Male midwife

[WifeOfAGemini]

Hi I just wondered how many of you experienced care from a male midwife, and what did you think about it?

I had a sweep done by a male midwife, they did check that I was happy for him to do it instead of a female midwife and I agreed because I didn’t want to make a fuss. My logic at the time was that he won’t be able to do his job properly if everyone says no to letting him do procedures.

You win.
No NHS Trust has a clue as to how many staff they need to manage maternity services.

Course you have. Men really are the bestest.

Far from it dear but in medical situations I’ve recently had in particular I’ve had positive experiences.
But my experience doesn’t negate someone else’s and vice versa.
there are no ‘bestests’ just different.
Anyway chill out and grow up

No, they really have no idea how many women will be in labour on any given day because it is so unpredictable. What they do know is how many rooms they have for labouring women and so in theory, how many staff they will need if it is full. My local hospital has 20 rooms for labouring women. They haven't had 20 midwives in for a shift in those wards for years. If it does get full, some midwives look after more than one woman or a student takes them with minimal supervision.

When people say the male midwife, nursery key worker etc were the best, is it because they stand out more by being male in a usually female environment. So even though female equivalents may have been good too, you remember the male one more and what they did because it was unusual to see them in that environment

You win

Nobody wins, hence the maternity scandles we have and recently. There is just no point in telling women at the moment that they can just swap their practitioner and they have a right to when the NHS cannot safely offer such control. You'll make a woman in labour feel worse if she finds in the moment that there isn't a female/white/young/old midwife to swap with the one she finds unsuitable.

You could attempt to read what I actually typed?

I have said from the start of this thread that is is a NHS hospital issue, a management issue and an employee issue.

No woman should be forced to provide access to her body just because a man wanted to work in a role.

But nice racist ageist trope

I think you might just be deluded. If nobody wants to be a midwife, and midwives don't want to stay midwives, then there isnt anyone to actually provide care, is there? That's not a management issue for the hospital, it's a socio-political issue for everyone. So you can sit there and scream about what rights should be, and insist that you get the female midwife you want, but you'll just be screaming into a void while other people who do want the available practitioners around you receive clinical care.

You are allowed to ask for another practitioner for any reason. Not just gender. The idea that someone could feel discomfort with a particular demographic due to trauma is relevant for many demographics, not just sex related ones. You don't even have to explain why you want another one. But the point remains, the reality is that units are understaffed and care is allocated according to clinical need and experience so you can't always just safely swap with someone else.

No woman should be forced to provide access to her body just because a man wanted to work in a role.

But nice racist ageist trope

She isnt forced to do anything. You dont have a legal right to a female midwife, you have a legal right to a qualified clinician (doctor or midwife) in labour. She has choices: have the clinician allocated to you now, or wait until we can safely allocate you one you'd prefer. That might not be immediately although you are immediately in labour. I think some times people mistake their right to decline with a perceived right to demand. You don't have the right to demand care from the staff member you feel entitled to. You can be allocated their care if it is safe for everyone and doesn't compromise the care of others.

No woman should be forced to provide access to her body just because a man wanted to work in a role.

But nice racist ageist trope

You can keep repeating yourself, but the fact you cant answer any of what I am saying shows that you might have something to say on the matter, but no thoughts worthy of debate or even mere inclusion.

No woman should be forced to provide access to her body just because a man wanted to work in a role.

But nice racist ageist trope

Honestly, is this really your take? Do you ever follow inquests following medical malpractice? Or read the posts in this very thread from women who have had male health care professionals do things which they weren't sure about?

I actually don't understand how you get to adulthood and don't realise that reporting senior male medical professionals as a poorly paid female subordinate or as a patient is a) very difficult, b) traumatic and c) to your strong personal detriment.

as far as I’m aware, those professions don’t involve touching or examining the genitalia of the opposite sex.

Because as women we know about fires and electricity despite what men might say. However, men do not give birth and so their experience always going to be lesser

I work in a senior role within the NHS and there is a whistle blowing system in place. I do know people who have done this in the past and fortunately it was effective.

To be clear, I would have no problem with men wanting a man to do prostate exams and vasectomies…

So no childfree midwives at all presumably

If having a mix of male and female midwives means some women will end up with no choice but to have a male one, including women who have trauma from past sexual assault (unfortunately a big number of women)
Then the only logical and reasonable answer is to only have female midwives surely?

Male midwives are fine as long as women actually have the choice.

They can be childfree by all means, but by being female they have an understanding of the way a woman's body works in a way men never will.

I don't think that's true when it comes to pregnancy and childbirth in the sense that unless you've experienced it, you just can't have that sort of empathetic connection. Even more so if you never want to experience it.

In that sense, I see male midwives on par with female midwives who won't ever have children. But I don't think that sort of firsthand experience is necessary to be a good midwife.

Yep the service users are all going to be women. All vulnerable and at some stage unlikely to be in a position to say no.

It is awkward to have to agree that women should be centered in the process.

However if men can be excluded from breast cancer screening jobs (and the fuss that is creating) why is it so hard to visualise a system which recognises womens needs first.

I can’t help but wonder if we had the same gynae. Was this in Kent by any chance? I went for a pelvic pain issue, at the end of the examination / discussion, for no apparent reason, he pushed his fingers in me hard enough to hurt, and when I winced, he smirked. God, I wish I’d called him out but I was young and naive then.