Midwife only wants to do straight-forward natural births?

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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?

if there are any complications in the birthing suite the mother is transferred out! So the nature of her job is not going to be to deal with high risk births!

KarateKitten
I don't think you understood what I was saying. There is no way anyone can predict what sort of birth a woman will have. In theory, I was the perfect candidate for a BS. Clearly I was not, but we only found that out when things turned critical.

Any birth can turn critical risk in a split second, so the trainee DOES need to know how to deal with those situations, or at least until a doctor can get there to assist/take over.

I think it's more about the midwifery led aspect that she's interested in. I do understand her though. Perhaos she us more interested in the physiology of birth in which case working in an area with lots of sections might not appeal

Headofthehive
That's fabulous, but she still needs to know how to handle high risk in case she encounters one unexpectedly.

It sounds like the trainee thinks all high risk births will be "screened out" before they have a chance to even make it to the birthing centre. Completely not true. If the trainee thinks she can avoid traumatic births by only doing BS births she's naive, at best; dangerous at worst if she doesn't take that part of the training seriously.

emmy
And that's my point. Working as the lead professional responsible for spotting things going wrong and sorting out transfer and help is far more interesting from a work point of view than preparing woman after woman for theatre. That is perhaos dull for her. (It would be for me)

You have to be very very astute to work independently. Confident enough with all the variations of normal that any abnormal hits you in the face. And proficient at neonatal resuscitation as there's no paeds team if the baby is born needing assistance.

Lazy?
That is bizarre.

Why would a 'natural' birth be the lazy choice?
If you were a lazy person I doubt midwifery would be your preferred career, wherever you worked.

Maybe she means she enjoys a less medicalised birth? Which obviously is a desired outcome for all but most likely in a MLU setting?

peng ah but are you working class though.

Working class women, particularly those on benefits, apparently 'pop' kids out all over the shop.

That is what I have learned from MN and the Daily Mail anyway.

I have concluded that I was swapped at birth and my true parents are posh because I never managed to pop out a baby despite being common.

emmy if she works in a birth centre she will only be dealing with low risk births. Low risk does not mean no risk.

And all MLU midwives still have to have annual training in dealing with obstetric emergencies. So I'm sure she will be aware that emergencies still happen. In fact she's likely to have more in depth training such as NLS and ALSO courses which not all hospital midwives get to go in because there's an expectation that doctors will respond to emergencies in a CLU.

Given that this thread comes from this poor student midwife's intentions reported by someone who is not themselves a midwife, and who doesn't understand what a birth centre birth involves, it may well be that the person actually under discussion is fully aware of all the factors being raised here. It feels a bit unfair to have lots of posters saying that she should be aware of x, y, z when she probably already is.

Havnt read the thread, but I have midwife fiends who have talked about their role being more redundant when intervention starts , because then obstetricians take over. They fear they role becoming obstetric nurse rather than midwife.

The easy way??

Wow some of the interventions that would happen at home to be able to transfer me in should I need to be (where she would of still been my mw just in the hospital) where certainly not easy or fun things. Explaining how to deal with stuck shoulders or cord coming first etc.

Mw's in the mlu or do honebirthing have to be at the top of their game. If they don't spot the problem early enough it's game over. You get much more attention on mlu and homebirth than being in hospital in my experience.

My student mw in my last birth who wanted to do homebirths/waterbirth was amazing listening to me and just observing she never left my room once, much better than my mw with my hospital birth who kept wondering off and ignoring me. My homebirth team didn't even get chance to glove up or unpack before delivering that one.

I thought that midwives on the NHS had to swap between hospitals and community practice every now and then? She sounds a bit precious really

I'm a paediatric nurse. No way on this earth will I ever look after adults. Wanting to work in a midwife led unit doesn't make her any less of a good midwife.

Ttbb depends on the trust/unit where they work. But many trusts have Mws who just work in one area.

She doesn't sound precious in the slightest, just has an idea of the career path she wants to take.

I think it's a bit sad if some midwives think their role is over when intervention starts as obstetricians take over. I don't find that at all. A midwife should be able to work alongside an obstetrician, sometimes an obstetrician will say something which I don't think is the best option so I might suggest something else. Where I work I'm lucky that we work very well as a team and the doctors, especially the consultants, are happy to listen to midwives.

Even if it's a black and white case where we need to do exactly as the obstetrician says it's still us in the room looking after the woman. And there's still loads of stuff we can do to optimise her birth/labour even if high risk. Even if it's a section there's still stuff we can do to make the experience better even if it's only holding her hand and comforting her as the spinal is put in.

I've never once felt redundant even in the most high risk situations.

And no, midwives don't have to swap areas. Some hospitals may have rotational staff, some won't. Even the ones that do tend to have core staff in all areas.

EmmyRose2000 The trainee will be well aware that she needs to be aware of the possibility of things going wrong - most midwives train for 3 years and a big part of that is understanding the physiology of labour and birth, recognising signs of problems, and dealing with potential or actual problems appropriately. Any midwife would have to be staggeringly thick to think working in a birth centre = only lovely 'pop 'em out' deliveries - and midwives aren't staggering thick, they're highly trained. Aside from that, there's a lot of skill involved in supporting a woman through a physiological labour - sometimes looking after someone with an epidural and a fetal heart monitor in situ can be the easier option for a midwife (I'm not ragging on women who have epidurals by the way - I had one myself - but I guarantee you I would have required a lot more midwifery input if I hadn't).

sometimes looking after someone with an epidural and a fetal heart monitor in situ can be the easier option for a midwife

Definitely, I've seen in handover a very experienced midwife say they didn't feel very well so could they please look after the woman with an epidural. She knew she would have an easier shift than if she looked after the low risk, non epidural woman.

Lots of health professionals specialise. I'm a children's nurse and I love surgery, that's what I choose to do.

I don't think people who give birth naturally pop them out as such.
I do however see your point entirely!
I'd love to go to a birth centre but I'm not allowed due to my weight and thyroid. It's something that saddens me but it's just how it is.
I'd hate for someone not want to help me birth my baby because it's not in a birth centre.
I intend for this birth to be as natural as possible but it will have to be in a hospital.
She sounds a little naive to me!

I gave birth naturally twice and they certainly didn't pop out. One of mine took two days.

There are midwife led units where she can do that and homebirths - very challenging for the midwives as they need to deal with things as they come up. Totally opposite to my birth experience but some women are fortunate enough to have lovely low risk births in a nice midwife led unit!

chamonix that's the point though, midwives who want to work in birth centres or home birth settings won't be looking after you. Midwives who want to work in hospital settings will be looking after you and will be very happy to do so.

I don't think it's naive to have an idea of your career path.