@MintyGreenDream
Why is it such a toxic environment to work in? Just wondering and being nosey
I think part of the issue is due to stress. MWs have a big case load due to lack of staff, don’t get the breaks they should and often don’t get chance to eat or even go to the toilet. They are always on high alert as things can and do go wrong. Basically they have the lives of women and babies in their hands, so there’s the constant fear of being struck off. And on top of that the mountain of paper work and form filling. Oh, and there’s students to mentor….
As a student midwife I understood the pressure they are under, however students feel that pressure too, and on top of studying.
I was once told off for going to the toilet, even though my mentor had left me alone with a woman for hours whilst she had gone for a sleep during a night shift. She was told by the midwife in charge to go for a sleep because she had a headache. She had a headache because she’d done a bank shift the day before…. I was literally gone a few seconds and told someone. I think I was on my period and had flooded….
I think some MWs also bully to make themselves perhaps feel powerful and do it to cope with stress and the workload.
I was also accused of doing something I hadn’t done by a mentor, I had to get uni involved. Turns out the MW had mixed me up with another student, but yet she was calling me incompetent!