Of course lots of obstetricians are male and often there isn’t a choice, the thing is the obstetrician tends just to sweep in to save the day at the end of a tricky labour or to do the LSCS.
Which is entirely different to the job of the midwife, which can be very intimate during labour, not just internal examinations but also hugs, massages, cold compresses on the perineum, mopping up vomit and poo.
It's not the case everywhere that the OB sweeps in and takes all the credit at the end.
My deliveries in the US featured OB nurses' constant presence during labour, regular check-ins and internal exams and readings of monitors by the obstetrician, and either obstetrician or resident presence (in the case of DS's delivery a roomful of residents and the obstetrician) for the active stage, with nurses assisting at mopping and handing necessary syringes, ventouse equipment, episiotomy scissors, stitching items, gauze, etc to the obstetrician for the patching up process.
For my one delivery with a midwife team, nurses also did the mopping and 'surgery nurse' thing at the end.
Midwives in the US have masters degrees in nursing/midwifery at the minimum, and have passed national certification exams.
Then there is post natal care, things like helping with hot and cold compresses for engorged breasts, helping to express milk, checking the perineal healing, applying ice packs to haemorrhoids.
All done very expertly by a combination of male OB and nurses, in my case. The doctors checked my perineal healing, and nurses showed me how to use ice packs.
I was never in hospital long enough to have engorged breasts but had been given pep talks by the lactation consultant about hot and cold compresses, was sent home with a supply of very handy perineal chemical ice packs and perineal irrigation bottles, and on the one occasion when I had a thrombosed hemorrhoid and needed to return to the hospital three days after delivery, I was first checked by my male OB and then sent to a male general surgeon who did me the biggest favour anyone has ever done me, in an examining room in his office.
It was my (male) OB who showed me how to get a good latch.
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The references to chaperones, and thus the need for female HCPs as community midwives and MWs in the hospital setting, are very interesting, since in many cultures the necessity for chaperones for women stems from male insecurity about other males around their chattels, and concerns about honour being besmirched. It seems to me that advocating for excluding male HCPs in this context is pandering to a patriarchal structure that should actually be challenged.