Leaving midwifery, what’s next?

[TastingTheRainbow]

I have made the decision to leave my job as an NHS midwife. It breaks my heart but sadly I can no longer cope with the short staffing, increasingly busy days and my mental health is suffering. I am crying in bed most nights knowing that I gave terrible care to women as I just couldn’t split myself between the needs of 20 women and their babies when on my own on the ward. The anxiety that one day I’m going to make a mistake or miss something and cost someone their life as a result is crippling.

The question is what next? I have no qualifications or experience in anything other than midwifery as it’s what I’ve always done and always wanted to do. I’m also a direct entry midwife so didn’t qualify as a nurse first.

I can afford to take a pay cut for better work / life balance and I would save on childcare costs anyway so it would balance out.

Can anyone give me any suggestions of what (non NHS jobs) would be open to someone with a degree in midwifery?

Could you work abroad somewhere with better conditions and where midwifery is a valued profession?

Could you not go into research or teach midwifery? Or what about re-training as a health visitor? My health visitor started out as a midwife and then went into that later on. A good friend of mine has also just qualified, she was a nicu nurse for over 10 years before. She loves her job now, no rubbish shifts, less pressure and she can work from home one day a week. Still nhs I know but worth a look.

Nannying,

Try a different hospital? If you drive it wouldn't be to difficult. When i worked in a hospital the nurse's were always going of to work in private hospitals! Shorter shifts, almost double the pay and plenty of staff on shift together! Or another NHS hospital that have better staff quantity's, my hospital hired HCA's when they couldn't get midwife/Nurse staff, to help the qualified people on shift x

Don't quit what you love just find a better opportunity for yourself! Good luck Op 🥰

I have a friend who left MWery and went into forensic pathology as a sexual offences examiner, taking samples and examining women who have been raped. Awful and difficult job emotionally, but also rewarding knowing that her work has helped to secure convictions in some cases.

Could you become a midwife privately, or a doula? You might have to leave your NHS principles at the door and just follow the money.

Look into becoming a doula. Maternity nursing maybe?

Private hospital? Depending on where you are, much easier to find one in London.

Teaching? For teaching adults (technically 14+ but in FE colleges) you can take a 2 year part time diploma whilst working. I do supply and I can work most of the year just teaching BTEC anatomy and physiology, as a midwife you could definitely teach that unit and quite a few others from the 'health and social care' BTEC Diplomas.

Run an afterschool club - everyone seems to need childcare and there keep being threads on schools that close early on a Friday.

Stay in the NHS and go into management?

Flight attendant, they seem to have quite a few ex medical types.

What about running NCT classes? www.nct.org.uk/get-involved/nct-training/specialist-roles-nct

Medical sales

Teaching, private work, a rep, what about neonatal nurse(some trusts have midwives working there), clinical governance. Nhs 111 call taker

If you love midwifery what about specialising in something, perinatal mental health, HDU, public health, maternal medicine etc? Usually more 9-5 style jobs.

I’m currently B7 on labour ward and know this feeling. But I’m not sure what I would ever go into, as much as I hate my job sometimes (the politics/short staffing/too high expectations from managers) I would genuinely miss being a midwife

Try the local universities that run degrees/apprenticeships in nursing and healthcare. There may be lectureships or research posts. Although you were a direct entrant lots of the units you did will have wider application.

Have you tried community? It’s still stressful but it’s a different kind of stress. The hours are easier on your body, and mind I think, too. I’m still not going to do it forever, but for now it’s working for me.

How long have you been qualified? You could try research, Public health. I do completely understand that you need a break though! It is a tough job.

Second research, mostly office based but can dip in to the wards to recruit patients . No stress from short staffing etc . Manage own workload.

Doula? Private midwife?

Private hospital? Community midwifery? Doulla?

Community midwifery
Health visiting
Maternity nanny
NCT leader
Doula
Lecturer

My mother was a midwife and went into Heath Visiting.

I went from midwifery to health visiting 5 years ago. Best decision I've ever made.

My sister also left midwifery to be a hv and she loves it. No weekends or nights and 9-5

Another hospital won’t solve the issue as it’s the same everywhere now and there is also no longer the option to just go into community midwifery.

The continuity of carer that’s being implemented nationally means that women need to have the same midwife all the way through pregnancy, through labour and after the baby has arrived so we are all being forced into covering all areas now with rotating shifts and many on call shifts also. The profession is changing into something that simply isn’t possible when you have children and commitments to juggle also.

My hospital is trialing the system we are expected to soon switch to and it is resulting in being on call 5 nights a week on top of working your full time hours. One of my children is disabled and childcare is already a struggle. Every hospital does it differently right now but once it becomes compulsory they will all end up the same with unrealistic expectations so a change of hospital would be a short term solution only.

Specialising in one area isn’t an option as I have not been qualified long enough and would need several more years experience first.

Private also isn’t an option as no private hospitals in my area have a maternity department, it loses more money than it makes so not many private providers happy to provide midwifery services. The only option for being private is being an independent midwife and again you need a lot of experience to be confident and safe being completely independent.

I have considered health visiting but from what I understand the hospital you work for has to sponsor you through your training and provide work placements. That’s not going to happen, we can’t even afford staff never mind to train staff to leave! If any health visitors know if there is another route to train I would be very interested to know!

Some other options here I’m going to look into also. Thank you for the suggestions.

I work for the maternity service in a very part time patient representative role - I think the continuity they’re trying to implement is an absolute disaster waiting to happen in terms of staff retention.

There may be strategic roles available at the CCG if you want to stay involved in maternity.

Come to sexual health! No night shifts, practical work like coils and a fairly easy going client group. Lots of our nurses are Ex midwives.
Or work for bpas or Marie stopes providing abortion care.

I have a friend who left MWery and went into forensic pathology as a sexual offences examiner, taking samples and examining women who have been raped. Awful and difficult job emotionally, but also rewarding knowing that her work has helped to secure convictions in some cases.

I hope I never need this service, but grateful to hear there are highly trained people like your friend caring for victims.

tastingtherainbow you don’t need to be sponsored by your hospital to do health visiting. Just apply for it externally. Nothing to do with where you work now.

The COC thing is bollocks. It will not work. There are not enough midwives that can or want to work like this. Myself included