To re-train as a midwife?

[SlightlyWorriedMaybe]

Keen to hear from other midwives and students.

I'm early 40s, 2 kids under 6, hubby, mortgage (due for renewal Dec 2027). The course starts Sept 2026, if I'm successful.

Would it be unreasonable to re-train as a midwife? Is it possible with 2 young kids? Will it affect my mortgage chances in 2027?

It will affect your mortgage as you’re unlikely to be able to work due ro placements. Which could involve 12 hr shifts for weeks. Could you sort childcare for placements?

Yes! I know somebody who did this. It’s hard going but they absolutely love their job. The pension is better than mine in the private sector, she loves her colleagues. Think carefully about childcare as you will have to do placements and overnights, but if it’s your dream, go for it

Thanks for the replies.

Hubby works shifts, but that could change. We've got family that could support too.

The mortgage worries me, but I maybe wrong, if we stay with the same bank at renewal we won't have to prove affordability? Is that right?

Normally I'd encourage anyone to go for it as I retrained at the same sort of point in time into another AHP career and it was a positive move - however the last few months have been the grimmest of any I've worked through in the NHS in terms of cuts, pressures, fucking nonsense from senior management (and printers), and having had another colleague and friend in tears yesterday cos of aforementioned management... think very carefully.

I love my job, I love my clients, I love my colleagues (apart from one who has just started and is driving me mad) - but it's fucking grim right now - half of us are terrified of redundancies, the other half are praying for voluntary redundancies to be able to get out, and any of us working full-time are desperately trying to work out how to manage finances to cut hours and remain remotely sane.

Thanks for your input @TorturedParentsDepartment
It would be 2030 by the time I graduate, I wonder what the future holds?

None of the student
midwives qualifying locally to me have secured jobs. There isn’t any funding for them. I don’t know what it’s like nationally.

I qualified last year at age 40. I have never regretted it for one second.

I am a single parent with an almost 7 year old and so have survived.

I LOVE being a midwife and it genuinely fills me with joy. Being newly qualified is hard, as is student life but my shift last night I left knowing I’d made a huge difference to a very young woman’s birth experience.

Absolutely go for it if you can

Can I just say thank you for your service.
We all know it’s bloody hard to work for the NHS.

The lovely newly qualified midwife who delivered my baby was a man who was at least late 40s if not in his 50s and who had decided to have a complete career change now that his own children were grown. I was totally impressed with him - not just his midwifery skills but that he had the courage to make such a big change in his life. Very inspiring.

I have a colleague that left our ward ( nurse) to qualify as a midwife and is now coming back because she can't find a job. I didn't ask details but was really surprised.

Thanks for this.

How did you manage childcare when on placements?

With family support. In the first year my mum used to look after my son as she only lived round the corner. She’d take him to school and pick him up and sleep over night with him. She sadly died the Christmas of my second year and my dad stepped in. He has been my absolute hero and still provides childcare now.

There are no childminders near me that open at 6.30 and close at 8pm which is what I need so I’d never cope without him.

I work permanent nights now (2 a week) as this works better for my dad and the extra pay for nights means ai can survive on 2 shifts a week. I occasionally pick up extras when my son is with his dad too.

It’s hard but honestly so so worth it. I love my job so much.

That brought a tear to my eye!

I was on nights last night and am currently sat at a club watching my son. I won’t get any sleep today and I feel a bit crap but when I left this morning, the woman I was caring for took my hand and said she wished I didn’t have to go. You don’t get that love with many jobs I imagine.

I think low birth rate is having an effect on jobs. I did read somewhere there were like 20 jobs for 400 graduates.

There's still a massive shortage of midwives, the lack of jobs will be down to money not the falling birth rate. It's so sad to hear that newly qualified midwives aren't finding jobs.

I'm a community midwife and absolutely love my job! I trained pre-children so didn't have that worry but you do need reliable childcare. Our student's placement blocks are full time plus they have assignments on top. And obviously once you qualify your shift pattern will likely be something like 7am-8pm, or 7:30pm-7:30am for nights. I work community due to the hospital hours and we don't have family locally to step in.

Happy to answer any questions x

Thanks for all the replies.

The removal of funding for midwives is a real worry. It will be 2030 by the time I qualifiy, would things have changed?! I'd be 45 by the time I qualify. But I can't see myself doing what I'm doing for the next 25 years! Urgh!!!

I already have bsc in biological studies and an MA, so I think I can do assignments easily enough.

It's relying on family to look after the kids that worries me. Would kindness last 3 long years!!!

Job wise, when I started my training we were told you’d walk straight into a job at the trust you trained with and my trust absolutely did take in all their students if they wanted a job.

Last year we were told we’d have to interview as the competition was so high! I did and I was grateful to get my job, on my chosen site, but many didn’t.

This year, I sat on the panel for the preceptorship interviews. There were the equivalent of 18 full time band 5 jobs and we interviewed 90 candidates. What I would say is the quality from some unis was awful! My panel personally interviewed 10 and we only appointed 2.

So in my experience, there may be lots of candidates but they all aren’t great. It may be a good thing for midwifery going forward that jobs are more competitive so we are only taking on the best.

I am also happy to answer any questions.

I’m a nurse in Scotland and I work with health care assistants who are newly qualified midwives because they can’t find jobs. Also have a health care assistant who qualified as a paramedic last year and can’t find a job. There was something like 12 jobs for 50 newly qualified paramedics and I understand the situation for midwives is similar.

I find it outrageous. Such bad workforce planning.

I wonder if they purposefully over subscribe the courses to, 1, make money from people, 2, because many people don't either complete or last once they have a job.

The uni I am looking at have 1300 applicants for 40 spaces

This is not the case in Scotland as students don’t pay fees, they are covered by the NHS and students get a 1k bursary from the NHS on top. So the NHS is paying £££ to train these people and then there aren’t any jobs.

I started my training with a toddler, most of my bursary went on childcare and I missed out on lots of time with him to balance placements and assignments. I qualified and couldn’t get a job so commuted to London for over a year before getting a temp post closer to home then around 2 years later finally secured a permanent post. Most of our newly qualified midwives this year are being told they won’t get jobs- many wonderful students who would be a massive asset to the workforce. The issues I believe is uni cohorts being too big and a lack of funding for staffing numbers- adequate staffing would result in much safer care, less delays to assess care and more satisfaction in the care provided resulting in fewer complains. It can be a wonderful job but can also be extremely hard both physically and emotionally - many of my long serving colleagues are able to retire at 55 due to pension rules but those of use who joined after 2008 ish cannot access our pensions until state pension age without penalties and that’s a really worry how we will actually be able to meet the needs of the role in our 60s.

Thank you for everyone's input.

It's worrying about the availability of jobs afterwards.

I'm really torn

Twas ever thus.Of those 40 spaces, probably 15-20 will actually finish the course because it is so demanding. It's a shock being on the wards with a lack of willing mentors, the uni just shove you in there and you hope your mentor doesn't run away from you (literally). Sink or swim for up to 14 hours a day.

Some years are better for job prospects. Things are particularly shit right now but it could be completely different in 3-4 years.

Hi OP, I started my training when I was 40, 10 years ago now. When I qualified, all our cohort were offered jobs. Not necessarily where they trained, but there certainly was vacancies. Where abouts in the UK are you? Have you searched for vacancies to see if there are jobs being advertised at the moment?

It helps if you live locally to more than one hospital as you will obviously have more options. It will be harder if there is only one and they don't have a high staff turnover.

With childcare, you will absolutely need a robust plan in place. You will be expected to work nights, weekends, long days full time when on placement.