To retrain as a midwife?

[NameChange188]

I've always felt I could do more with my life than I am. I'm in my late twenties and I've never really known what I wanted to do careerwise. I did well in school, and was encouraged just to go to university to do a subject I enjoyed if I didn't have any particular career aspirations. I graduated 7 years ago with a 2:1 honours.
Since then I've worked as a waitress for a few years, then as an admin.
I now work part time in an office on almost minimum wage and have a 2 year old.
I've always felt slightly resentful for being pushed into university to do a degree that was basically worthless. I've wasted a great opportunity, and had I stopped to really consider my options, and with the gift of hindsight, I wish I'd waited before going to uni and really figured out what I wanted to do with my life.
Since being pregnant I've often thought I would love to be a midwife. I love meeting new people, and feel I'm a very caring person. The idea of caring for a woman during what is probably one of the scariest and most amazing journeys of her life I find fascinating. This wasn't something my 17 year old self ever really thought about.
I've never really looked anymore into this as I thought if I wanted to retrain I'd have to find nearly 30K for another degree, which is obviously impossible for normal working class people.
I've since found out that if applying for nursing or midwifery, you can apply for student finance as if it is your first degree, so I wouldn't need to find the money upfront. This had led me to becoming obsessed with the idea of retraining.
I'd need to do a year's access course at my local college, which would be 3 days a week, and also need to do alot of work experience to even be in with a shot of being accepted into university. Then there's the 3 years at university.
My husband earns relatively good money and I think we'd be able to survive on his wage for this time, I only earn £500 a month, most of which goes on nursery fees, which will be stopping next September when we get 30 hours childcare from the government.
AIBU to even consider applying for the access course for September 2020 with the potential of university in September 2021? I feel like this might just be a stupid pipe dream.

Imo midwifery is something that gets idealised about as a career but most midwives I know, are unhappy. Could you go into hcp for a year on a maternity ward before committing to retraining?

Have you ever done any care work? I retrained as a midwife later in life and although I love my job, it's ridiculously hard and frustrating. Alot of students i see are shocked when they have their first placement as it isn't like what they thought it would be. It's also hard to get a place.

I'm a midwife. Why do you need to do an access course? Your current degree will fulfil the entry requirement.

I probably wouldn't recommend the career, some bits are amazing but the majority of time it's incredibly scary, exhausting work. You spend a lot of time worrying about difficult decisions you have made, you mostly feel rushed and when things go wrong they go wrong very quickly. Women/babies are incredibly precious and if you are a caring person (as most of us midwives are) - you'll never be able to switch off.

I don’t think the pay and conditions for the job are decent, so you’d be investing a LOT of time and money in qualifying for not enough IMO.

With your existing qualifications you could earn more money doing something interesting, that’s easier and less stress.

Instead of going the access course/uni route, I would strongly recommend trying to get a job as a HCA or Maternity Support Worker on your local maternity unit. It will give you more of an idea of whether the time, financial and personal cost is actually worth it. You may find that being an MSW fulfills the brief.

Midwifery in the UK and the NHS are both in a time of absolute crisis. I would hesitate to recommend anyone spend their time or money retraining at the moment.v

In response to people’s comments above, yes you do need an access course or similar even if you already have a degree as you need to have proof of recent study - usually in the past three years.

Im a midwife. I probably wouldn’t recommend being a midwife though. It’s hard work, the hours are long, the pay is poor and it’s a pretty high stress environment. Equally, I still love my job.

You really need to research it. Here is a good start! I did it for 18yrs then it just burnt me out. I can relate to pp who says it can be incredibly scary and stressful. I couldn't do the job I trained to do. I couldn't support women adequately - partly due to operational constraints (it took up to 3 hrs after a delivery to do the notes - time away from the women). Expectations of clients is high (as it should be of course) but we were unable to meet them. It is not the job people think unfortunately.

As a midwife I'd ask you to think about why you really want to do it?

And if you can cope with providing care which isn't to the level that you want to?

Are you prepared for it to take you over completely - being a midwife isn't something that you do, it's something you are

I would not recommend to anyone who isn't 100% sure it's for them to become a midwife - however equally it's a part of me and I don't think I could do anything else

Thanks for your responses everyone. Lots of food for thought.
At the moment, it's just pure speculation. I wouldn't be applying for the access course until next year so I was thinking of just trying to get some volunteer work in the hospital before then, maybe shadow a midwife and see what the job actually entails.
I think alot of this stems from my husband who works in another incredibly pressurised area of the NHS but absolutely loves his job. But equally, probably wouldn't recommend the job to people looking to join the career.
Will definitely take all the feedback on board.

Name change did you breastfeed? If so many hospitals offer support opportunities to volunteers, this would be a great opportunity which may lead onto something and give you an insight into midwifery.