Help a midwife find a way out? Has anyone succeeded?

[Itsanofromme1]

I’m a midwife. I loathe my job because -

The amount of paperwork (which no longer involves paper, but instead numerous passwords and computer glitches)

Out of touch and uncaring management. There’s no recognition of good work. The same people get applauded and promoted.

The long shifts are killing my health and making me a tired and miserable mum.

I do enjoy being with the women, caring for people, delivering babies etc. It’s just the above things that are meaning it doesn’t work for me anymore. I make approx 40k FT (but work PT). I can’t afford to take a big pay cut by moving to community hours.

Has anyone left and if so, what did you do? Is anyone considering leaving and have an idea?

Have you considered working in fetal care? I think the midwives who work there only do office hours.

Not a midwife but left Senior leader role in primary school. Same ft salary as you and part time.
I've had to take a job that's ft and pays what my pt salary was. Not great money wise, but, I feel like I can breathe. The stress is completely gone. I won't do this forever but it's giving me time and space to decide what I want to do next. I have only ever been in schools. For 20 years so it's been a learning curve as it's such a different pace. I do nearly the hours I did in school over 3 days in 5 days now. I get a lunch break, I can go to the loo when I want.... It doesn't feel like I'm working 2 extra days.

Can't help you but I feel your pain. I think the problem is most jobs are stressful now and it is shit! Everything is paperwork and accountability.
I am currently changing careers and going back to study but all potential careers involve stress!

If it paid well enough I would be happy working somewhere like Costa or a little shop!

@OhDearWhyAmIFatterly the point about weeing summarises it nicely. I agree that most jobs are stressful but I don’t think most jobs mean you can’t wee when you need to or have no break for 13 hours - which is what’s happened on my last three shifts. I watch my DH and neighbour’s work patterns in awe. It’s a whole different planet and they don’t have people’s lives at stake if they get something wrong.

I think a big pay cut might be what I have to do but that means waiting until youngest DD gets the 30 free h funding. And the thought of even another week is sending me into a bit of a panic.

Health visiting? Family friendly hours no weekends or bank holidays?

No not health visiting, people are leaving in droves because of stress and it's likely to get worse.
health visitor shortage and rising demand

Health visiting would be the same pay cut as moving to community midwifery and the role isn’t something that interests me particularly. More autonomous but the same responsibility and pressure not to miss things.

BPAS or similar?

I spent a day shadowing a midwife who worked on an IVF unit as a student, 9-5 ish I think so would be a pay decrease I'm assuming. I imagine it's na rewarding role.

Any Band 7 specialist roles coming up? Our Healthy Lifestyle mw is Band 7 and works office hours.

It sounds like you might need to take some time off if you are panicking about work, it's really important you look after yourself 💐

I’m on the look out for specialist band 7 roles. I don’t know if there’s something completely different I could do with the skill set? It’s really frustrating because I could think of a few roles that I could do within midwifery to improve the service or life for the midwives but management just aren’t interested unless it ticks on of their boxes in an obvious way.

Sorry if this is obvious but have you tried just looking at some job listings for the kind of pay you’re after and seeing if you could fit the criteria/they appeal? You might need an outside opinion of how to make your experience fit what they’re looking for. You only need to convince one hiring manager you’ve got the skills. I recently made a similar switch - in that I had what I believed to be niche skills - and it took a lot of applications but I was able to eventually convince someone a lot of them are transferable and it’s been a huge success for me. Wishing you luck- dreading going to work is the worst.

Have you heard of the National careers service - nationalcareers.service.gov.uk/ available for England , don't know if similar service available in Wales, Scotland or NI

It's aimed at adults as opposed to school / college leavers and would give you the opportunity to talk / think thru the transferrable skills you have and your wishes for a future role. Some is on line but you can speak to an adviser too.

Good luck

If you want to stay within the field of midwifery or health sciences more broadly then you could consider moving into university research/teaching (e.g. teaching future midwives). I worked with a woman years ago who's now a professor of public health but started her working life as a midwife. Academia has its own stresses (but I can generally pee when I want and always have lunch break!) Job insecurity can be an issue.

In the shorter term, could you get a midwife role in another hospital/department? The midwife led unit where I gave birth was well staffed and seemed a relaxed place overall (I was there for a few days post birth so was able to observe goings on to some degree). Whereas the main delivery unit seemed a much more stressful work environment.

I was also going to suggest midwifery lecturing. A friend of mine has made this jump recently and finds it a lot less stressful than being in the nhs full time

Could you join the staff bank? DP did it after being on the brink of leaving nursing and it completely changed how he feels about work. There's so much work there's no loss of income and your pension won't be affected.

Sorry don't know the field but there seem to be lots of different roles available on the nhs recruitment site, while they may not be in the right area, do any of those at least give some ideas for roles to look out for? I just searched with midwife in the keyword and filtered on band 7 but left the location blank.

Go private.
if you have Facebook search Maternology and have a look. The service is so shocking that loads of people are willing to pay for a private mid wife. Combine that with some baby massage / yoga classes and you’ll easily make 40K. She set up on face book and advertise on every local page, got a load of fliers printed and left them at every nursery and toddler group. Got a couple of clients, word spread and she’s got 10 x more business than she can handle. A small loan covered the set up costs for a consultation room and ultra sound. Any complicated cases go straight back to the nhs

I have considered offering some sort of private care (maybe just baby massage/short antenatal course) and I think that might be the most likely route I go down. I think it would help build my confidence more than anything to be braver and try different things.

@HalfShrunkMoreToGo that all looks amazing and is exactly what I’d love to apply for. Many of those specialist roles look interesting. Unfortunately even within a 50 mile radius of my location there’s only 4 band 7 jobs. I might just have to be patient. And a similar issue with bank work - my current trust don’t use external agency midwives at all. I don’t think it would be a reliable enough source of money.

Probably very specialist, but I saw a midwife who specialised in supporting mums on NICU/SCBU. I saw her a lot because she helped mums with pumping and milk supply. She also did support sessions (and fed us loads of home made chocolate brownies!!). I know she had other responsibilities, but not sure what. She seemed to work daytimes.

Here's an article on the team (a few years after I was there) www.cambridgenetwork.co.uk/node/558929

There's a lactation consultant in my city who is amazing and was used by many of my friends who needed breastfeeding support/advice. She is a also a part-time NHS midwife. She said she had had to do additional training to become a lactation consultant. I think she charged around £90 for a consultation (which included follow up support), so pretty decent money. And I imagine could be very rewarding.

lactation consultant, doula. maternity nurse/night nanny If your unit is short staffed you could do bank/agency to provide income while you get started.

oh god i just feel for you. i was a general nurse then a midwife ( could not sleep at night used to palpate my husbands stomach thinking i was still looking after a labouring woman)
i think unless you've done it it's hard to describe the hours and lack of support/ breaks.
I did health visiting after but was working in a v v deprived area and found the child protection and huge caseloads v stressful. I did not have to go to court but plenty of my colleagues did. one had a complete breakdown after and could not work again
THEN i got asked to do a masters by the director of nursing and ended up as an ANP
i must say it was a relief to go back to actual nursing and look after people in the community who were unwell it was very-fulfilling. However due to promotion s etc ended up having to attend coroners court because of other peoples actions -hideous experience.
So i suppose i'm really just saying if you are a general nurse as well as a midwife there are options.
i look at my DH and son both in media they do work hard but they get paid well and have various perks. they certainly are not having sleepless nights about what they have or haven't done that day.
my daughter u is s a primary school teacher she works hideous hours. brings in food etc fir her pupils as it's a very deprived area. Again child protection issues on a daily basis.
I'm not a political person at all but but it seems as though jobs like teaching nursing midwifery are now seen as hobbies in some way. And you are some kind of thick dummy to have gone down those routes.
i regret supporting my daughter to be a
teacher she could have done anything. A clever girl with great a levels but she's exhausted all the time with absolutely nothing materially to show fir it. luckily my media husband has helped her with getting a house.
my sister was a nurse and went into pharmaceuticals. we all judged her and thought she'd sold out but she's had the last laugh big house shares etc. Has retired at z54.
it's not too late for you to make changes.
think a bit more widely is my advice fir what's it's worth
as a side note i just retired after 42 years in the nhs and although my immediate colleagues were lovely and gave me a wonderful party and collection not one senior person thanked me for my service so please do think of yourself and your family
good luck

not one senior person thanked me for my service

This was exactly my mum and dad's experience (nurse/paramedic) when retiring after working for the NHS for about 40 years each.

@Itsanofromme1 Have you considered a role as a sexual health nurse? Several former midwives I know moved into this, initially at band 5 for a short time then trained up "on the job" to band 6. Tends to be more office hours, with proper breaks and very little evening and weekend work. Feel free to PM me for more info.

@rhubarbcrumbl thanks for taking the time with your post. You describe the problems perfectly. I think what I find most frustrating is that I can see the problems, I can think of things I’d do to help them..but I know I wouldn’t get a job in management. They don’t want people who care about staff. Just people who can recite the latest government targets, with no thought of what the impact will be to staff on the ground. Continuity of care..

I’ve been forced into thinking by writing this post and am edging towards private work of some sort. I think the NHS will kill me, even at band 7+ salary!

Not sure about your local area but our hospital doesn't do tongue tie division. A local ex midwife has trained in it and appears to get a lot of business. She is also a sleep consultant.
I think the fact she was a midwife probably secures her a lot more business as parents will feel a lot more reassured.