Purpose: This study was conducted to evaluate the opinions of the midwifery students about male midwives.
Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted with 225 (75.5%) midwifery students at a state university in Eskisehir. The data was collected with a questionnaire reflecting the socio-demographic characteristics of the students and their thoughts about admitting a male student into the midwifery profession. Frequency distribution and chi-square tests were performed in the analysis of the data.
Results: Of the students, 66.2 % stated that males should be in the midwifery profession, %69.3 stated that all the job and responsibilities of a midwife can also be performed by a male midwife. The students, 55.6 %, stated that male midwives would not be accepted by the society, 55.2 % did not want that any of their relatives to be a midwife and still 56.5 % did not want a male midwife give them care when in need. The students who wanted males in midwifery thought that such an addition would improve the quality of the profession, the care given, the status of midwives, and the constitutional regulations (p<0.05 for each).
Conclusion: More than half of the midwifery students wanted male participation in midwifery and they thought this would bring a positive impetus to the profession. On the contrary, it was also seen that they had contradictory thoughts such as males not being accepted by the society, not wanting to receive care from a male midwife, and not wanting a male relative of them to become a midwife.