Walking into the Rotunda Hospital in Dublin, the sounds of expectant parents talking and making last minute checks with their partners greets me as I arrive to meet one of the hospital's busiest members of maternity staff.
Sean Dowling is one of only around a dozen male midwives who currently work in Ireland. The Dublin man has been working as a midwife since 1993 and has been working in the Rotunda since 1997.
He has had a varied career, before entering the nursing profession, working as a bus conductor with Dublin Bus and also as a motorcycle courier.
"I spent three-and-a-half years in Dublin bus as a conductor. A job that's now extinct. It was coming back from travelling that I realised that I wanted to enter the nursing world. I got an urge during my time on the buses to go see the world.
"I was young, only 21 and I wanted adventure. I ended up in the Middle East. I travelled through Israel, Egypt and Sudan.
"I came back home and wanted to do something more with my life. I was visiting my little nephew in Our Lady's Hospital in Crumlin, where he was a resident at the time, and I saw a picture on the wall of a nurse, and I said that maybe I could do that.
"I still ask myself why sometimes, but I think it's because I like to see new life."
Training
Mr Dowling did his training at the North Middlesex Hospital in the UK, but men working in maternity care was a rarity.
"There were no men in the profession really back then, it was rare and still is today. We are still few and far between. Being a male midwife is very much a minority."
During the course of his training in the UK, he took a shine to the maternity wards and decided that was going to be his specialty.
He returned to Ireland and began working at the Rotunda Hospital in late 1997.
"We have five male midwives here in the Rotunda. I am one, and we have four other Spanish men who work here too.
"The other lads actually live in Madrid, and they travel back and forth to Ireland."
At a rough estimate, Mr Dowling says that he has been involved in about 4,000 births during the course of his career.
"I get asked this question every now and again and that's rough count. On average, 300 babies a year I think is the rough estimate for a midwife, but you are only as good as your last birth," he says.
Stereotypes
Mr Dowling said that dealing with stereotypes comes with the job, but that this has never impacted his work.
"It often happens when ladies come in for their birth and have had an epidural, and when we haven't been properly introduced, they look at me and ask 'What are you', not 'Who are you' - they are not sure if I am a student doctor or a nurse.
"I have to explain to them that I am your midwife and maybe I don't look like the typical midwife.
"Naturally people are bound to have a little hesitation. But when I introduce myself and maybe add a little light humour into the mix and take my time to explain to the woman how the day might unfold and that I am on her side and that we can have a nice delivery.
"We aim to have a nice safe and gentle delivery, safety first and satisfaction second and hopefully they go away with good memories from what is a hard day's work.
"Labour is a difficult day's work and probably the hardest day you'll ever do, but with good people around and the Rotunda is a good place to be, the midwives and doctors work together and deliver the best care.
Mr Dowling is a much-loved member of the staff at the Rotunda Hospital.
As he gave me a tour, he gave a detailed history of the hospital.
In 1745, Bartholomew Mosse, surgeon and male-midwife, founded the original Dublin Lying-In Hospital as a maternity training hospital, the first of its kind.
Standing in the historic chapel which is often described as the "Jewel in the Crown" of the Rotunda Hospital, it maintains a special place in the heart of both hospital staff and patients and at times offers a space for parents who have a lost a child in childbirth.
Mr Dowling explains that not all births have positive outcomes, and it is both devastating for the families and staff when that happens.
"The chapel is sitting here for the last 280 years, and the funny thing is a lot of people don't know it's here. Some days I see some of the mothers coming in here to sit for a quiet moment to say a prayer perhaps.
"We have our services for Christmas, but it was built as the centre of the Rotunda and it's a wonderful little gem of a chapel. On a rare occasion that an American tourist has read their guidebooks then they might come knocking of the Director of Midwifery's door to visit."
Walking around the chapel, Mr Dowling reflects on the fragility of life and in particular the tragedy that some families have to go through.
"Most of our outcomes, almost all, are positive and wonderful. New babies and new life coming into the world are so joyous. But, on occasions when it's sad, it's very sad. With babies, when there is a tragedy, your whole life is pulled out from under you.
"That's when people go back to their spiritual centres".
When asked how he as a midwife deals with the death of a baby, he notes that often he has cried along with the parents.
"You cry along with the woman, and you be with her, you see her through the delivery of her beautiful baby which unfortunately for reasons we may never know is not for the world at this time.
"We get upset along with the parents and while trying to be professional, we do feel it.
"We have our counsellors and the Chaplin, but we are with the mother at the event and a lot of the time people want you to participate in their grief.
"It's very hard but it is part of life and all you can do is offer support and we don't always have the answers.
"Dads are very often trying to remain strong as someone has to drive home. Someone has to keep it together, but you don't ever realise how much you will be affected until it happens to you.
"In the depth of your soul you will wonder, why us? You don't ever get over it, but you learn to live with it and hopefully there will be a positive outcome in the future.
"So much hope goes into a baby and when it doesn't unfold how you imagined. When it's you, my god it hurts. It takes time to heal."
'You have to buy into the job'
From the 2024 State of the Register there are 18 male midwives practising in Ireland and Mr Dowling hopes that by sharing his story, he will encourage more men to take up the profession.
His personal joy in the workplace is evident as he walks around the labour ward and congratulates some new parents who are holding their newborns.
As he looks forward to turning 60 later this year, the father of three reflects on the changes in maternity care in Ireland in the past three decades.
"It's difficult to say who should be a midwife. Nursing brought me into midwifery so that is a pathway that might bring other men into it.
"It’s possible to be a midwife through direct entry but it’s hard to say what man has aspirations to work in maternity care.
"I think you need to really want to be a midwife, you want to have to give care and then you come into a very female world. It's a whole world most men are not exposed to at all, but you can learn.
"If you love a place, you have to put yourself into a place and you can have a very satisfying career in the place you put yourself into.
"You have to buy into the job, and I think this is a great job to deliver babies. It’s lovely to come home after a nice satisfying delivery where you know everyone is safe."
If you have been affected by any of the issues raised in this story, please visit: www.rte.ie/helplines.
