When I was a child, I quickly wanted to be a midwife because my mother always told me that it was the best job in the world. This job has always fascinated me.
A friend once told me “Ah, are you a midwife? But you see female genitals all day, aren’t you disgusted?” He told me that outright and I was really very very surprised, I even took some time to understand what he meant, because ultimately, it has nothing to do with the intimacy linked to desire, nor to the intimacy of a relationship. It happened to me that people I didn’t know said to me: “But you can’t be a midwife, you’re a man”. In midwife, people hear “wise woman,” and people start laughing. It’s true that this denomination is surprising because when I say “I’m a midwife”, by shortcut we mean “I’m a woman”, but that’s not it at all. Midwife means “women’s specialist”.
It is not uncommon for me to treat a patient who at first refuses to be treated by a man, and who, with confidence arriving, accepts thereafter. I do not condemn rejection at all, I understand that one wants to be treated by a person in whom one has confidence, and I agree with taking the time to gain people’s trust.
At the time of delivery, I am neither a man nor a woman
Since I assist couples in a very natural approach to birth, I understand that the profession of midwife has always been very feminine. Because the woman who is in labor has this need to be “mothered”, to be gently surrounded, to be protected. But I also realized that I could bring that too, in a different way. Being a man helps me in some cases, for example having a deep voice brings a lot of calm and good vibes at the time of childbirth. Being a midwife, I think the father feels less excluded, feels less in an exclusively female atmosphere, in which he does not know what place to take. I am the father of two children, I have experienced births and I know how a father can feel in this situation. It’s not easy, things don’t happen in our body but in the body of the person we love.
I think being a man doesn’t change my essence. At the time of delivery, when I speak to a mother who is giving birth, I am neither a man nor a woman. I am a person. We are two people who are in communication, who are in contact, and it does not matter the sex in these conditions.
Read also : “I think that being a man does not change my essence” Testimony of François Rodet, midwife
Being a midwife helps build bridges between the two sexes
The path and the way people see what we do are sometimes difficult. It’s not easy either to be a young, inexperienced midwife and to be a man because you feel doubly irrelevant. But I believe that, At valiant heart nothing impossible. I think that diversity is a benefit for all professions. We gain by building bridges between our points of view on the world. I am lucky in my practice to meet many women and I find that we have more in common than differences. We are made to believe a lot that we are very different, and that we shouldn’t be treated the same, that’s not true.
Becoming a midwife is a great way to build bridges between the two sexes. In this case, I I’ve been told ‘she’ throughout my training and professional life, and that doesn’t take away from my manhood or my masculinity. It allows me to have a minority man’s point of view in a woman’s world. And it doesn’t matter at all to be a minority, I can have a reverse perspective, and understand a little better how women feel all their lives.
Every day, Lina strives to transcribe with the greatest accuracy and relevance possible the news of families, and to inform them about their health and their rights. Curious and…