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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Midwife only wants to do straight-forward natural births?

107 replies

PinkNails1234 · 17/09/2017 21:34

I met a trainee midwife this weekend who told me that once she's qualified she doesn't want to work in hospitals or with doctors. Instead she intends to work in birth centres as she prefers' the straightforward, natural, non-intervention births'.

Is this a common attitude in midwifery? It came across like she felt a hospital birth was less valuable than straight-forward natural births.

AIBU to think that the women in hospital who may have risk factors or complicated labours with interventions are likely to need the skills and support of a good midwife more than those women who manage to pop them out naturally with minimal complications in the birth centre.

AIBU to think that this is like me saying I only want to do the easy, straightforward quick projects at work rather than the more complicated ones that really need my skill and effort if they are going to be successful?

OP posts:
MarthaArthur · 17/09/2017 22:06

Jeeze over the top much? Some nurses chose to be trauma nurses in A&E some choice to be community RGNs. She has a preference to where she wants to utilise her skills. And the emergency aspect, even if an emergency does occur she will know how to calmly deal with it and the the woman to hospital.

troodiedoo · 17/09/2017 22:06

The birth centre near me is only open 8am to 8pm weekdays and is pretty quiet as it's a half hour minimum drive to the maternity unit with doctors, drugs and whatnot so most people don't risk it.

So fair play to any midwife who lands that cushy number.

fitbitbore · 17/09/2017 22:08

Lazy midwife 😂 we could all take the easy path at work but it won't help her professional development!!!

Grumpyoldwoman007 · 17/09/2017 22:09

As a community midwife who worked in a high risk setting for 10 years before moving to community I now only attend home births which are usually low risk pregnancies. However, emergencies can happen at any time and hospital midwives in an emergency situation press a buzzer and the room fills up with all the help she could want. At a home birth the midwife IS the help. Believe me birth centre and community midwives have not taken the easy option!

TheFirstMrsDV · 17/09/2017 22:13

I have met several midwives who don't want to do home births. They only like hospital, dr led units.
One of them was my midwife who told me if I promised to have a hospital birth she would make sure she came in even if she wasn't on call.
She was overestimating our relationship.
I went ahead with my medically approved, low risk homebirth and was pretty pleased she wasn't on duty.

HaHaHmm · 17/09/2017 22:13

You're projecting a value judgment onto what she told you. She doesn't necessarily think that natural births are better than medical ones. I am pretty dismissive of the cult of natural birth, had a horrendous time with DC1 and am booked for an ELCS for DC2 due to birth injuries. Nevertheless, I can totally appreciate why a midwife would prefer to work in a midwife-led birthing unit where she will have a decent amount of autonomy to provide good-quality care to the women who come in, rather than being pushed out of the way by arrogant doctors when interventions are needed. High-risk births aren't 'less valuable', but they're largely handled by doctors and a totally different experience for the midwife.

BananaShit · 17/09/2017 22:14

Up to her. As well as the greater autonomy they're sometimes not as busy. Some in the UK are pretty underused in fact. So i can see why one of those might be a more attractive prospect than somewhere more stretched.

Obviously as others have said just because she wants it, doesn't mean she'll get it.

HaHaHmm · 17/09/2017 22:17

Lazy midwife

Midwives do everything in low-risk births.

Platypusfattypus · 17/09/2017 22:17

Some of the replies show how little some know of what midwifery entails. So she wants to work in an mlu. Ive worked in all sorts of areas and I prefer the mlu. It's challenging in different ways and I enjoy the challenge of being autonomous. It's still hard work. If it doesn't go to plan I have to utilise my skills and make a quick decision - no idea why anyone thinks mlu midwives run screaming from emergencies. I enjoyed delivery suite, but I prefer the midwife led care environment. Don't get why that is so weird?

If I wanted an easy office job I'd get one, I wouldn't be a midwife.

CobwebKitten · 17/09/2017 22:19

We'd all 'prefer' a straight-forward birth. It's not like anyone marches in gleefully declaring "finger's crossed for a placental abruption!" or "Golly gosh, hoping for a bit of shoulder dystocia to liven up the evening!"

(one of my children was an awkwardly engaged, shoulder dystocia baby, and I hope your midwife friend will be as calm as mine were as they hit the alarms and summoned the emergency team to begin various life-saving procedures.)

She seems not to have realised the whole point of midwives is that births aren't easy and outcomes are better when experienced/trained people are there to help, something our whole species managed to figure out millennia ago.

Platypusfattypus · 17/09/2017 22:20

Our mlu is a 24/7 busy unit. As for professional development how does it not help that? I have to show a record of all my continuous practice development to the nmc in order to be registered.

CobwebKitten · 17/09/2017 22:21

"I enjoyed delivery suite, but I prefer the midwife led care environment. Don't get why that is so weird?"

I was in a MLU for both births (like I said above, my second went a bit wrong so I was moved a few yards down the corridor to the main suite), but you'd agree that even in the MLU you're going to get the unstraightforward, intervention births the OP's friend "doesn't want" to do?

Lunde · 17/09/2017 22:22

Some really strange comments here - I don't see a problem with someone choosing to work in a mlu where she will have more autonomy and assist with natural births if that is the role she prefers - she's not saying that other mw duties are "wrong" just what she prefers and feels she can do most personally.

Awwlookatmybabyspider · 17/09/2017 22:23

Well she's in the wrong job them.
Pardon me for having pre eclampsia and needing an emergency c/sectionHmm

Platypusfattypus · 17/09/2017 22:23

She said she prefers normality not that she wouldn't do anything that required intervention.

edwinbear · 17/09/2017 22:25

I hired an independent midwife for my second after a very difficult, medical birth with DS. She was very pro non intervention, hypnobirthing, facilitating women to be at home if they chose etc etc. But my gosh when I needed to actually get to hospital second time round she was 100% on it. Brilliant woman.

Iheartjordanknight · 17/09/2017 22:26

Well you wouldn't be on her MLU with Pre eclampsia

EssentialHummus · 17/09/2017 22:27

Different challenges, different strengths and skills required.

Yup. I recently gave birth in a MLU. The midwife working with me had 30 years experience and (it turns out) is a senior lecturer in midwifery at a local university. Not exactly lazy/unskilled/easy.

BananaShit · 17/09/2017 22:28

I don't think OPs friend even wants to be in a hospital MLU cobweb. Sounds like she wants home birth and freestanding. No doubt she'd still see plenty of complications there too, though fewer than in a hospital MLU because OOH settings understandably have stricter risking out policies and will transfer pre-emptively.

Lunde · 17/09/2017 22:29

Cobwebbkitten - even in the MLU you're going to get the unstraightforward, intervention births the OP's friend "doesn't want" to do?

I think you are misinterpreting what OP wrote - she didn't say that this mw didn't want to do complex births just that her preference is to work in a lower intervention environment.
As OP wrote
Instead she intends to work in birth centres as she prefers' the straightforward, natural, non-intervention births'

What is the problem with a mw choosing the working environment that suits them best? I don't get the hostility

Original poster
PinkNails1234 · 17/09/2017 22:30

As some PP have mentioned it was the comments about not wanting to do the non-straight-forward births rather than the location of her job that made me go Hmm . All these comments have been really interesting though. Maybe she just wants the autonomy of a mlu but didn't explain it very well.

OP posts:
Mrsmadevans · 17/09/2017 22:30

I don't think she meant it the way you took it OP and even if she did then there is nothing wrong with it. After all it is up to her what she wants to do with her career. I was a staff nurse on a childrens ward for 25 years and decided to leave to become a childrens community nurse . It wasn't easier or an easy way out . It was just something I wanted to do . Not a cop out or because I was lazy just my choice. YADBU !

dnwig · 17/09/2017 22:31

Of course she can choose to work in a midwife led unit!

But at pps have said, she's going to need excellent skills to manage the unpredictable emergencies that arise even in "low risk" pregnancies.

SoPassRemarkable · 17/09/2017 22:34

She seems not to have realised the whole point of midwives is that births aren't easy and outcomes are better when experienced/trained people are there to help, something our whole species managed to figure out millennia ago.

I don't get that from what she said that she's saying births are easy. I think anyone who works or has done training in an MLU will know that birth isn't easy. You need to be highly skilled to work there. Some skills will be the same as high risk midwives, others will be different. And actually outcomes are better for low risk women in a low risk setting....either home birth or an MLU. Outcomes are worse for low risk women on a consultant led unit.

reetgood · 17/09/2017 22:36

Yeah I'd read that as about her developing a recognition of where she wants to practise and how her skills fit. I know someone who works in trauma and orthopaedics because it's usually more straightforward from an ethics point of view. But she doesn't want to go into hip replacements because it's nationally monitored and you get into hitting targets etc l. I don't think that means she's judging people who carry out or have hip replacements, she just doesn't want to work in that context.