Student midwives experiences

[Laurynjade]

Hey guys!

I was just wondering what your experiences were like with having student midwives at your appointments/ labour etc. Are there any tips that you would give a student in these situations? What were they good at and not good at? :)

Thankyou! X

Following as I start my placement in a week, and I can't remember if I had any student midwives when I had my dd.

I had a really wonderful student with me during labour. She was kind and explained things to my husband which he appreciated (I'm a doctor so people tended to speak to me in medical terms!). I had an emergency c-section and she helped DH do skin to skin and get the baby dressed. I know he really appreciated it as he was terrified.

I had a student at a couple of appointments and a student doctor on her first placement (her first labour!)

They were both really lovely and I was relaxed anyway (DC3 so knew what to expect, what I wanted and didn't want)

My consent was asked for their presence and involvement in any procedure/check and I think that is the most important thing

The only thing I would not have consented to was internals as I am uncomfortable enough about them but these were done but the main midwives anyway

I did invite the student doctor to copy some of the checks the midwife was doing during labour as I was comfortable enough and she was lovely - she even came to say hi as see baby next day before we were discharged

The student I had at my antenatal appointments with ds1 delivered ds2 as a qualified midwife. We both remembered each other and it was lovely!

I had a male medical student in when I had ds2 as well. He was chuffed as everyone else that day had refused to let him in the room. He looked a bit grey and I told him he could look when I was being stitched up as he was looking everywhere but!

He came to find me the next day to see how we were and I really liked that.

I had a few, all seemed really lovely! I'm impressed they get hands on experience so early into their courses, that's really good. I had one student in an antenatal appt who couldn't find my baby's heartbeat, just through lack of experience (she was in her first or 2nd term I believe) and she went very quiet and seemed a bit embarrassed/worried poor thing! Which might have panicked some other women. But she was nice just could have been a bit more chatty to reassure the patient.

Just remember that if you ask a woman in labour to do something and she doesn't want to don't push it - she doesn't want to
I had one trainee who insisted I put my hand down 'there to feel the baby's head' as it crowned I said no - she insisted. I panicked and ended up with a much more traumatic experience than It should have been. ( had 4 operations to put things right ). Horrid experience