailyecho.co.uk/news/9971617.male-midwife-hits-out-at-breastfeeding-group-ban/[/quote]
Quite. And on this thread we have the example of a female midwife voicing dismissal and annoyance of women who upset her male colleague by saying no to him.

Women should not be required to get undressed and accept intimacy with a male person on the grounds that the male will be sad and feel rejected if she says no. The woman's comfort and needs should never be secondary and when she's giving birth ffs? Any professional more interested in how the patient is meeting the needs of the midwife needs than having a patient as relaxed and confident in their care as possible is in need of some urgent supervision work.

There needs to be choice. If there are going to be mixed sex provisions, this needs to be entirely based on informed choice, with no pressure (all the other women here are muslim so you HAVE to have the male midwife even though you don't want to) or (my male colleague is LOVELY don't be a nasty bigot/not my Nigel) or (there's no one else on duty so get on with it). And professionals, particularly those male ones wishing to be in this position of extreme trust with women, need to put their own agendas aside.

As for the 'get rid of perverts before they qualify' - unfortunately this does mean waiting until a woman's been hurt and feels able to report it before you can go 'oh there's one'. Not great safeguarding. Again, it's up to women to take that informed risk if they choose to. And people need to accept that many won't.

The mixed sex experiment has been tried and it is not working for many women.

The thing with complaints is, ALL should be logged no matter how silly they sound or how 'unreliable' the accuser is.

If you then see someone with a particularly high level of complaints, then you can start to look a little closer. If you see a pattern of the same complaints then you can bet your life there is a problem that needs addressing in some way, even if thats just about basic bedside manner rather than something more sinister.

A culture were complaints are made easy and actively encouraged, should be healthier than one where the culture is to close ranks and protect staff.

I know the staff complaint will be that it puts them under extra stress but thats down to poor management rather than the patients to accomodate.

If anything we should be framing this as 'constructive criticism primarily' and normalising complaints.

Instead, the hoops for complaints and the obstacles and attitude you get are dreadful. It can be a distressing process because of the system as much as the actual complaint.

The case in the OP is striking because it was TWENTY NINE counts (god knows how many he actually did). Thats the thing that really jumps out at me in terms of lost opportunities to deal with the issue much sooner.