Life | my job; a day in the life of a Midwife!

So maybe you know, and more than likely you don't, but I'm a newly qualified (6 months!) Midwife working in an NHS trust. I have to be really careful what I write about my job on the internet but I thought it might make an interesting post and after a little research on twitter (@_tuesdaysgirl) I decided to give it a go!

I went straight to University from college with average A-Levels. I'd always known what I wanted to do, since about year 10 in high school, so I was overjoyed when I got in on my first application as Midwifery is notoriously hard to get on to. I think for 33 places at my uni there where 200 applicants!
If you want to know more about the application process and the course itself I'll do a separate post on that, I've got a lot to say! It's definitely not your normal course and if you're really wanting the student lifestyle I'd recommend reconsidering Midwifery. Our 'freshers' week consisted of mon-fri lectures 9-5 and we worked 37.5 hours a week 45 weeks of the year. Most of the course is placement based with essays, exams and lectures on top so essentially it feels like a degree on top of a full time job...it's tough!

An average day on labour ward starts at 7am. My trust does long days from 7am-7.30pm but others do short shifts like 'earlies' from 7-1 and 'lates' from 12-8. You turn up a bit before 7am as you have to be prepared to deliver a baby at 7.01am if you need to! Handover takes place where the senior midwife from the night shift gives everyone coming on to the day a quick run down of all the clients on labour ward at that time. Midwives are then allocated to a client whom you'll care for until they deliver and can be transferred to the postnatal ward, or home.
Midwifery deals with a very intimate part of a family's life- you're there when a woman transforms into a mother, you're the first person to touch and see a new born baby take it's first breath. It's such a magical time and you've got to be totally respectful of all that woman's choices whether you agree with them or not.
Delivering a baby is relatively simple, the woman does all the hard work. However there are lots of things that quickly turn from normal to abnormal and you have to rely on your training to prepare you for this! If women bleed or babies don't breath your training completely takes over and it's only afterwards when the adrenaline has worn off that you get time to swear and sweat a bit!

Like any job, midwifery has its ups and downs. A day on labour ward can go from utter elation at the most perfect waterbirth to tragedy pretty quickly. Saying that, it's the only area of healthcare that is 99% happy and I love that. It's amazing to watch women as they progress through labour and turn into these magical beings that suddenly become two seperate people. Honestly there's nothing more magical in this world than watching a woman make her family one bigger.

My favourite part of delivering babies, apart from the obvious happy bit, is the watching the Dad's face as they observe their partner bring their baby into the world. Some look pretty confused, some look grossed out but the majority literally beam from ear to ear and some even cry. This always chokes me up! It's hard, hard work but I wouldn't change it for the world.