Rotorua's male midwife says gender is irrelevant | Local Focus

Glen is one of only eight male midwives across the country. He really enjoys his job.

Made with funding from NZ On Air.

[Mel-qrob]

If male midwifes are anything like male gynaecologists I'd actually feel more comfortable with a guy.

I've had female gynos claim I'm lying about my terrible period pain because they themselves never experienced anything like it... which should be obvious... because that ammount of pain isn't normal obviously they themselves shouldn't have experienced it.

Male gynos that I've seen have been way more accepting of the potential for things to be going wrong and believe that you're actually telling the truth.

Lo and behold I was telling the truth and the scans he reffered me to (where female gynos refused to even give me a refferal) showed GIANT fibroids.
Literally the size of a mandarin.
No wonder I was in so much pain.

Anyway there's pros and cons to male gynos and midwives (eg, discomfort talking to them about stuff society tells us is TMI for guys) but overall having different perspectives in any field is a good thing.

[rosetinker]

That’s awesome to see just wish he were based in west Auckland, currently 5 months and can’t get a midwife to take me on because baby’s due 23rd December. Not enough midwives in NZ and more going overseas because they aren’t getting paid enough and have so much on their workload, bring on more men midwives

[waiskuxx]

The men actually do get paid more to do this job bizarrely