{"id":2061,"date":"2026-08-30T05:53:02","date_gmt":"2026-08-30T05:53:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/uscnews.org\/?p=2061"},"modified":"2026-08-30T05:53:02","modified_gmt":"2026-08-30T05:53:02","slug":"africas-male-midwives-are-rare-but-increasing-in-the-fight-against-pregnancy-deaths","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/uscnews.org\/?p=2061","title":{"rendered":"Africa\u2019s male midwives are rare but increasing in the fight against pregnancy deaths"},"content":{"rendered":"

Male midwife Sehloho Ntlhane leans over a pregnant patient while using a Pinard horn to listen to the baby’s heartbeat during a prenatal examination at Mpharane Health Centre in Mohale’s Hoek district, Lesotho, Friday, July 10, 2026. (AP Photo\/Kayleen Morgan)<\/small><\/p>\n

2026-08-30T05:18:22Z<\/p>\n

MOHALE\u2019S HOEK, Lesotho (AP) \u2014 On a cold morning, Ntlhane Sehloho grabbed his backpack containing medical equipment and embarked on a three-hour journey, navigating the curving gravel roads leading to a clinic nestled in a valley of mountainous Lesotho<\/a><\/span>.<\/p>\n

Sehloho has an almost unheard-of role in this part of the world: male midwife.<\/p>\n

His arrival at the Mpharane Health Center in the southern African kingdom is met with a sigh of relief from several women, some of them pregnant. Others carry crying babies on their backs.<\/p>\n

Midwifery has been traditionally viewed as women\u2019s work in Lesotho, but a growing number of men are joining the profession as the country tries to bring down its high rate of deaths around childbirth. For every 100,000 live births, about 530 women die, the United Nations says. That\u2019s far above the global average of about 200.<\/p>\n

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This is part of a series on maternal mortality in sub-Saharan Africa<\/a><\/span>, which has the world\u2019s fastest-growing population and accounts for 70% of global maternal deaths. Around 180,000 pregnancy deaths are recorded every year across the continent.<\/p>\n

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Lesotho, like many African nations, is a society with largely conservative views. The idea of a man who isn\u2019t a doctor dealing with a woman so intimately still can make many hesitant, if not uncomfortable.<\/p>\n

World Health Organization figures estimate that men make up less than 1% of all midwives around the world. Organizations like the WHO and UNICEF have called for more people, male and female, to become midwives and address shortages in childbirth responders.<\/p>\n

He wanted to be a nurse and was steered into this job<\/h2>\n

Sehloho is one of about 300 male midwives in Lesotho and has been doing the work for two decades. The exact number of male midwives is not available as the government does not keep the data according to gender.<\/p>\n

Talkative and ready with a joke, he seeks to put women at ease from the first of their prenatal visits.<\/p>\n

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