one born every minute : MALE 'midwife'

[Zarababy1]

I needed to be told when to push, despite only having gas and air i couldent feel my contractions, all the pain was constant in my back.

thats what you think because you dont know any diffrent, maybe if they hadnt told you to push and waited untill your body was ready to do it she would have came out easyer, its invoulentry you cant control doing it its not something someone can tell you to do, i pushed when i wanted with both of mine even when they told me not too i just couldnt help it! just because you dont feel your contractions doesnt mean there not doing what there supposed too be doing you should read this book its amazing and it will 100% restore your faith in your body and next time will be just how you want it!

 

[lozzy21]

I needed to be told when to push, despite only having gas and air i couldent feel my contractions, all the pain was constant in my back.

thats what you think because you dont know any diffrent, maybe if they hadnt told you to push and waited untill your body was ready to do it she would have came out easyer, its invoulentry you cant control doing it its not something someone can tell you to do, i pushed when i wanted with both of mine even when they told me not too i just couldnt help it! just because you dont feel your contractions doesnt mean there not doing what there supposed too be doing you should read this book its amazing and it will 100% restore your faith in your body and next time will be just how you want it!

They couldent wait, her heart rate was all over the place and she needed to be out. I was 10 mins away from having a section.

 

[Zarababy1]

yeah, thats diffrent then isnt it, emergancy situations are but if theres no problems theres no reason why anyone should be told to push their body does it for them! my worst memory of labour is having my mam screaming "push come on zara pusshhh" at me ughhh! no mother this time!!!

edit: what im saying is, if it hadnt been a matter of urgancy that you got her out there and then your body would have pushed her out for you even if you couldnt feel the contactions, she might not have got stuck! it doesnt mean ur doomed to have horrible labours forever x

 

[Feltzy]

I really liked that midwife he did a great job and seemed so supportive. It wouldn't have bothered me, both mw's who delivered my babies hadn't had kids and I don't really think the fact that he has a penis would make a difference lol.

Women have fought for the right of equility in the workplace, there are women builders/in the army/firefighters etc so why not a male midwife? I think it works both ways.

 

[08marchbean]

I needed to be told when to push, despite only having gas and air i couldent feel my contractions, all the pain was constant in my back.

thats what you think because you dont know any diffrent, maybe if they hadnt told you to push and waited untill your body was ready to do it she would have came out easyer, its invoulentry you cant control doing it its not something someone can tell you to do, i pushed when i wanted with both of mine even when they told me not too i just couldnt help it! just because you dont feel your contractions doesnt mean there not doing what there supposed too be doing you should read this book its amazing and it will 100% restore your faith in your body and next time will be just how you want it!

i havnt read the book but i had a perfect labour in that regard. i was never told when to push and i couldnt help when i did one bit. there was no conscious effort on my part of pushing and staining, my body just did it and it was amazing

 

[superbecks]

I thought he was absolutely fantastic!!! You can't guarantee every female midwife has had children either, and as for going through childbirth everyone is different.

 

[New Mrs W]

At Halifax there are several male midwives and I remember telling my husband not to let them give me a male midwife! As it turned out I only had female midwives but towards the end, when I began pushing, Frankie's heart rate kept dropping and so several male doctors not only came in to check on me, but were stood with their hands God-knows where!! And did I care? No!! I was just happy that some one was taking good care of me and my baby.

Also, on a side note, I thought that male midwife on OBEM was really lovely. I would've been well pleased if he had been my midwife. He encouraged the girl and gave her good advice. I thought he was great.

 

[xnmd1]

I had a male deliver my baby. I only met him once but instantly felt really comfortable with him .. he did a great job!
I couldn;t say enough good things about him really.
Oh and he was cute too

 

[08marchbean]

i dont see how i could justify having a problem with a male midwife when i had about 6 people come in to check my tear, a man give me my spinal block ready for stiching, a man stitch me up, a male anethetist, etc. they all saw my bits at some point and i didnt care one bit!

 

[littlepne]

I needed to be told when to push, despite only having gas and air i couldent feel my contractions, all the pain was constant in my back.

thats what you think because you dont know any diffrent, maybe if they hadnt told you to push and waited untill your body was ready to do it she would have came out easyer, its invoulentry you cant control doing it its not something someone can tell you to do, i pushed when i wanted with both of mine even when they told me not too i just couldnt help it! just because you dont feel your contractions doesnt mean there not doing what there supposed too be doing you should read this book its amazing and it will 100% restore your faith in your body and next time will be just how you want it!

i havnt read the book but i had a perfect labour in that regard. i was never told when to push and i couldnt help when i did one bit. there was no conscious effort on my part of pushing and staining, my body just did it and it was amazing

I was like this too, I'd started pushing without realising what I was doing. I remember saying to my DH before I was moved up to delivery, "I think I'm pushing!" His face was a mixture of laughter and confusion!

My MW was great, never once told me to push or not to push, just sort of let me get on with it. I was amazed at how my body just seemed to know what to do.

The funniest bit was when the head came out (I was in the pool) and she was trying to get me to sit up enough so I didn't squash baby but not sit up too much that her head came out of the water - I couldn't for the life of me work out where I was supposed to be! I was bouncing up and down like a yoyo going "I thought this water was quite deep!"

I think the best MWs are ones who can read a situation, work out how the mother is coping and intervene as and when is necessary.

For the record, I had no tears or stitches, just a bit of grazing.

 

[Mum2b_Claire]

I thought he was brilliant! I would love him to be my MW if I was pregnant! I had a male MW for several antenatal appointments and he was the only one who tried to help me with an anxiety I have.

The MW who was there when I gave birth was very young and I doubt she had her own kids anyway.

 

[kirstylm]

It wouldnt bother me at all having a male midwife. I know my hubby was AMAZING during my labour with Eva so dont see why a male MW would be an different.

 

[highhopes19]

he seemed brilliant, very caring

my mum had a male midwife when she had me and a women when she had my sister. she said the male was much better than the women

i wouldnt mind a male midwife if he was as kind and as good as that one.

i think i would be in to much pain to care if i was in labour

 

[Kayzee]

I had my baby at the Princess Anne in November and Christian looked after me in the labour recovery ward after I had been stitched up. He was brilliant, everything you could have asked for; he was also really accomodating, letting my parents in as well as my husband even though you were only supposed to have 1 visitor in the recovery bay and taking loads of time with me helping to latch my baby on and then expressing colostrum when she was too sleepy to feed. It was great seeing him on TV!

 

[Sam292]

It wouldn't have bothered me at the time - am just watching it now and he seems really good, much better than the very irritating (female) midwife i had. Not sure about how dh would feel watching another man down there though!

 

[sparkle05]

Hello

I had a male student midwife in with me while i was having dd 3 weeks ago. He was only 19 and i have to say he was fantastic. I don't know what i would of done with out him. I had a very old school midwife she was very Stern, she even left the room when i told her i had pressure down below. She told me not to be so silly and went to get me some pethidine which i didn't want. When she returned i was pushing my baby out by myself. The midwife told me to stop pushing as i wasn't ready and took the gas and air away from me. I screamed at her that i was and carried on. Infact i couldn't of stopped even if i wanted to
The student was fantastic he listened to me got me back the gas and air and held my leg lol while i gave birth. Afterwards he stroked the babies head and spoke softly to her. I have to say i wish he was the only one in the room he was a star. He will make a fantastic midwife some day

 

[jennie_78]

When i went in to be induced i had a male midwife, he was lovely. He delivered my LO and came to see us the next day as well.
I don't see any problem with a male midwife, he's done the same training as a female midwife.

 

[amazed]

I thought he was so sweet to her, It wouldnt bother me it was a man who delivered 3 of my babies as they were sections. Everything was on show to them x

 

[xLuciax]

wouldnt bother me at all I pretty much lost all my dignity in labour anyway with the pain being so bad LOL why not throw a male midwife in aswell to mmix it up a little lol

 

[WhiteGeisha]

Just watched OBEM (sky+it) and the male midwife was a million times better than the female mw I had.

It wouldn't bother me. I had a male consultant in my delivery room for quite a while monitoring my blood loss during my labour and LO's HB was flat for a long time to the point he told me I would be having a c-section if I didn't get off the bed! I had all my bits out and I couldn't have cared less who was in the room.

I can understand people saying you can't be a mw til you've had a baby yourself so a man could never understand but I really do think that male mw was really good. (Maybe it's all for the camera - I had to wait 4 hrs for tea and toast and still didn't have clean bedding 5hrd later when I was eventually moved to a ward!!!! I was left to sit in my afterbirth which I believe is the only reason I ended up getting such a bad infection in my stitches and tear....)

I'm all for it and think you'll find most consultants are male if not a large percentage so why not let that filter through to midwifery. X