Men passionate about the midwifery profession in Hati

Although outnumbered by women, male midwives are paving the way with a considerable dose of passion in the country

Ronaldo Jeanty still plays in his head this episode where a woman gave birth to a stillborn child in the waiting room of a hospital in Port-au-Prince on September 7, 2010.

While she was screaming and writhing in pain a few minutes before, an obstetrician-gynecologist allegedly ordered her to be quiet after telling her he could not look into her case due to fatigue.

The woman died four hours later.

The next few minutes saw the angry lady’s husband burst into the establishment with a gun and some doctors scrambled to scale walls to try to save their skins, according to Jeanty.

This tragedy led Jeanty to study midwifery in 2019. “I told myself that no woman should die while giving birth,” confides Jeanty.

The profession of midwife or midwife takes care of sexual and reproductive health by ensuring medical monitoring of pregnant women throughout their pregnancy and during the period following birth, as well as that of the baby.

Recognized abroad as in Haiti, the field is considered the third medical profession after medicine and odontology.

But if they venture into it, male midwives suffer the repercussions of the profession, usually confused with “matron” and where women are traditionally over-represented, according to half a dozen interviews conducted by AyiboPost.

Read also: Haitian women marginalized because they work in “male jobs”

Matrons, also called “traditional midwives”, are midwives who often use magico-religious rituals in their practice. They assist women, particularly in rural areas of the country, generally without equipment and with fragmentary knowledge of their tasks, which very often prevents them from preventing complications during childbirth.

Although outnumbered by women, men are paving the way with a considerable dose of passion.

“I often have the habit of triggering bursts of laughter when I introduce myself as a midwife,” says Jeanty.

The young man, who was already a student at the Faculty of Medicine and Pharmacy (FMP) of Port-au-Prince when he turned to the profession, was met with inappropriate remarks which he often chose to ignore.

“Although many people have respect for me, it often happens that friends at the medical school make fun of me and tell me that I only went to learn this profession to find women and make money,” emphasizes Jeanty.

Other remarks demonstrate the incomprehension of part of the population. “All male midwives are homosexuals”, the professional often hears from the people he meets.

In Haiti, the profession of midwife seems to enjoy low consideration compared to other medical professions.

“It’s a situation which indicates a pyramid or a hierarchy of health professions in the country,” thinks Jeanty.

I often have the habit of triggering great bursts of laughter when I introduce myself as a midwife.

Isemael Joseph says he has suffered condescending looks from health professionals in Haiti who judge midwives based on the supposed superiority of medicine.

The young man, who currently works in a hospital center in the provinces, still rehashes an episode from 2022 where an aspiring doctor, a few meters from him at the faculty of medicine and pharmacy of the State University of Haiti (UEH ), shot him reproachful glances while he was chatting with a mutual friend.

The young woman who was then studying pharmacy revealed to the young man, a few minutes later, that the medical student had told her “that he could not understand how a man could deliberately choose to be a midwife!” »

Armored against these remarks, Isemael Joseph lives his sensitivity for motherhood on a daily basis.

“Since I started, I have already had more than 200 deliveries to my credit,” the young man reveals to AyiboPost.

But, Joseph deplores the fact that even professionals in obstetrics, who should be, with midwives, the two responsible in this area, often do not know the importance of this profession in the maternity chain in Haiti.

Friction between professional midwives and doctors, who often view each other as superior, often strains the otherwise smooth relationships of these health workers.

In 2019, a pandemonium took shape between midwifery students and a doctor in the maternity room of the hospital of the State University of Haiti (HUEH).

According to Isemael Joseph, who was there, one of his fellow midwives was filling out a file that day for a woman in labor. The doctor then burst into the room and attempted to violently grab the file from his hands, after asking him “in what capacity he was questioning and providing care to the patient. »

As a result of the violence of the action, the file was torn in two. Due to lack of care, two women gave birth that morning in the corridor of the maternity ward blocked by the virulent crossing of words and the outbursts of the two protagonist camps, according to Joseph.

Infant mortality and the lack of equitable care are hitting Haiti hard.

EMMUS VI data on mortality, morbidity and service utilization for the period 2012-2017 show that only 67% of the 91% of women who received antenatal care completed at least the four recommended visits .

63% of births took place with the assistance of a trained provider in urban areas compared to only 30% in rural areas, while 60% of births in urban areas took place in a health facility compared to only 29% in rural areas. rural.

Read also: Fewer pregnant women in hospitals

The National Higher Institute for Midwifery Training (INSFSF) was inaugurated on February 21, 2018 in Port-au-Prince, replacing the National School of Nurses and Midwives (ENISF) created in 1997 to train midwifery professionals. -qualified women to meet the country’s maternal and child health needs and expand the range of care in health facilities in Haiti.

But although the profession has become institutionalized, preconceived ideas about the “traditional matron” still seem to hover over the profession.

Ronaldo Jeanty still remembers this episode in April 2023 where he was turned away from a delivery room by an obstetrician-gynecologist after staff had introduced him to him as a midwife.

“He said, distinctly, that he could not understand the meaning of the presence of a midwife in the maternity ward,” Jeanty muses.

The name of the profession also seems to give a chill to men who wish to venture into it, according to St Louis Dexter Petersen Esaï, another midwifery student.

Joseph Isemael’s 2016-2020 class at the INSFSF had only two men for 37 women. That of Fénel Noncent, 2015-2018, had three men for 37 women.

For Hermine Francesca Jean-Pierre, a midwifery student, and Saint Louis, the profession can be practiced by both women and men.

“The word “wise” placed before “woman” simply designates the fact that the professional has knowledge about women or will have to provide maternity care to women,” they emphasize.

For Evaï Dominique, a former midwifery student at INSFSF from 2015 to 2019, the stunted presence of men in the midwifery profession does not only concern Haiti.

“In France where I live, few men practice this profession,” he reports.

Par Junior Legrand

Cover image: Ronaldo Jeanty working at the National Higher Institute for Midwifery Training in Port-au-Prince in 2022.

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