Africa’s male midwives are rare but increasing in the fight against pregnancy deaths

Africa’s male midwives are rare but increasing in the fight against pregnancy deaths 0 seconds of 1 minute, 33 secondsVolume 0% Press shift question mark to access a list of keyboard shortcuts Keyboard ShortcutsEnabledDisabled Shortcuts Open/Close/ or ? Play/PauseSPACE Increase Volume↑ Decrease Volume↓ Seek Forward→ Seek Backward← Captions On/Offc Fullscreen/Exit Fullscreenf Mute/Unmutem Decrease Caption Size- Increase Caption Size+ or = Seek %0-9 Next Up Rare Mondrian expected to fetch up to £30m at auction 01:35 00:00 01:33 01:33 More Videos 01:35 Rare Mondrian expected to fetch up to £30m at auction 01:29 '9 to 5' audience told of Dolly Parton's death on opening night 01:03 Massachusetts woman suspected in officer's death believed found dead 01:10 Popular Kenyan tourist area also has one of the country's highest rates of death in childbirth 00:47 'The Whisper Man' star Robert De Niro on motivation to keep working at 83 00:40 Police use tear gas to disperse traders in Nairobi protesting against rise in taxes 01:53 'The Whisper Man' cast on working with Robert De Niro in new Netflix thriller 01:43 UEFA prepares criminal complaint in Swiss courts against FIFA's Infantino over World Cup sell-off Close 1 of 6 | Sehloho Ntlhane, one of Lesotho’s male midwives, checks a pregnant woman during a prenatal consultation at the Mpharane Health Center in Lesotho. midwifery has traditionally been viewed as women’s work in the country but more men are joining the profession as Lesotho works to reduce maternal deaths. 2 of 6 | 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) 3 of 6 | Male midwife Sehloho Ntlhane consults with expectant mother Bonolo Tebelo during an prenatal appointment at Mpharane Health Centre in Mohale’s Hoek district, Lesotho, Friday, July 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Kayleen Morgan) 4 of 6 | Male midwife Sehloho Ntlhane prepares for prenatal appointments at Mpharane Health Centre in Mohale’s Hoek district, Lesotho, Friday, July 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Kayleen Morgan) 5 of 6 | Expectant mothers Bonolo Tebelo, left, and Mpolokeng Mafereka wait for their appointments at Mpharane Health Centre in Mohale’s Hoek district, Lesotho, Friday, July 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Kayleen Morgan) 6 of 6 | Patients wait outside Mpharane Health Centre in Mohale’s Hoek district, Lesotho, Friday, July 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Kayleen Morgan) By MOGOMOTSI MAGOME Updated 7:18 AM MESZ, August 30, 2026 Add AP News on Google Add AP News as your preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. Share Share Facebook Copy Link copied Print Email X LinkedIn Bluesky Flipboard Pinterest Reddit MOHALE’S HOEK, Lesotho (AP) — 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. Sehloho has an almost unheard-of role in this part of the world: male midwife. 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. midwifery has been traditionally viewed as women’s 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’s far above the global average of about 200. This is part of a series on maternal mortality in sub-Saharan Africa, which has the world’s fastest-growing population and accounts for 70% of global maternal deaths. Around 180,000 pregnancy deaths are recorded every year across the continent. Lesotho, like many African nations, is a society with largely conservative views. The idea of a man who isn’t a doctor dealing with a woman so intimately still can make many hesitant, if not uncomfortable. 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. More pregnant women are dying in Congo as they avoid hospitals over Ebola 4 MIN READ 73 What to know from AP’s report about pregnant women and babies dying in Nepal amid USAID cuts 3 MIN READ 45 MaineHealth will close Lincoln Hospital’s labor and delivery unit in December 3 MIN READ 45 He wanted to be a nurse and was steered into this job 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. Talkative and ready with a joke, he seeks to put women at ease from the first of their prenatal visits. He had good grades in school and wanted to become a nurse to help address the difficulties he had witnessed for pregnant women in his rural community. “Our village was far away from the health facility, so most women who would be pregnant, some were delivering at home. We were still young, we were not supposed to see that, as some were dying,” he said. He didn’t understand how far they had to travel for care. Health authorities later encouraged him and other male nurses to train as midwives to help address deaths around childbirth in a country with poorly staffed rural health posts and a population of just over 2 million people. Now, after efforts to bring care closer to rural communities, UNICEF data show that 92% of births in Lesotho are now attended by a trained health care provider. “I think the system and the community is starting to slowly accept that gender should not matter when it comes to this issue of delivery,” said Dr. Llang Maama, acting director of health services at Lesotho’s Ministry of Health. There are still a small number of cases where the mother says she isn’t comfortable with a male midwife, she said. “But the system allows them to register their discomfort and get treated by a woman.” In the urgency of childbirth, however, there isn’t always time to choose. Sehloho acknowledged that it is a matter of gaining women’s trust. He tries to put them at ease by explaining how he has delivered babies for years and how he grew up in similar rural circumstances. “We are a very cultural and traditional African society,” he said. There are usually mixed reactions to male midwives, said Blandina Motaung, a representative of the United National Population Fund, which works extensively with midwives in Lesotho. The positive remarks include praise for how the men appear to be more gentle and less strict when working with pregnant women. During consultations, Sehloho checked women’s blood pressure and measured their progress, asking from time to time whether they were comfortable. Most female midwives have given birth themselves, “but for the men, because they have not been through the process, they become more vigilant and more attentive to the nitty gritties, and that in itself improves the quality of care that they provide,” Motaung said. One of the clinic’s patients, Mpolokeng Mafereka, 21, said she was more comfortable being treated by a woman, but sometimes a male midwife is the one available. But another patient, 21-year-old Bonolo Tebello, said she has never had a problem being treated by a male midwife. “I’m happy to be treated by a male because they still provide the same level of care,” she said. “Even when one arrives late for a check-up, they just treat you like any other person who arrived on time,” she added. For more on Africa and development: https://apnews.com/hub/africa-pulse The Associated Press receives financial support for global health and development coverage in Africa from the Gates Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org. MOGOMOTSI MAGOME Magome is an Associated Press reporter based in Johannesburg, South Africa. He covers a range of topics including general news, politics, and enterprise stories from across the Southern Africa region. mailto