I want to be a midwife...

[GingerOClock]

Put me off!

I have 3 children 7 - 12
Little family support
DH works long unflexible hours
I'm 40
I have no qualifications other that 4 A-C GCSE's

I need to know that I am doing the right thing as this will mean sacrifices for all of us, for a long while.

Follow your dream OP. Where there’s a will there’s a way. When I did my nurse training we had a single mum, of three training, she managed and completed her course. She’s currently a ward sister and loves every minute.

I’m still not sure someone else account of being ms cuts it.its about you not them
Essentially this will turn on
You have to get the entry grades
You need adequate support family or otherwise for placement & studying
The practicalities of placement eg financial,time,travel

Some people will tell you it’s too arduous
Some people will tell you it’s great
Some people will tell you they love it
Some people will tell you they hate it
...all above will be true
And none of it ultimately has a bearing on whether you’re suitable to be a mw

Lipstick, she is just looking for other people experiences. Of course she is not going to make a decision based on another strangers opinion. She is just looking for thoughts on the subject!

She is aware of how the process works and that she needs grades, experience etc

Ginger, when I was applying I joined a great Facebook group for people applying as mature students. It was my lifeline during the application process!

I'm sure there is similar for your area. Or I used to go on studentmidwife.net, not sure if that is still running but was great for advice!

I understand that threeboys,and IMO it’s of limited use
A further progression may be via the applicant support groups
How many applicants per place?
What’s the acceptance rate?
What access courses and/or grades does the university require?
What’s the interview like?what do they look for?

Hi OP 👋🏻

Im a mature student (40 years old with 2 kids) and I’m hopefully starting a midwifery degree in September. In terms of qualifications, I need to have GCSEs graded A-C (or whatever the equivalent is now) in Maths and Science which I already have. I’m currently studying for an Access to HE in Nursing and Midwifery via a distance learning provider but this type of course is available at college aswell. An Access course follows a pass, merit and distinction grading system and each university will have its own requirements as to what grades you’ll need to achieve.

Along with the relevant qualifications you need to demonstrate what work or volunteer experience you have that is transferable to the role of a midwife. It doesn’t necessarily have to be clinical work.

It is generally very competitive to get a place on the degree programmes. At the uni I’m planning on going to they had just over 700 applicants for 70 places in 2018. Possibly with the withdrawal of the bursary and lack of financial support the number of applicants may start to fall.

If this is something you’re seriously considering then my suggestion would be to have a look online at the nearest unis to you that offer the course and see if they have any open days coming up or some may hold prospective student midwife taster days (where I’m going did and it was incredibly useful).

Good luck!

Hi Ginger.
I wanted to be a midwife, but it was too competitive to get on to the BMid course locally so I retrained as a paediatric nurse instead. I was 36, graduated at 39 and I'm now training to be a health Visitor. I have 3 kids that were 18 months, 5 and 7 when I started. I had to go to a night class to do Human Biology Higher as I had no sciences at GCSE. It can be done. Its bloody hard work and I'd be lying if I said it came easy.
Ask me anything you like and do it!
I've no regrets. It's completely changed my life.

I absolutely would not work that hard and that level of antisocial hours for the terrible pay. It’s all well and good to ‘follow your dream’ until you find yourself not able to afford your family and underpaid and exhausted.

Why do you want to be a midwife? What attracts you to it? Do you have the childcare to cope with the shifts (no pattern just shifts, there is no way of predicting your shifts in advance of the rota coming out). I watch midwives at work every day so cam possible answer some questions. What about a maternity support role?

Reading this thread with interest as I also keep researching about retraining at 40 but have children who will only be just starting primary school at that age and have the same fears as you in terms of missing nativity/childcare worries etc. It's so hard trying to balance your own personal aspirations vs putting your family out.

I'm a student midwife (currently on a years break due to having my DD).
It's gruelling and really tough and I have the best support available, my mum has my DS (and will have my DD too) and does all the care while DP is at work as we're both out of the house by 6:20.
You'll need to do an access course and the entry requirements are quite high, in unis near me they're all 30 distinctions out of 45 graded credits. It is very competitive but you've as much chance as anybody else at gaining a place.
Some days I feel like quitting, it's ok to say you'll only do 3 shifts a week but 12.5 hours shifts are LONG and we only get a 30 minute break which isn't really sufficient! Also, I've had some arsehole mentors that've reduced me to tears (in fact the first time DP ever saw me cry was when one was so damn cruel I left the hospital without telling anybody and was inconsolable by the time I got home).
I certainly never did this for the babies, in fact I'm not really a fan my main reason for doing this was I had such horrible care when I had my DS at 16 that I wanted to make a change and I hope I'll do that one day. My uni is also incredibly frustrating, taking £9.250 a year to show me a god damn PowerPoint that I commute 4 hours a day to look at and the assignments are difficult and I find out marking very inconsistent between lecturers with some telling you you missed a grade because you didn't do something that someone else has told you not to do.
Honestly, I went into this degree with such passion I couldn't ever imagine doing anything else with my life and if it wasn't for the fact that I still feel that way when I'm physically with a woman, I would've quit by now. Out of the 55 women (yes, no men) that I started with I believe there's only around 30 left, many quite during or after their first placement and most by the end of the year.
I know all of this sounds really negative and obviously this is only my experience but I wish I'd known all of this before I started because I probably would've done something else.

Oh and just to add, I've never missed an important event. Students as well as midwives at my trust are given 6 days a month to choose to have off (obviously you won't get them all off all of the time), I usually tend to only request a few anyway but mine have never been declined and I've never heard of anyone else's being declined either.

Hi op, i started my mental health nurse training at 35 and sheer determination got me through. I loved it, and sure u will. Im now qualified and proud of myself

You might want to consider becoming a Maternity Support Worker.

More and more postnatal hands on care is being given by MSWs and you won’t have to hold a caseload or rack up a huge amount of debt to qualify. MSWs also work in antenatal clinics/DAUs in various roles.

And (cynical hat on here) I’m sure the day isn’t far off when someone will have the bright idea that low risk labour care can be given by MSWs whilst being overseen by a midwife up to the point of birth with the midwife popping in for a quick EPV every four hours....

OP, I'm 44 with 2 dc's in my final year of training.

Yes, it's been extremely hard but also with good organisation it's been manageable. My trust have been really supportive and I've managed most school plays, parents evenings etc.

It is massively over subscribed so it's really important you have the correct entry requirements before you apply. Your voluntary work will definitely help. You can contact the unis direct and find out what their entry requirements are

The absolute most important thing though is flexible reliable childcare. You simply cannot do the course and upon qualifying, the job, unless you can work the shift patterns