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Are We Ready for Male Midwives?
Male OBs are not the least bit unusual and, in fact, used to be the standard. But male midwives? That doesn’t even sound right. Our notion of midwifery almost invariably is of a female birth attendant.
But that’s not always the case. Though rare in the U.S, there are men working as midwives — some quite popular and in high demand. A shortage of trained birth attendants has forced one country to allow men to go through midwifery training, though they have met resistance from the very women they are supposed to help.
In Liberia, women face some of the highest risks in the world of dying during childbirth. Almost 80 percent of those deaths could be prevented if they were attended by trained professionals. Due to a decades-long war, the country has lagged in training women in those roles. For 3.8 million people, there are only 400 professional midwives. To meet the needs, an additional 1,200 must be trained and put to work.
Last year, a national program admitted 32 men into a midwifery training program. Had they based entrance on school grades alone, they would have admitted men only, since parents spent what little they had on educating their boys and not girls. This year, because of women’s reluctance to allow men at their births, they only admitted two.
It would be easy to criticize Liberians as being ignorant for passing up these attempts to better women’s lives, but there are cultural biases against male midwives in developed countries, t0o. One of the most prominent voices in support of midwifery, obstetrician Michel Odent, thinks men shouldn’t be around birth. The first male midwife in Switzerland caused a bit of a stir five years ago.
And here’s a male midwife in the U.K. talking a bit about his experiences:
Would you do it? Would you go with a male midwife? There’s a Facebook page for supporters of male midwives. One member posted on the wall that she would have preferred a male midwife, since her female birth attendants were anti-male. Interesting!
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0 Comments
Mistress_Scorpio commented on Jul 15 10 at 2:42 pmCould we call them “middlemen?”
cheri commented on Jul 15 10 at 4:44 pmNice one scorpio. ;)
Elendy commented on Jul 15 10 at 4:57 pmSO…I live in NYC and actually know of 2 practicing male midwives here and they are both very well-regarded (one of them was actually in charge of one of the last hospital-based birthing centers here in the city) Of course, in general, just like male nurses, it is still seen as something unusual. Interestingly, in many other countries (esp. in the developing world), nursing is a
much more male-dominated field (prob. b.c it requires advanced education and, consequently, is a much more respected profession than here in the US)
We definitely have some serious hang-ups and biases here. I wonder if some of it is b.c of the title ‘midwife’ (which, btw, comes from the german ‘mit-wife’ meaning ‘with woman’ – not half woman – although I do love Mistress’s suggestion :)
I dunno, maybe more men would be willing to be called CNM’s?
Laure68 commented on Jul 15 10 at 5:51 pmI didn’t have a midwife, but the my nurse during my delivery was male, and he was wonderful.
Elendy – thanks for the explanation of where midwife comes from. In France, the term is wise woman (sage-femme) which I always liked.
Snarky Mama commented on Jul 15 10 at 6:48 pmI’ve always preferred going to female OB-GYNs, and all of my midwives were female. However, I am still all for male midwives.
PlumbLucky commented on Jul 16 10 at 8:00 amWhere I’ve found that my male OB-GYN is far more compassionate than the four prior female ones that I went too. Can’t speak for a midwife, haven’t had one, but one of the nurses who popped in to check on me frequently while in labor was male. (I had one nurse all day, I was “hers”, plus there were two student nurses from the local college program who were on the floor that day) I don’t ::think:: I’d have a problem with this, but I imagine that its all going to depend on the woman in the stirrups, so to speak. (No, there were NO stirrups involved in my son’s birth!)
JBoogie commented on Jul 16 10 at 8:47 amI used to think I had a preference….and then I actually went into labor and subsequently split my body in two pieces to give birth. After that long torturous visit to hell, I can now honestly say that I don’t care who/what you are, as long as you are there to help and you don’t mind hearing the f-word frequently.
Bonnie Zare commented on Sep 22 10 at 5:02 pmThe video is not based on a real midwife. “Mike” is played by an actor and there are two authors of the script. It should not be introduced as an accurate source.
mina ruinyuki commented on Nov 04 10 at 11:24 amI will request for only female nurses and female midwifes because i would not want other males to see or touch my private parts except my husband.
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