GNA - Mr Bernard Bediako Badu, District Pharmacist at the Kuntanase Government Hospital, has urged the Ghana Midwifery Council to consider admitting male qualified persons into the midwifery training institutions in the country.
He explained that this would enable the institutions to train more midwives to serve in rural and "difficult-to-reach" communities, and said the current shortage in the number of midwives across the country required positive steps to solve the problem.
Mr Badu in an interview with the Ghana News Agency, at Kuntanase in the Bosomtwe District, said because males were doing well in obstetrics and gynecology practices, they could excel in midwifery.
He noted that some midwives go on maternity leave and the debate on increasing the leave from three to six months could reduce the number of hours and presence of the already limited midwives at health facilities.
Some midwives, who spoke to the GNA on anonymity, said any decision to train males as midwives should be given a critical though due to the cultural and religious beliefs of people.