Male midwife facing 29 charges of misconduct,

[TheLoneRager]

NMC hearing started today, expected to last four days, of a senior male midwife accused of, among other things, having taken pictures of two women having caesarian sections without their permission and also filmed himself performing a sex act in a hospital toilet.
He faces 29 misconduct charges.

Will be watching this case this week.

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10439033/Bullying-male-midwife-alleged-taken-pictures-two-women-having-Caesarean-sections.html

Blue4You no problem.

You can read the full article here. The foot-stamping is quite something.

www.latimes.com/health/la-me-male-gynos-20180307-htmlstory.html

Midwifery is a wide ranging job, covering the whole of pregnancy,antenatal care, childbirth and the postnatal period. It is completely different to a male obstetrician rocking up when labour isn't going well to do a LSCS or whatever.
Midwives these days are trained to be alert or to question new patients regarding domestic violence - would it be difficult for a woman in this situation to confide in a male midwife?
Supporting a woman in labour - giving a back massage or just sitting quietly with a hand on the abdomen feeling the contractions.
Supporting breastfeeding, which could include gently expressing milk from an engorged breast, hot and cold bathing engorged breasts, helping fix the baby.
Postnatal visits at home - checking a sore perineum, advising about haemorrhoids, p.v. loss, breasts.
I don't believe a male midwife can do all that a female midwife would.
To go alone into a house where a woman might be alone while her partner has popped to the shops say, and inspect the perineum or massage engorged breasts??? Any man that would do this even if it would be for the best professional reasons, is an idiot - not recognising how he might make a woman feel uncomfortable and also not recognising it would put him at great risk.
So the male midwife can't do the full job and women get a lesser service.
There is lots of research about women not labouring well when they don't feel comfortable and doing better without their male partner in the room (Michel Odent, remember him?).
Ditto breastfeeding - it's important to feel relaxed - the milk won't let down and the baby won't latch if a woman is tense and anxious because a man is handling her breast trying to help.
Not wanting a male midwife isn't just about who delivers the baby.

Fanny - great post.

And this is why I had it written clearly into my birth plan - no male midwives. And will be doing so again for baby number 2

Supporting a woman in labour - giving a back massage or just sitting quietly with a hand on the abdomen feeling the contractions.

Not sure what hospitals other MNers go to, because my experiences of midwives and care through 3 births and 2 losses has never been like this. During my births I barely noticed the sex of the midwife, because they were rarely in evidence, and when they were they were run off their feet, or it was because things were going badly and we all had other things to focus on.

Women should have the right to a female team, and of course men or women in any medical role should be struck off in the case of improper conduct, but I think it's still worse to make any profession single sex.

He was almost never asked to leave patient rooms, because professors introduced him as “a member of our care team” instead of a “male medical student.”

It’s quite clear those patients didn’t have a choice and were misled into thinking he was a doctor instead of a student.

Hi , apologies in delay
Chaperone can be a HCA , an admin person , another midwife or that patient relative
We inform patients prior to attending the clinic that we have a male midwife and if they prefer not to be seen by him then let us know so we can make alternative arrangements, we also give them that choice on arrival as not all patients have access to emails , or can read or write in English

I agree that perhaps some women may not want to offend but in our large clinic , there has never been a time when we could not provide a chaperone

As said by another poster - if we needed help the majority of us would not refuse a male Dr

The male midwife who I saw was fabulous. Genuinely. Far better than the bank member of staff who put the line in wrong for my fluids over night.
Stereotypes help no one. Better supervision abs listening to colleagues who raise issues? Yes.
This suspicion of everyone isn't really helpful.

Stereotypes help no one. Better supervision abs listening to colleagues who raise issues? Yes
This suspicion of everyone isn't really helpful

So we cant be suspicious but let's supervise everyone more isn't that in itself suspicion?

@coldfeetmama

Hi , apologies in delay Chaperone can be a HCA , an admin person , another midwife or that patient relative We inform patients prior to attending the clinic that we have a male midwife and if they prefer not to be seen by him then let us know so we can make alternative arrangements, we also give them that choice on arrival as not all patients have access to emails , or can read or write in English

I agree that perhaps some women may not want to offend but in our large clinic , there has never been a time when we could not provide a chaperone

As said by another poster - if we needed help the majority of us would not refuse a male Dr

Feels like a lot of additional effort to facilitate a man doing a job he has no business doing.

Expressed myself badly. All medical practitioners should be well supervised. Medical malpractice is of course a thing. But to say no men can become midwives is an overreaction. Just as I wouldn't want women excluded from a specialism either.
I also wouldn't want all women to be told they couldn't be midwives after the one who failed in my care and contributed to an emergency c-section.

@GrammarTeacher

Expressed myself badly. All medical practitioners should be well supervised. Medical malpractice is of course a thing. But to say no men can become midwives is an overreaction. Just as I wouldn't want women excluded from a specialism either. I also wouldn't want all women to be told they couldn't be midwives after the one who failed in my care and contributed to an emergency c-section.

But people aren't saying male midwives are incompetent or rubbish at the job, but the presence of a man in a profession 100% centred around women can make women feel uncomfortable, the stats on how may have been arrested for inappropriate stuff is also disturbing. There isnt the staff for all appointments etc to be chaperoned, it creates more work for other staff and leaves many women feeling uncomfortable, great.

Chaperone can be a HCA , an admin person , another midwife or that patient relative

I'm not sure that a patient's relative should be used as a chaperone. They may not understand what is going on or know how to raise a concern. The Cambridge paediatric consultant who was a paedophile abused children behind curtains with a parent in the room.

When I started my midwifery training 11 years ago, our course leader was very outspoken that men should not be midwives and she'd never let one onto the course. I hope to god she's stuck to that and hasn't been bullied into accepting any for the sake of "diversity and inclusion".

@coldfeetmama

Hi , apologies in delay Chaperone can be a HCA , an admin person , another midwife or that patient relative We inform patients prior to attending the clinic that we have a male midwife and if they prefer not to be seen by him then let us know so we can make alternative arrangements, we also give them that choice on arrival as not all patients have access to emails , or can read or write in English

I agree that perhaps some women may not want to offend but in our large clinic , there has never been a time when we could not provide a chaperone

As said by another poster - if we needed help the majority of us would not refuse a male Dr

Do you not have any concerns about the entitlement of some male midwives?

Chris Butt for example, who demanded access to a specific woman only breastfeeding group run by an external organisation the NCT not the nhs Even though he was offered an opportunity to attend the same type of session that had women who hadn’t specifically asked to attend a woman only group, which he didnt attend. He had no compassion for why those woman asked for and paid for a woman only group. He was just all about his demands *and he was apparently backed by his course supervisor in his demands.

Caveat I don't know anything more about Chris Butt than I’ve read in the press. But the sheer fucking entitlement of assuming his wishes should come ahead of all those women wanting women only support with breast feeding has told me volumes.

@coldfeetmama That fact that male midwives need to be chaperoned pretty much all the time is also a waste of resource. We wouldn’t need this if we just had female midwives. This is a different scenario to let’s say a male GP, where they may occasionally need a chaperone.

@WorkingClassWoman of course I have concerns over the entitlement of anyone - male or female

I can only speak for the one male midwife I have on my Team and I cannot fault him

I have worked in healthcare for over 30 years and have seen many inappropriate things down to male and female colleagues

Theft / drug abuse / fraud / bullying / abuse

I was part of the process when a male Dr inappropriate but not blatant behaviour was reported , investigated and struck off

I absolutely agree with previous comments - report anything suspicious of anyone in a position straight away - gut instinct is a wonderful thing

I requested that only female midwives attend me when I gave birth. It wasn't a problem, as my area didn't have any male midwives at that point (I know they had had one a few years earlier).

I also requested an all-female medical team if at all possible, should interventions become necessary during the birth process.

In the end I did need a couple of interventions from an obstetrician, who was female. The medical team was entirely made up of women, to my relief. Whether that was because of my birth preferences, I'm not sure, but I'm glad it was that way.

Obviously if my baby had been at risk I would have accepted care from a male obstetrician. However, my first choice would always be for a woman.

I also believe that men should be able to be attended by a male HCP for intimate procedures such as prostate exams, if that is their preference.

I'm inclined to believe that midwifery really isn't a good profession for men. I listened to a podcast with a male midwife once, who sounded absolutely lovely, and I probably would have been okay with him in the room - but I still would prefer to be attended to by a lovely woman midwife than a lovely man midwife.

[quote coldfeetmama]@WorkingClassWoman of course I have concerns over the entitlement of anyone - male or female

I can only speak for the one male midwife I have on my Team and I cannot fault him

I have worked in healthcare for over 30 years and have seen many inappropriate things down to male and female colleagues

Theft / drug abuse / fraud / bullying / abuse

I was part of the process when a male Dr inappropriate but not blatant behaviour was reported , investigated and struck off

I absolutely agree with previous comments - report anything suspicious of anyone in a position straight away - gut instinct is a wonderful thing [/quote]
I'm glad your colleague is someone you appreciate the good practice of. But there's several threads around the board today of what happens when this case by case situation runs up against reality, and what it in effect means is that inevitably a woman is put in a situation that she does not want to be in and does not willingly consent to, because the male person's desire to be in that place and have that access has been placed above her needs. Women are being pressured to put their own feelings and preferences aside and be nice, to try and understand that however they feel this male should be accepted and tolerated in this situation, to accept that it's this male or nothing at all.

This is not ok. There's a pp on the thread who found that despite not wanting a male midwife she had to accept and tolerate one because other women in labour were absolutely unable to and their boundaries couldn't be leaned on, but hers could.

I think a very weird thing happens to me each time I've gone to hospital to give birth which is that I put all my usual feelings of modesty/dignity/privacy/boundaries to one side and kind of disassociate from what is happening in order to get on with having the baby.

So, when I was asked for baby #3 if I minded having this midwife do a sweep, (he happened to be male) I said that'd be fine, thinking of course it will be just like other sweeps.

But it turned out that it really wasn't. It was ridiculously painful, his hands were big, his fingers jabbing, it felt like he was scrummaging around and he was cold and unsympathetic. More than anything it felt like an assault. I can't even remember if anyone else was in the room. Ugh.

And, perhaps unsurprisingly, it didn't even work.

My male community obstetrics consultant on the other hand was absolutely lovely, kind, helpful respectful, but even he recognised that some of the inpatient male consultants were awfully unsympathetic to women.
It was highly noticeable that they were quite different at times when my doctor husband was not around...

I can't understand why you would choose to be a medical specialist in a setting where you don't like your patient group. (Well, I can but I don't like the answer that I come up with) Indeed I found a couple of the male consultants actively hostile.

One in particular went round with a (silent) female HCP who then quickly briefed another midwife outside the door ("she's another one crying because Mr B said X") who had to go around to all the women after the ward round, apologising for his rudeness and promising things would be OK and that my wishes would be taken into consideration. "He's really a very good doctor" she said.

No, he really isn't.

I'm another one who started to write a letter of complaint to the hospital only to be overwhelmed with the amount of stuff with a new baby and other young children and drop it.

I think there absolutely needs to be a better feedback loop at the time so that concerns can be raised more quickly and lessons learnt more easily.

It read the whole thread and I’m sure it’s been said before. But if I want to see a GP about an issue I feel uncomfortable about I ask to see a woman. I’m feel able to make this request because I’m not time pressured or feeling vulnerable. My cognitive, logical (pre frontal cortex) is able to help me make this decision and make it happen.

When In Labour I felt like I was dying. Repeatedly. I was not thinking logically, I was functioning from my primitive brain. I was vulnerable by the very fact that I was in excruciating pain. In this situation I would probably have said it’s fine to have a male midwife when actually I would not want one. In fact a similar thing happened, there was a miscommunication and rather than having 1 student midwife at my birth I had two. I was asked if this was ok but I had been on Labour for 10 hours was having back to back contractions and to be honest I could have been asked if I minded having the local choir there and I would have said yes.

The point is vulnerability. We know that women feel vulnerable throughout the whole process from conception to post birth. Therefore we have to be sensitive to the fact that they may not feel strong enough to say no to something they do not actually want.

It makes me feel physically unwell just the idea of a man attending me in Labour. That is not prejudiced against men. It’s my natural instinct. My instinct to keep me safe.

Those arguing for same sex doctors seem to assume the NHS is swimming in appointments and doctors and has the capacity to arrange shifts and appointments by sex. I'm afraid you're deluded. Waiting lists are bad enough as it is without the extra headaches that policy would create.

So how come there's simultaneously extra staff to chaperone but not enough to request a same sex dr.

Once again effort only made to pander to males as opposed to help the women

Why didn’t any of the other staff in the room at the time of the c sections he was photographing not stop him or report him immediately? Why would a single chaperone dissuade someone who is willing to behave like this in front of a whole theatre of colleagues?