The perceptions of Maltese postnatal women towards male-midwives

Abstract

The aim of this small-scale study is to describe the perceptions of postnatal women towards male-midwives. Quantitative data was collected through self administered questionnaires, distributed to a convenience sample of 25 eligible, postnatal women. The sample was taken from the Postnatal Ward of the General Hospital of Malta. The :findings of this study seem to indicate that postnatal women do not give top priority to the gender of their midwife. More importance was given to the psychological aspect of midwifery care. The composite scale of the questionnaire revealed that the more intimate the midwifery care, the higher the degree of discomfort reported by the women, which was particularly great if care had to be provided by a male-midwife. A similar increase in discomfort but to a lesser extent was observed when a female-midwife provided such intimate care. Results of this study seem to indicate that about three out of every four women would not object to their midwife being a male. The reasons given by those who claimed that they would object to their midwife being a male were directly related to the intimate nature of midwifery care. However, this issue of intimacy appeared not to be a major concern, or at least not a determining factor to the majority (three fourths) of the subjects.