u/OMally0309

I'm curious. I just saw an article about a male midwife and I remembered a conversation I had while I was in hospital having my son early this year, and I'm wondering if anyone can elaborate a bit. I live in northern Ireland.

I stayed in for over a week, and a few days in a female practitioner and I were chatting about how everyone gushed over my partner holding the baby and then the conversation went like this:

'Our male midwives work in the NICU and the mums love seeing them holding the babies. It helps that they're all young and quite good looking too haha.'

'Oh, I haven't seen any male midwives.'

'You won't see them up here or down in labour and delivery. They don't work in any of those areas. Just the NICU.'

After that she finished up and yes, for the remainder of the week I didn't see any male midwives, nursing assistants, HCAs, or cleaning staff. Just a few male doctors.

Is this normal in some hospitals?

I'm sitting home with a flu, looking after an 18 week old premature baby, can't visit my sick granny who is my only nearby relative, terrified of being this sick and looking after a baby who has caught it off me. I need to hold him and feed him but I'm feeling horribly guilty and afraid. I'm stressed and exhausted.

No one comes near us with a virus, all of my friends and relatives are fine, so I've caught it out somewhere.

If you have a virus, I'm appealing with you, please just stay at home for the first 3 days. And if you need to go out sanitise your hands and wear a mask. You never know how it might affect people even if it's just a minor inconvenience for you.