Would having a male midwife bother you ?

[ChristmasRobinFly]

Just watching the us office birth episode where the male Breast feeding consultant comes along

and reminded me of having a male midwife and I felt uncomfortable but too embarrassed to say actually, I don’t mean to be sexist but
actually no, I don’t feel comfortable with this

I wouldn't want a male midwife

In an emergency it would be unimportant but if I have a choice I will choose female hcps every time

No. A male doctor broke my waters. Ive had a male doctor look at my piles before and one had a rummage round when I had a lump once. A male midwife is no different to a male doctot. (To me)

What matters to me is how the individual is. I had one midwife who was so bloody horrible I refused to see her again. I want decency and kindness, thats all.

So no, it doesnt matter to me personally but it should be every woman's right to choose whether or not she wants males involved in her care and she should be asked first and it put in her notes rather than being asked while she's already in labour.

Yes, I read yesterday of a male nurse struck off for deliberately hurting a paralysed patient who couldn’t speak. (The headline says “humiliating”, but the report shows he put an acid-like substance on the poor man’s penis.) Given that far more women work in healthcare positions, it’s noticeable how often the bad ones are male.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c70rkewkx9no.amp

There’s a male midwife on Instagram who is absolutely heaped with praise and replies with thumbs up and hearts to all the women who comment “ amazing to see more men in the profession. Anyone who wouldn’t want a male midwife is just sexist”. No thought or regard for the fact that him/other men inserting their fingers into vulnerable women might be highly traumatic.

Agree.
I'm shocked by the fawning over male HCPs, many are very good, but you only have to look at the tribunal sections of the professional registration pages to see that a significant majority are dangerous.

I'm a paramedic, if you sort the hcpc tribunals page by paramedic then filter out the women, the male paramedics are almost exclusively being struck off for sexual misconduct (with the exception of a cohort of paramedics recruited in from Poland by one of the southern ambulances services who is now regretting it's decisions!).

It makes for truely shocking reading, especially in the context that these men have access to women at their most vulnerable and often isolated time.

We need to be very careful to balance NAMALT with actual practical safeguarding of women. Pregnant and labouring women are the priority in midwifery, not the wants and needs of men, especially as this survey demonstrates 2/3rd of women don't want male midwives.

I hate to be that poster but I really don’t understand why a man would want to be a midwife? It’s such a deeply feminine experience and space, I just can’t wrap my head around it. I understand from the point of view of babies and being part of birth, but it’s so much more than that, pregnancy and birth it is such a vulnerable time for a woman, I just can’t help but feel it’s a bit intrusive for a man to occupy this space.

'Anyone who wouldn’t want a male midwife is just sexist'

Ugh, it's unsurprising, but still infuriating. The lack of empathy is awful.

Yep, any man you thinks it is okay to be a male midwife is not a man that should be doing the role, and in the current health services where more than 50% of doctors are female the same applies to obs/gynae dr jobs.

I said earlier about the depressing lack of imagination being shown by some posters. It’s also being shown by posters unable to see the difference in experience between having a male midwife and a male surgeon.

Why?
They still choose to actively train in a profession that solely gives them access to women at their most vulnerable, when they're now enough females candidates to fill the training posts. Why not just be urologists?! What is it about being an obs/gynaecologist that specifically appealed to them? If it's the babies be a neonatologist.

I was talking about the experience of having,(being treated by) a male midwife or surgeon, not of being one.

Fair enough. I don't see a difference either.

I think people put doctors, and more so, surgeons on a towering pedestal forgetting that they are in fact just humans like the rest of us and the rest of the HCPs (just ones who did better in their a levels and got into med schools), and the male ones are just 'men'.

I've had appointments with male gynaecologists (the waiting list for gynae where i am is 2 years so I'm not in a position to turn them down) and always come away pondering why they would choose it as their speciality out of all the many many specialities they could choose from. WHY?!

This always descends into why do men study gynaecology but thousands praise the work qnd expertise from Robert Winston and Pat O'Brien

Incidentally, I would defend a man’s request to have a man examine his prostate or put a swab up his dick too

Well, in my experience, men tend to prefer women HCP’s for these things.

This is very informative, and also worrying. Thank you for sharing that!
And yes, absolutely - pregnant and labouring women should be centred, not the feelings of male HCPs.

I had a male student hospital midwife when DS was born. He was excellent and realised that DS was a b2b footling breach.

I had a male student hospital midwife when DS was born. He was excellent and realised that DS was a b2b footling breach.

Different era where it was extremely difficult for women to get surgical trainee posts.

His professional career probably leap frogged past the few women in his profession.

Un-named women were more than likely making huge advancements behind the scenes but weren't credited for it.

If Gynae had been a female dominated profession back then i'm confident women would have made the same scientific developments.

What Robert Winston did was an amazing thing, but that doesn't mean it couldn't have been achieved if women were in his role instead.

I was delivered by a male midwife when I was a baby, so I’d be quite the hypocrite if I complained about having one myself.

I was born in the 70s and it was very rare for men to be midwives then. My mum didn’t mind at all though.

I had a male midwife when I went to deliver my first dc. I didn't know until I was brought into the delivery room. At first I was nervous and embarrassed but I soon got over it. He ended up being lovely. On my second I didn't make it to the delivery room 😂 but I had 2 female nurses. My daughter was out in 5 mins the placenta took longer!

Why would you be a hypocrite, you're allowed to form your own opinions based on your own experiences.

No women is EVER a hypocrite or wrong for not wanting inimate care provided by a man.

I had a male take over after shift change but by that point I was in so much pain and so high on gas and air I didn’t really think about it until after and I wasn’t best pleased that he’d been there but was too out of it to think straight at the time.
Had he been one of the midwives at the beginning I would probably have spoken up and said no.
I also had a male come and do the stitches and that felt a bit awkward too but by then all dignity was lost and I just wanted it over with.

Wouldn't bother me at all.

Of course women who are uncomfortable with it should be able to ask for a female midwife but I don't think there's anything wrong with male midwives at all.

I’ve been treated by a male fertility specialist and had no issues at all. But I wouldn’t want a male midwife and would refuse if offered.

What a ridiculous comment that a male midwife would train for several years just to fulfill perverted ideas. So glad I don’t live in your head.