Student midwife during labour & childbirth?

[Poppins2016]

One of the prompts on the birth plan template provided by my midwife is:

"Can a student (usually a midwifery student) work with their mentor to provide you care?"

I have really conflicting feelings about whether I want to give permission or not.

1. My overwhelming instinct is that I'd like be to left alone during labour to get on with it by myself. If the rational side of me thought it would be safe, I'd happily have a home birth/unassisted birth. But my sensible side rules and I'm planning to have a water birth in my local midwifery led unit (plan b is standard delivery unit). I'm planning to use hypnobirthing techniques and I'm very much on board with the philosophy of a 'calm, gentle birth' (as it fits with my natural instinct). It was emphasised by the midwife who ran our course that we should tell the MLU midwives that we'd be using hypnobirthing techniques and we should emphasise that we'd like to aim for a calm, quiet environment with a minimum of conversation. Allowing a student midwife to be present seems to go against my natural instincts... It would (surely?) involve double the conversation, checking, observation and examinations.

However...

2. I strongly believe that students need to be allowed to gain experience. In the past I have always allowed student doctors, nurses, gynaecologists and midwives to give me care. How is anyone going to learn if people like me say 'no'? My instinct is to want an experienced midwife who will be as hands off as possible... But how does anyone learn how to do that without practice?

So:

Has anyone said yes to a student midwife being present? Was it ok? Did you regret it or was it a positive experience? Any pros/cons you wish had been mentioned?

I'm going to speak to my community midwife about what I should expect (if I say yes) when I next see her, but thought I'd ask for your experiences in the meantime.

I said I was happy to have student midwives, I had some for postnatal checks, but I have no idea whether either of the midwives at the birth were students or not. I told them to leave me alone to get on with it unless there were any problems, I didn't even know the second midwife had come in until she popped her head round when DD was crowning to tell me that DD had lots of hair! If you let them know that you want as little intervention as possible they should go with your wishes.

My DM had a whole roomful of student midwives and doctors when I was born, to watch the ventouse delivery, apparently some of them were wearing wellies, that's all she remembers

I had a student midwife. Then post birth the qualified midwife was like ‘it’s ok if the student does your stitches isn’t it’ and said it in a way that I felt uncomfortable to say no. Then the student midwife completely messes up the stitching by going too deep and essentially sewing into my back passage. So then I had to have a consultant restitch everything, but apparently I’d exceeded my permitted allowance of painkillers and gas and air so it was done without pain relief, and the end result was poor due to additional swelling. I also had weeks of antibiotics to deal with the infection. There is no way I would allow a student midwife anywhere near me again.

I had a student in the induction room with me nd thank God she was there! The midwife looking after me refused to help me and walked away. The student stepped out and said to the midwife 'you can't leave her like that' I was then wheeled to the Labour ward where I was to be found 6cm dilated with a back 2 back baby on no pain relief. By this point I was in complete distress because of pain and the way I was treated. Who knows where I would of been without her. She came to see me this next day to see how I was. I burst in to tears when I saw her as I was so grateful to her. I also had a student with me during delivery. I ended up in theatre having a forceps delivery and my son going to nicu. She showed a lot of care and compassion. I was so thankful to them both

I had a student midwife she was amazing. The actual midwife was grumpy and just shrugged when I said o was having problems with latching. student midwife gave me tips like tickling babies cheek and helping me bf. She'll be qualified now and I hope she finished as she was amazing

I had a student midwife for my antenatal care she was lovely and helped out me at ease. I also had a student midwife in my delivery she was fantastic I had no issues 🙂

I've had c sections and always had a student present, it was just another person in the room and didn't bother me.
With my first, I had an emcs so I went through the labour. I had a student with me for that, but they only accompanied the midwife. Most of the duration of labour I was left alone, it was only at the point that things didn't progress as they should that I had the midwife with me.

I had a planned C section so not quite the same but I had a student midwife. she was brilliant and the only midwife who attended all my appointments - I saw a different fully trained midwife each time I went in and had a few extra appointments as I needed extra monitoring and tests.
I would definitely recommend it as it was reassuring to see the same face throughout. I put on my birthplan that I wanted her to weigh and measure DD too I was quite soppy about her at the end.

There was a male medical student in the room when I gave birth to DD

Observing only not actively involved

It didn't bother me at all

He came to visit me & DD on the ward the following morning which was sweet

I had a student midwife and qualified midwife at the birth of DS2. Best birth ever! She was brilliant as was her mentor.

I had a student midwife with me for dd2s birth. She was brilliant, so good in fact that I wrote to her university course leader to say what a wonderful midwife she will make. As it happens she shares a name with my daughter. We'd already picked a name but it was a very happy coincidence.

I had a student for DS2's birth. I mostly slept through it except for a busy 20 mins at the end so it didn't make much difference and as DS2 was being induced early it was good to know that there was another pair of hands if they were needed, even if it was just to hit the big red button.

A student midwife delivered my DC1 (so to speak; she coached me through the pushing and caught baby). I laboured in the water in the MLU and it was lovely and calm; she spent most of the time sitting quietly in the corner and the experienced midwife came and went. In all honesty, though, there could have been 15 people there loudly discussing my pubic topiary and I would have been completely unaware. My mind was on another planet altogether. She was great though and so thrilled to have had a birth go so well.

DC2 was also delivered by a student midwife; different, high-risk induced labour but she was also great. She did most of my observations under supervision and again coached me through pushing.

Student midwives are often able to give you more time and attention than the qualified ones and can be amazing

thereinmadnesslies
Christ. I’m sorry that happened to you

A student midwife was present when my ds was born. She stayed after the end of her shift to see it through as she knew he was going to be born soon. There was a shift change in the middle of pushing I think. To be honest, I didn't really notice her there, she was very hands off, as was the actual midwife. It was nice to have her stay actually. As soon as ds was born, he was whisked off unexpectedly to be resuscitated, I didn't know anyth6 was up until this point. The midwife at one point soon after nipped out to check everything was OK for us, I think. The student stayed and talked to me and dp and told us I'd done really well etc etc as we were obviously panicking so that was nice of her. She also delivered the placenta I think. I was very unsure about having a student there as wanted as few people as possible but in the end, I didn't notice either her or the midwife during labour and she was lovely afterwards!

I was a medical student on labour ward. I hope that we were respectful, unintrusive and helpful. The midwives were often very busy whereas we could get ladies drinks, check observations, explain what was going on etc. The deal usually was that if we had managed to develop a good relationship with the woman in labour we might be able to observe / support the woman or even deliver the baby. Most ladies’ feedback was very positive about students.

I had a student midwife at my first home birth. She was a qualified nurse and it was her first birth. She cried. It was very special.

Just a thought- but surely a qualified midwife flys solo? So for all you know the qualified midwife you get might of only been qualified for one say.

I’d rather a student midwife with supervision then that

I had a student midwife, I think I was her first birth. She was lovely, really unobstusive. But answered questions If I asked her. Afterwards, I told DH that I thought I had done really well, and she said, 'yes, you did'. I appreciated that. I liked her. She seemed kind. I don't really remember the midwives but I remember her. Maybe, because she was the only constant prescence right till went to the maternity ward.

My student midwife was fantastic, better than the qualified midwives I was left with at the end of her shift.

Wish she'd been there the whole time to be honest!

I had a student midwife at the birth of DS2 at home. There was absolutely no "teaching" or discussion about the birth between the midwife and the student. I hardly remember her being there, to be honest. She was calm, and lovely and helpful.
I was happy to have her there as the opportunities for midwives in training to experience non hospital based births must be very limited.

Student midwife here and just wanted to say that as students we absolutely have no issues if you’d rather not have us there. The most important thing is that you are comfortable with those supporting you.

However as others have said it is true that in most units a lot of the midwives will have students and they’ll be introduced to you as being part of your team. You’re free at any point to ask not to have a student or to not have them do aspects of the care.
Don’t ever feel you can’t say no (to anything in your care for that matter-you are the one birthing your baby).

But I will say (a bit biased I admit!) that having a student is often very helpful. A less experienced student can assist/fetch things etc for the midwife which frees the midwife up up to care for you. A more experienced student can be an excellent support both in terms of doing stuff and caring for you . Both are often able to be more one on one than a single midwife as they don’t have to do the masses of paperwork and computer box ticking by themselves.

Best of luck with everything

With my middle son I actually had a male student midwife! He was fantastic to be fair, really calming and I wouldn't hesitate to have another student present!

I had student midwives at both of my births. The first didng attend the delivery but did some of my initial checks. The second stayed throughout as I had a home water birth and I believe she needed to get some more ‘non standard’ births under her belt to qualify.

Both were lovely and respectful. I did have to have a second vaginal exam for the first one as she said she had short fingers and she couldn’t believe I was at 7cm without presenting in any real pain. (I was!).

A student midwife delivered my 2nd DC under the close supervision of another midwife, she was lovely and so grateful afterwards, she said a lot ppl don’t want students there, I just felt I got double the care IYSWIM, I’m sure a student is no more likely to intrude that any other midwife if u want to be left alone, I’ve always ticked the box for students and out of 3 births, only the one had a student present, u can always change ur mind at the time if ur not comfortable I’m sure, all the best for u and ur baby

Oh, I just remembered, mine got me a sick bowl and water and rubbed my back when I threw up afterwards while my midwife did all the after birth stuff with DS. She was lovely about it