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Re: Male MidwivesAn excellent point, Mary. I have just been reading Rosemary Mander's review in the RCM journal of Kath Melia's Health Care Ethics, which highlights similarities between maternity care and intensive care. Some points around caring at the frontiers of life are thought-provoking. Elizabeth ----- Original Message ----- From: Mary Stewart To: (Elizabeth Duff) Sent: Friday, December 10, 2004 11:56 AM Subject: Re: Male Midwives Many thanks for this illuminating contribution, Elizabeth. This also ties in with the fact that midwives originally tended the dying, as well as women giving birth: that is, they were women who were able to 'be with' those, whether men or women, at the beginning and end of life. Best wishes - Mary ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ From: A forum for discussion on midwifery and reproductive health research. on behalf of Elizabeth Duff Sent: Fri 10/12/2004 11:05 To: [log in to unmask] Subject: Re: Male Midwives Dear James May I suggest you also consider and perhaps challenge the quite widespread assumption that 'midwife' refers to a job/activity of being with a woman? While there is no doubt that 'mid' means 'with' and 'wife' indicates a woman, I have not found evidence that the 'wife' is the object of the activity of being 'with'. On the contrary, all similar words, such as 'fishwife', 'alewife', 'housewife', etc, are occupational terms describing a woman with a particular skill. The strong inference is that the word 'midwife' means a woman who has the skill of 'being with' - NOT a gender-neutral person who is 'with' a woman. This of course brings in turn the challenge that a male midwife takes on an occupational role name that actually describes a woman, in the same way that women in the past took on the roles of postman, milkman, policeman, houseman, etc, before these were (mostly) changed to gender-neutral terms. Good luck! Elizabeth ----- Original Message ----- From: "James Harris" <[log in to unmask]> To: "(Elizabeth Duff)" <[log in to unmask]> Sent: Thursday, December 09, 2004 11:33 AM Subject: Male Midwives > Hi! My name is James and I am a third year DE Midwifery Student at City > University. > > I am currently undertaking a literature review into the impact of male > midwives on the profession, and would be greatful for any help or research > pointers. > > I aim to write the piece from a sociological, feministic perspective, > looking at > > Can a man be as with woman as a woman? > Have male midwives changed the profession in any way? > Why do men enter the profession? > The Treatment of male midwives. > > As well as any studys you could recomend, it would be interesting to get > your views on the subject, although this will not be included in the > research. > > Can a man be as "with-woman" as a woman? > > Many thanks for your help in this matter. This incoming email to UWE has been independently scanned for viruses and any virus detected has been removed using McAfee anti-virus software ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ This email has been independently scanned for viruses and any virus detected has been removed using McAfee anti-virus software