To be thinking of changing my career?

[redwallday]

I currently do freelance job working from home but I've been finding it increasingly miserable. I'm a people person and find working alone very isolating. I've done it for nearly 2 years and now feel like I wang to change my whole career. I want to train to be a midwife? I'm very interested in working supporting mothers and babies. I have two children already so I've experienced the other side. Am I crazy? My current job earns more but to be honest I'm starting to hate it. I understand there will be shift work and its bit for the faint hearted but I really fancy the challenge of it. So honestly AIBU?

Want!!! Not wang!!

what's your current job?

Depends on a few things:

can you afford to change to a lower paid job?

do you think the grass will be greener?

have you been watching one born every minute

could you adapt your current job to solve the issues you have with it therefore making you happier without dropping the pay?

I have considered changing career and I'm slowly getting there so it can be done.

I'm a designer I'm aware it's definitely not going to be a grass is greener situation. I'm just thinking it will be a more fulfilling career. ATM I only work a couple of days a week for one client and get paid a daily rate so I would ultimately earn more working FT as a midwife but my warning potential is higher as a designer iykwim. But that will come with trying to find new clients etc which isn't the easiest thing in the world.

YANBU to want to do something else, I know a couple of people who have trained to be midwives after having children and have loved it, just make sure that you think through any financial implications, such as training costs and also whether you have the time to train without feeling like you missed out on your own DCs growing up. Good luck.

If at all possible, try working shifts including night shifts for a bit before committing because that's the thing that's likely to be a killer, especially given that you have two kids. It's not the same as getting up in the night for your DC; it's more like flying to Australia & back every week and ending up constantly jet-lagged.

I would very strongly advise you to try to get some bank work as a health care assistant at your local hospital (doesn't have to be on a maternity unit) and check that you really do enjoy the gory side of the healthcare, the punters* and can tolerate the shifts. If the answer is yes to those three things, go for it .

*remember that OBEM only shows people who agree to be filmed so isn't going to include patients who are difficult or violent. It's only Tuesday and already this week a patient has threatened to stab me and I have had to deal with a mother who may be abusing her child. I don't mean to put you off because healthcare is very rewarding as a career. I just think you need to be sure that it's the career that you want.

Good luck with whatever you decide.

Do it!
Take a deep breath and do it.
Life is too short to be working in a job you don't like.
You might just be the best midwife ever!