22/09/2021
To all those embarking on their midwifery degrees this month, firstly I’m sorry that Covid means it will still be a little different for a little while.
Welcome to the wild world of midwifery! A degree like no other. There is nothing funnier than a student from another course accidentally wandering into a midwifery lecture when we are in the middle of learning about perineal assessment and there’s a 20ft v***a projected on the screen.
You’ll be balancing learning how to write academically with delivering lubed up rubber babies from headless rubber bodies, being hoisted out of a birth pool by your colleagues or performing CPR on a robot that keeps sighing at you and blinking... it’s an experience.
It may well be the hardest three years of your life. I won’t lie to you. It is HARD. There is a lot to learn academically, emotionally and in practice. Knowing how to communicate empathetically in a difficult situation is just as important as learning how to assess cervical dilatation or venipuncture. You will witness the most vulnerable moments of a woman’s life. You will have the power to make or break her experience. Even during more difficult births you can and will make a difference holding a hand, maintaining eye contact and knowing exactly when to make a cup of tea.
There will be bodily fluids. ALL of them. Often all at once. Pack spare pants and socks and face wipes.
Be kind to yourselves, giving every part of yourselves to those in your care can very quickly empty your cup. Keep filling it, keep making plans, go for walks, book a massage, take a day off. There will be times at 4am on labour ward that you think you cannot possibly do it. But you can. And you will.
You will probably become a very different person, seeing people from all walks of life will change your views on life. Seeing life and death will change you. And change is hard. I went for counselling in my second year and it helped immensely.
But most of all, enjoy it. I am strangely jealous of everyone starting university this month. Whilst I never want to do it again (I’m so tired) I will always miss lectures, skills labs and a bacon bap and a latte on my way in.
Midwifery is an incredibly difficult profession, the pay isn’t great, the hours are long and the responsibility is enormous but there is NO high that beats the adrenaline rush and oxytocin buzz after a birth, especially when you’ve helped a woman to birth her baby the way she wanted.
I love my job, love love love it. And I hope you love it too.
Best (and hardest) three years of my life! Good luck ❤️
