No male midwives, thank you!
(Guyana Graphic: July 1972, POST BAG)
Lucian,
I am expressing my feelings on the subject of “The Male Midwife” and say this: That despite men’s and women’s liberation movements, I cannot agree that the ordinary male should enter the privacy of the Female Midwifery, which is, and should always remain, the reserve of the women; and when there is an acute shortage of the womenfolk in Guyana to be trained for this reserve, then scruples, not prejudice, would reluctantly make way to let the men, and mind you, not any men.

I speak for a number of women whom I consulted on this controversial subject, and I represent myself as a husband and a father. The women are passionately against this innovation, and they wonder where are their womenfolk for this very private service to them, and they wonder further, feelingly, whether the honourable Minister has lost her feminine consciousness to think of exposing them to such inquisitive and cruel masculine gaze.
They do not equate the ordinary male to be trained to deliver women with the male doctor, whose professional ethics should cause him to behave differently with his eyes and tongue and “what-have-you.”
Experiences of complaints reveal that women take objection to being made to strip for examination of some kind by some doctors and their attendants who have lost their ethics, and being left with upraised feet astride, without a towel placed across them for a few minutes  before the doctor is ready, and being near to an open door in the sight of even other women patients.
In disgust, I, as a humble servant, on hearing of this complaint, took the matter up with the then Minister of Health, since this happened at the P.H.G. The then male Minister promised to look into this matter, and remarked: “This kind of treatment is like dealing with the lower animals. The doctor should cause better treatment to be meted out to women. I have had complaints about this before. It is shameful, and I will look into this aspect.”
Further, it is known that young women awaiting delivery at the Hospital hope and pray that certain women midwives in training do not fall to their lot to attend to them. They feel that the young women will be talkative after, and prefer a more elderly woman.
What think you of a male midwife.
So, Mr. Lucian,  women have their built-in scruples, and I enjoin you to pursue this controversy to a successful  end, and that with the exception of doctors , all midwives should be women like themselves, and the ordinary male who can be unscrupulous without a proper background of training must be kept out of this the women’s mission and domain.
The male midwife could be embarrassed; the helpless unfortunate women would have their scruples violently destroyed against their will by a cruel demand on their feelings and comfort.
I say: NO, NEVER TO MALE MIDWIVES! Until Guyana has become bankrupt of its womenfolk to be trained as midwives in adequate numbers, then we will have a second thought, perhaps in consonance with the honourable Minister.
Let the women now speak out, or forever hold their peace.
SGD: Headmaster
Meten-Meer-Zorg
W.C. Demerara

2)‘Mother Hayes’ is fined $50

(Guyana Graphic: July 2, 1972)
ETHEL Viola Hayes, 68-year-old widow of Thomas Street, Georgetown was yesterday found guilty on a charge of obtaining money for the practice of obeah by Senior Magistrate, Rudolph Harper.
She was fined $50, with an alternative of two months imprisonment, and ordered to pay $7 costs.
As a result of a police trap, ‘Mother Hayes’, as she is called by friends and neighbours, was caught receiving $20 from Jacqueline Yhap for the practise of obeah on November 24 last.
She is due to return to Court on July 14 to stand trial on other charges.

(Clifford Stanley can be reached to discuss any of the foregoing articles at cliffantony@gmail.com or cell phone # 657 2043)