Male Nurse-MidwifeThrives

Male nurse-midwife thrives in a woman's world
By BRIAN ETTKIN, Staff writer for the timesunion.com

In high school, when Steve Deserre had to change into his white nurse's uniform in the locker room before boarding the bus to the vocational center, his classmates mocked him.

"When you're 16 years old and dressed like an ice cream man, you're bound to take a little razzing," he said. "Nothing that deeply emotionally scarred me. I always said to myself 'That's OK, you'll be pumping gas, and I'll have a good job.'?"

When Deserre, who aspired to be a labor-delivery nurse, neared nursing school graduation, a male instructor told him, "You'll never get a job in OB." A reverse glass ceiling existed.

"When I got ready to graduate, there was a lawsuit filed in a Southern state by a man that wanted to work in labor and delivery, and he was not allowed to do so," Deserre recalled. The judge ruled "gender was a bona fide qualification," he said.

When in 1981 the nurse manager at Spring Branch Medical Center in Houston gave Deserre his first job in nursing, on the labor-delivery unit, one of the hospital's busiest obstetricians voiced his displeasure.

"He had visions of his patients en masse deciding to not want to go there to have the baby," said Deserre, 48. "Years later he confessed to me, 'I didn't think it was going to work. I had to eat a little crow. It's never been a problem.'?"

Deserre, who graduated from a Kentucky midwifery school in 1998, is one of only 60 certified male nurse-midwives in the country and four in New York state, according to the American College of Nurse-Midwives.

A staff nurse-midwife at Ob-Gyn Health Center Associates in Troy (he previously worked at Albany Medical Center), Deserre estimates he has delivered more than 400 babies — including two of his three children (not his eldest because he was a 19-year-old nursing student when she was born). He receives rave reviews.

"I had a wonderful experience with him," said Tonya Griner, who saw Deserre when she was pregnant with her second child after he delivered her first.

"Steve was very willing to sit down, take the time to really listen, be open to suggestions, and be empathetic," said Griner, a part-time registered nurse at Samaritan Hospital in Troy.

Deserre, who lives in Scotia with his wife, Lisa, and their 16-year-old son, Alec, recently sat down for an interview with the Times Union, excerpts of which follow:

Q: How did you get your first job in nursing?

A: I did one of the biggest faux pas that you're never supposed to do at an interview. I brought somebody with me: It was my wife, because she didn't want particularly to stay in the hotel room by herself in Houston, Texas. … (The nurse manager) Mrs. Symmank came down and saw her sitting here and she said, "No, no, no, no. You don't have to sit here. Come with us." So we walked around the labor floor and she interviewed me and we talked and she later said that had a lot to do with why she hired me: I met your wife, you guys seemed to be very good together and very comfortable. She thought, Seems like a reasonable family man. He would be worth taking a shot on.

Q: Why not be an obstetrician?

A: I quickly learned I wasn't going to have the drive to be a physician. ... I do respect what they go through to get where they are. It's a lot of dedication. I like to think I tailored what I could do and my interest, and have gotten to where I wanted to be."
Q: Were some of your peers skeptical about working with a male nurse?

A: As part of (the midwifery school clinical preparation seminar), in order to learn (hands-on) skills, some of the ladies volunteered to be pelvic models for the placement of an IUD or pelvic exam, gracious women that they are. There was a certain trepidation on the part of the ladies who were there as to who was going to end up with me in the group. … The woman who was the professor … stepped up and said, "OK, you're going to be in my group." And she took me by the hand and I became part of her group, and I think that made the rest of the students relax a little bit. If the instructor was willing to get involved, then it would be OK. Toward the end of the two-week period we were there, they were all laughing about it. As I said, a very gracious bunch of women. It was quite amazing. I was very red-faced.

Q: Why did you want to be a labor-delivery nurse, then a nurse-midwife?

A: It may be corny, but think about it — birth and death, the two biggest events of our lives, and you get to help somebody through one of them. ... As a labor-and-delivery nurse, you take someone through the birth process and then step away during the delivery. (Becoming a midwife) brought a sense of closure; it allowed me to be there and be part of the whole process. Being a midwife, we do prenatal care. You start to establish a relationship a lot earlier, rather than just in a hospital setting.

Q: What's delivery by midwife like compared with by obstetrician?

A: I'm going to be there for more of the labor. We do labor support: You go in when the patient's active, whether that's an hour before birth or 10 hours before birth, and you spend the time and you stay with them. … It's amazing how many times you can just sit in the room, and the patient remembers that. There's no hoodoo voodoo. A kind word or a pat on the arm or being there to support the husband who might be going through this for the first time, and he's like a deer in the headlights. Sometimes, I suppose, being a man helps on that level, in that he's relating to me and I don't seem too panic-stricken by the whole thing.

Q: Why are women more accepting of male obstetricians than male midwives?

A: I'm not quite sure what the rational is and I've never been able to explain it other than our society views male physicians as paternalistic. Most of us growing up in the '50s and '60s, even in the '70s, traditionally the role was male doctor, female nurse. It's kind of always been one of the stereotypes. I think they're slowly breaking down.

Q: Have there been patients who didn't want to see you because of your gender?

A: I have had patients over the years in the office setting who were like, "Thank you, you're nice, but I'd rather have a woman." That happens, but not enough to become an impediment to my practice. … A lot of times it's for some religious or cultural reason, in which case, who am I (to say)? ... I got a few raised eyebrows over the years, questioning looks. Usually, if you present yourself in a professional manner and are concerned and supportive, you allay their fears or concerns.


Brian Ettkin can be reached at 454-5457 or by e-mail at bettkin@timesunion.com.