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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To think midwife’s get a rubbish deal compared to teachers?

265 replies

Midwifeacher · 05/12/2025 19:30

Both should earn more than they do, obviously. My sister is trying to choose between midwifery and teaching. Both seem so different but she wants a guaranteed career and is trying to decide which route to take. I’ve been running comparisons with her.Whats shocked me is what a shoddy deal midwifes seem to get. Before taking into account that obviously, sadly, it carry huge emotional weight when things go wrong. Not entirely comparable in profession but why would anyone do this job?

Starting salary:
Midwife - £29,970
Teacher - £32,916

Highest salary without going into leadership
Midwife - £42,618
Teacher - £45,321

Holidays:
Teacher - 13 weeks plus term time bank holidays (though some unpaid, this is included in above salary) major holidays off, no flexibility to take term time off
Midwife - 27 days plus bank holidays, often work major holidays, can book time off when needed, though hard to get approval.

Pension (employer contribution):
Teacher - 28.6%
Midwife - 23.7%

Shifts:
Teacher - 6.5 hour shift mon-fri daytime (student facing) lots of reported overtime
Midwife - 12 hour shift inc evenings and weekends (patient facing) lots of reported overtime

AIBU to think midwives are getting a crap deal? Is it because they’re not as unionised?

also she’s obviously not basing which career she goes for on the above factors, but it has to be taken into consideration!

OP posts:
mumsneedwine · 05/12/2025 22:31

SuziQuinto · 05/12/2025 20:21

😂
Did you see the other thread where posters were claiming that school trips are a "holiday" and a "jolly" for teachers? 😁

Show quote history

Heard it so often. We should pay for the privilege of going on school trips. Because a week away with 50 other peoples kids is a holiday !

PodMom · 05/12/2025 22:30

Taq · 05/12/2025 22:10

Just to put another view, that hasn’t been my experience at all. I’ve worked in two hospitals and bar the odd individual, 30-50 women on the unit (not all on the same shift!) get on remarkably well.
We’re usually basically kind and caring people, I find.

Hmmm, well I’m a midwifery lecturer now so maybe I see it from a different side. Not everyone is kind and caring to the students for sure. Lots of stuff on social media about staff on staff bullying. There’s a whole “just say no to bullying in midwifery” campaign. Someone wrote a book, gathered true stories from midwives around the country and put the stories together. Shocking stuff.

mumsneedwine · 05/12/2025 22:15

@maxandru 😂😂😂 we are only in school when kids are. And everything else is done by magic fairies.

Taq · 05/12/2025 22:10

Just to put another view, that hasn’t been my experience at all. I’ve worked in two hospitals and bar the odd individual, 30-50 women on the unit (not all on the same shift!) get on remarkably well.
We’re usually basically kind and caring people, I find.

maxandru · 05/12/2025 22:10

LizTruss · 05/12/2025 19:41

I agree, and of course the teachers get long holidays and go home at 15:30.

It's just not fair, is it?

Omg do you actually think teachers stop working at 3:30? 🤣 Crazy people still think this!

mumofsevenfluffs · 05/12/2025 22:09

Midwifeacher · 05/12/2025 19:47

Is band 6 not leadership?
headteachers can earn up to £140k so I excluded all leadership as I imagine once you go into leadership in either role, your workload will be immense!

Show quote history

Midwives coming out of training on band 5 afaik and do circa a years training on top of that before they are allowed total control with a client

Shinyandnew1 · 05/12/2025 22:08

The maternity working environment is often quite toxic. Bullying, nastiness, etc.not every hospital but overall the profession is known for this.

Interesting-I wonder why that is the case. More than nursing?

PodMom · 05/12/2025 22:07

Meant to say both professions are poorly paid and I imagine can be quite stressful. Lots of burnt out staff. I think to survive either profession you have to have a passion for it or you just won’t hack it. She’s really got to go with her gut about which she’d prefer.

PodMom · 05/12/2025 22:06

As a midwife some things to consider.

if you work a lot of weekends or nights then unsocial pay really bumps your wage up. Downside is working unsocial hours! It really isn’t family friendly or even life outside of work friendly. I can’t emphasise how awful it is not being able to plan and as you haven’t got your off duty.

You are supposed to go up to Band 6 after completing your preceptorship. However recently I’m hearing a lot of people saying they are not going up to band 6. The hospitals say they have to wait for a band 6 position to become available and apply. This is common wrong and I’m sure should be against agenda for change. Hopefully the unions get involved. It’s always been a big difference of midwifery and nursing.

The maternity working environment is often quite toxic. Bullying, nastiness, etc.not every hospital but overall the profession is known for this.

Someone mentioned notes being kept for 25 years in case you’re sued. Sadly it’s worse than this now. Nottinghamshire police are currently advertising for civilian criminal investigators for the Nottingham branch of the Ockenden enquiry. Looks like they will be going through cases and seeing what criminal charges they may be able to put against maternity staff.

WearyAuldWumman · 05/12/2025 22:04

peanutbutt · 05/12/2025 20:30

It’s tricky to compare really. I think if your sister has children then I think I’d go for teaching. You’d get the majority of holidays off with them. Conversely, being medically trained myself, but not a MW, I think having children when you’re a MW would bring lots of stresses - both emotionally and navigating the shift work alongside childcare. That said, if there are no kids, then I’d choose MW and go and see the world whilst working.

I’ve worked as a nurse for years now, and perhaps if I had my choice again, I’d plump for teaching. Holidays are one thing, but the emotional baggage clinicians hold when they have finished work is huge. I’m not saying teaching doesn’t have it’s emotional stresses, but there are no life and death situations and no phone calls in the middle of the night asking you to come in as there’s been an incident on the ward.

Midwifery/ nursing/ medicine is possibly more interesting - no two days are the same and there’s loads of scope in healthcare and wages are good. My director of nursing is on in excess of 100k. However, I still think for quality of life, it should be teaching. Correct me if I’m wrong, teachers don’t have to pay professional fees annually ? That’s another thing to think about; all health care professionals in whatever discipline can never not do any CPD. It’s mandatory, particularly the more senior you become. Teaching ( I’m guessing) is a formula, with lesson plans which can be used year after year with slight tweaks. Although please don’t think I’m thinking teaching is easy - it’s not at all, but I come from a family of teachers, I’m the only black sheep who went down the nursing route, but I can see from both sides of the coin.

In Scotland, professional fees are mandatory.

ETA Ditto CPD which is also included in the mandatory Professional Update required together with our registration fee.

Shinyandnew1 · 05/12/2025 21:57

In teaching, you do

A degree
A year PGCE
2 years ECT

Then you are qualified.

Is midwifery similar?

Taq · 05/12/2025 21:52

I am a midwife.

If I could get paid £10k more to be a teacher……I’d still be a midwife 🤣

Shoutygouty · 05/12/2025 21:51

Sister says that the great teacher holidays are not worth anything when the job makes you feel so shit from all sides. She loves midwifery but says her teaching and life experience helped her enormously. She finds it much more satisfying. Teaching had broken her and she was saved by mat leave but is thriving as a midwife.

I feel like the exact opposite could be someone else’s experience depending on how you react to different stressors. Neither are easy jobs for different reasons and depending on where you work both can again be wildly different experiences.

Hedgehogbrown · 05/12/2025 21:50

I'd choose midwife just for job satisfaction. The night shifts would be bad though. I'm assuming they get paid for overtime. Teachers always talk about the extra unpaid work they have to do. Plus it looks draining. Most births end happy, and the obstetrician deals with things that go wrong.

newbluesofa · 05/12/2025 21:41

It's not a race to the bottom 🙄

I don't know about midwifery so can't comment. But there are many more hours involved in teaching than you've stated including working during most of those holidays!

Also what do you mean by a 'guaranteed' career? With teaching it reslly depends. If she's going into a needed subject in secondary like maths then it's a pretty safe bet. But if she's looking at primary I'd do a lot of research into your local area. You always hear there's a teacher shortage but this is mainly in secondary, in my area there were far too many applicants for each primary teacher job.

Plus, it used to be that teachers generally get permanent contracts, not true anymore for primary. In the school I was in, most younger teachers had 1 year contracts and had to reapply and reinterview every year for their own job. Really demoralising and not guaranteed career at all. One of many reasons I left teaching!

Ritasueandbobtoo9 · 05/12/2025 21:34

Celestialmoods · 05/12/2025 19:35

Teachers have to train for longer than midwives to become fully qualified.

No they don’t

SusanChurchouse · 05/12/2025 21:32

My parents were a teacher and a midwife. Only one of them developed work related stress, alcoholism and had to medically retire at 54. So on that basis, midwife.

monkeysox · 05/12/2025 21:24

Midwifeacher · 05/12/2025 19:30

Both should earn more than they do, obviously. My sister is trying to choose between midwifery and teaching. Both seem so different but she wants a guaranteed career and is trying to decide which route to take. I’ve been running comparisons with her.Whats shocked me is what a shoddy deal midwifes seem to get. Before taking into account that obviously, sadly, it carry huge emotional weight when things go wrong. Not entirely comparable in profession but why would anyone do this job?

Starting salary:
Midwife - £29,970
Teacher - £32,916

Highest salary without going into leadership
Midwife - £42,618
Teacher - £45,321

Holidays:
Teacher - 13 weeks plus term time bank holidays (though some unpaid, this is included in above salary) major holidays off, no flexibility to take term time off
Midwife - 27 days plus bank holidays, often work major holidays, can book time off when needed, though hard to get approval.

Pension (employer contribution):
Teacher - 28.6%
Midwife - 23.7%

Shifts:
Teacher - 6.5 hour shift mon-fri daytime (student facing) lots of reported overtime
Midwife - 12 hour shift inc evenings and weekends (patient facing) lots of reported overtime

AIBU to think midwives are getting a crap deal? Is it because they’re not as unionised?

also she’s obviously not basing which career she goes for on the above factors, but it has to be taken into consideration!

Teacher more like 10 hour shift mon to fri

Chipsandricetonight · 05/12/2025 21:20

Holdonforsummer · 05/12/2025 20:32

I am a midwife and my twin sister is a teacher. We are both mid 40s and earn almost identical salaries. It really sticks in my craw that she gets 13 weeks of holiday a year plus some bank holidays and I get 7 including bank holiday allowance. She has nearly three weeks off just over Christmas which is half of my holiday allowance. Yes, she works hard but I do too. I don’t think it is fair. I have long thought teachers should have to provide two weeks of holiday clubs each during the hols but obviously that would get shouted down. Once you add in the extra childcare midwives have to pay (I could often only get 1 week off in the summer holidays due to the intense competition for annual leave), it seems even more unfair. My sister barely paid for childcare while I had to fork out £80 per day for summer camps (two children). If I had my time over again, I would become a teacher. I know teachers think they work hard but trying to stem a haemorrhage and stitch a vagina at 3am on four hours sleep is really something else. Rant over.

It costs me £800 a month to put my 2 DC in breakfast and after school club every day so I can be at work by 8:15am and collect them after whatever briefing/cpd/after school enrichment/y11 extra lesson I have to do at the end of each day, that’s nearly half my wage!

And we have different school holidays so I have to pay for holiday club sometimes too, but yes it will be cheaper once they reach high school age and can fend for themselves for a few hours a day.

JudgeJ · 05/12/2025 21:19

LizTruss · 05/12/2025 19:41

I agree, and of course the teachers get long holidays and go home at 15:30.

It's just not fair, is it?

Especially with such a short working day as one poster claimed!!! Whoopee, no more parents' meetings, planning, Nativity plays or other activities, marking, meetings. Life's a dream!

Orangebadger · 05/12/2025 21:15

The annual leave for midwives is not fully accurate. After 5 years 29 days plus BHs then 10 years 33 days BHs. You can become a specialist MW without leadership or management at a band 7 which top band 7 inner London is now £63K out ot London I guess £56. Not all MW jobs are shifts, lots of 9-5 roles.

I work in the NHS but as a nurse, I think it really comes down to which she would actually enjoy. I think both can be incredibly rewarding jobs, albeit mostly underpaid, if you love the work you do. I cannot imagine doing my job or that of a midwife or teacher unless I had some level of interest in the actual job. Midwives are often passionate about women’s health and teachers, well if it’s secondary, please tell me she actually likes teenagers. I could not imagine been a secondary school teacher and not liking teens but it seems that this does not occur to every teacher!

Tulipvase · 05/12/2025 21:14

peanutbutt · 05/12/2025 21:04

@peanutbutt You don't think teachers are often faced with horrific and false allegations against them by the pupils they teach?

Of course there are risks. However I think the risk of litigation in healthcare is more common on a daily basis.

I think this thread is becoming a ‘which is the better job’ and I think the OP was looking for practical guidance. So it may be better to think more widely than MW versus teaching ? How about occupational therapy ? The role has expanded, they can specialise and no weekends ( in some OT roles). I’ve worked with lots of OT’s and they do a wonderful job, but it’s not as stressful as MW/ nursing. It’s interesting.

I agree about OT. My husband retrained as an OT and as well as enjoying it, has more than doubled his starting salary in about 7 years. That’s probably not standard progression though.

FurForksSake · 05/12/2025 21:12

£45k for a midwife / nhs band six is the top of band and only achieved after five years. Between year two and year five there are no increments, so it’s around ten years from starting the degree to achieving that. And then you only get the next increment if you want to be a band 7, which isn’t easy and aren’t that many posts to apply to.

NimbleDreamer · 05/12/2025 21:11

I am a nurse so not a midwife but obviously a similar role.

Before I went into nursing I was a primary school teacher. I left teaching to go into nursing and it was the best decision I've ever made. Teaching is a much more stressful and difficult job than nursing which is obviously also stressful and difficult.

However for me I can do 3x long days a week which is my whole working week done. I don’t take work home with me either and leave it at the door. When I was a teacher I could honestly work 24/7 at the job and it still wouldn't have been enough. Also the long holidays are deceptive as you spend a lot of those working/planning for the next term etc. You truly never switch off from the job and that can be so detrimental to your mental health.

I would advise your sister to choose midwifery over teaching.

Ohthedaffodils · 05/12/2025 21:10

Don’t forget car park fees. Midwives have to pay to park if they work in a hospital.
Do teachers pay to park at work?

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