Am I too old to train to be a midwife?

[Illbebythesea]

At 32. But… with 3 young kids and one still 2 years away from school age. Could I do it… then. At 34? I’ve always wanted to. SAHM for 6 years and feel like this would be my last chance to have a career instead of a job.

if I remember it’s about a 46 week year for 3 years, you’ll do plenty of placement time (not sure what ratio of college to placement though) college is regular hours (9-5 type) placement hours will depend if hospital or community. I’d find your local college and check with them, they can also advise on entry requirements. I’d say you should go for it!

My eldest daughter starts her midwife training next week! She's a single parent of three under 9s, and knows it will be hard but she's so incredibly organised I know she'll do it. She's early 30s too.
Similarly I was a single parent when she was small and managed a degree - nothing quite so onerous but it's always possible

I’m reading all these comments - thank you all so much.

Training programmes:

https://www.nmc.org.uk/education/approved-programmes/

The midwife who delivered myast baby was 48 and she had just qualified. Go for it.

Crazily intense. It’s like doing a degree while working 40 hours a week!

You get no choice in your shifts as a student (and not much choice as a midwife). Day shifts tend to be long days now, s9 starting around 7 or 7:30 am and finishing about 8 or 8:30pm. Then there’s night shifts, weekends, bank holidays. Most childminders won’t start early enough or finish late enough so you need family on board to help.

You’ll likely need to do an Access course which takes a year. Have you got GCSEs in English, maths and science?

I don’t think there’s any university which does it part time. Leicester do a 4 year Masters pre reg programme which has longer holidays. Most unis do about 4-6 weeks off at summer, then Xmas and Easter off.

there’s a few universities doing apprenticeship training but the idea is that the places are for existing trust staff, so normally maternity support workers.

you’re best off go8ng to an open day at your local uni and asking them their requirements.

Not too old at all, but I would look at the course material, make sure you can cope with it. Email a course tutor- see what paths they have.

I’m 45 and absolutely hate my job so I’ve started a course that will allow me to move sideways, into a more interesting job. There is a potential for further promotion- I don’t want it, but could if needed. It’s never too late to do something you love. I don’t want to have regrets! I considered it my early forties but thought “I’m too old”. Then realised I’m so unhappy, I should just go for it.

I’d think about the hours, not family friendly and without being pessimistic, would you be able to continue if you split up, eg do you have other family support who can help as childminders don’t do the shifts nurses / midwife’s do

This. You need good, reliable childcare. Hospital shifts where I work are 7am-8pm, or 7an-3pm/12pm-8pm if on earlies/lates. Nights are 7:30pm-7:30am. Community hours are 8:30-5 but with on calls.

On placements students are expected to do 40 hours placement per week, plus assignments/reading on top. You have to complete so many clinical hours in order to qualify, which is set by the NMC.

if you want to pm I'd be happy to help if I can!

Hi @Illbebythesea I am a third year student midwife and also a single parent! What would you like to know?!

You’d be absolutely fine age wise. When I did my midwifery degree the oldest person in our cohort was mid 50s! Can’t comment on how it is to study with children as I didn’t but 50% of the 3 years involved me working 40 hours per week at all times of day so do have a think about whether that would be a possibility for you.

I was 32 when I qualified as a nurse, I would say I was probably about average age wise for my cohort, there were plenty of people older and plenty of people younger. It took me about 4 years to get to a band 7 post.

I can't speak for midwifery but I know nursing varies between universities, placements have to be x number of days per year but some will do slightly longer placements with maybe a day a week in uni at the same time, some will do pure placement blocks. It's worth contacting your local universities and asking what their programmes look like.

You could also have a look at degree apprenticeships which are work based rather than university based learning.

Lots of universities offer a foundation year (usually its a nursing foundation year which you can then use for any branch including midwifery), access courses are another option, open university also offer some courses I think? If you already have any a-level or university level qualifications it might be worth a chat with admissions to see if they would consider them even if they are old / subjects don't seem relevant, particularly if you have any transferable experience.

I did the course at 36.It is 50%theory 50%practical. The shifts are brutal and you often don't get to choose just have to follow your supervisors shifts.
Then even on qualifying newly qualified midwives are often on rotational contracts moving around inpatient/outpatient/ community so again 12 hour shifts most of the time.
I would speak to a midwife at your local unit to see what opportunities there are for flexible working etc .
In all honesty I can't recommend midwifery as a career. It is poorly paid for the level of responsibility and the workforce moral is low. Short staffed, unmanageable workload and lots of high risk women to care for.
Saying that I don't regret doing my training I love my job, I can't imagine not being a midwife now. But it comes at a huge sacrifice, for me and my family I am tired and stressed all the time

There is a shortage of midwives. You are needed! There are lots of pluses to going down the apprenticeship route, especially if you feel a bit daunted by the return to study. I think it's important to choose a course geared to the needs of people returning to education. For instance, this Bournemouth course can include a Foundation Year (the newer name for an access course):

https://www.bournemouth.ac.uk/study/courses/bsc-hons-midwifery-foundation-year-option

Both nursing and midwifery are 50% classroom based learning and 50% placements so you will need to think about how you manage child care when you are on placement.

Good luck!

I had 3 children when I started, age 1, 4 and 6.

It is hard. Intense. Uni I found fairly OK but then placement you are working full time, studying to then understand how what you learned in uni applies in practice, often working on essays to be completed for the modules you did in your last uni block and also collecting evidence for your file from placement.

Is it worth it? That's a difficult question. The nhs, nursing, Drs, midwifery all of it, is on its knees. Which means it is even harder because it is difficult to get the support you need and want. You need to be very resilient at the moment. That's not a reason not to do it, without more midwives it will never get better. But it is a very challenging career right now and students are coming across a lot of negativity. Not directed towards them but just from staff who are burnt out and fed up. I do love my job though and I'm not at the point of wanting to do anything else.

You wouldn't want to juggle shift work on a permanent basis due to childcare?
What do you think being a midwife involves ? Most jobs in midwifery will involve shift work! Majority of hospitals require you to do 12 hour shifts- unless you are looking for part time in which the income might not be enough.

The other thing to consider is don’t assume you will get allocated your nearest hospital as a student. Every uni I can think of uses a number of placement hospitals. It could be the one you want, all the other students want it as well…..some are going to be disappointed.

My local uni tell students they must be prepared to travel 1-1.5hrs to placement. So potentially 3 hours of travelling on top of a 13 hour shift.

it’s actually an nmc requirement from next year that you don’t do all your training at the same hospital, you will have to move units in order to be able to qualify.

If you’ve been a sahm mum as well for six years you might want to think about how you can get some experience before you apply to help your application stand out. There is a lot of competition for places.

Go for it
I was 37 when I qualified- it was a hard course and not easy with two small children.
I absolutely loved my training and I loved the job. Probably a bit starry eyed at times 😁
12 hour-shifts weren't a thing then, so I've no experience of them.
Enquire re University open days- you'll get up to date info from people running the course. Good luck OP, it's a fab job. Most of the time

I trained at 35, qualified at 39, with 4 children 4, 7, 11 and 18. It’s never too late. There were fellow students on my course aged between 18-50.

My midwife was newly qualified and I'd guess he was in his 50s (yes, male midwife). Said he'd really enjoyed the course and change of career.

Definitely not too old. However another (ex) midwife here who wouldn’t recommend it as a career path. It is not the lovely job you think it will be (in my experience). You aren’t able to provide the quality of care you want due to high work load and poor staffing. That was 6 years ago and I can only imagine things are worse now. Shifts are long, often without breaks and you are always switching between day and night shifts with on-calls too. There are high levels of stress and burn-out.

There is a statistic that for every 30 midwives that qualify 29 leave. There is a reason for that. My advice would be to try and get some experience within a maternity ward to help decide if it’s really for you.

I turned 40 last year, completed an access course, and started uni this week! I’m not doing midwifery, so can’t speak to the specifics, but I’m loving studying again, even though it’s exciting and overwhelming at the same time. So you’re definitely not too old, the question is then more about the logistics of the particular program.

I love this thread! I am stuck in a rut at work (Early years) and would love to train as a midwife. Have an 8yr old, single parent and not much family help so dont know if it would work for me.

My mum did it at 39 when pregnant with her second child and then she went onto have her third child two year later. She absolutely loved her career as a midwife and found it so rewarding. She did find the shifts hard with young children although she didn’t have any support result from grandparents and my dad was also doing shift work.

I know someone who trained and decided it wasn’t for them and went back to her original careers and seems happy enough. I suppose at least she knows she gave it a go and probably appreciates her original line of work more now!

I’m a midwife, I qualified when I was 37 and became a single parent of 4 during the course. I echo what most people have said here- you will need flexible, reliable support on an ongoing basis. I now work set shifts so I know exactly which day I will be working which makes life easier, but during training and as a preceptor I was on a rolling shift pattern; days nights, weekends, different every week. I leave the house at 6.30am and get home at 9pm. I can do it because I have an au pair but that obviously required money and space. I’d you don’t have those then you need a supportive partner or family member to pick up the slack.

You won’t have any difficulty getting on a course, numbers applying for midwifery are way down and all the London universities had spaces in clearing this year for the first time. When I applied there were 5 applicants for every place. Now as a mature student they’ll honestly bite your hand off. But if you don’t have any experience, I’d really recommend working as an HCA for a bit to get an idea of what it’s like working in a hospital and what the job entails, and how you cope with the hours and juggling family life. For what it’s worth I absolutely love my job.