Retraining at 39 as a Midwife

[Cupcakegirl13]

I’m looking for anyone who’s done this recently for some real life feedback.
I’m 39 and a qualified social worker with 20 years in the field. But I have always wanted to be a midwife and now my youngest has started school I’m having a midlife crisis and want to seize the day and re train !
I have a very supportive husband and financially we can do this , my main question is how have people juggled kids and a full time midwifery ( or similar ) degree ? I have three primary aged children. Once I’m qualified I’m envisaging working part time and am not worried about that , it’s literally surviving the three years of training.
Any tips or first hand experiences would be fab , does full time study literally mean five days a week or in reality is it less than that ? I understand placements are 50% of the learning how did you manage that with kids etc ?

I know nothing about this, but you may find helpful responses on the new ‘Mature Study and Retraining’ board, here:

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/mature_students

Several threads on both professions. If you ask via the Report button MNHQ will move your thread for you.

Hi I'm a current 2nd year stmw. It's my 2nd degree and prior to starting midwifery worked in early years/health visiting.

I don't have any DC but do have a mortgage and bills and found leaving my full time, secure NHS job very daunting! I also have a supportive partner but still manage to run my car and pay 50% towards all bills. It is manageable.

Lots of people on my course have kids, they just have to be more organised.

Different uni's do things differently. Where will you be applying? Where I am we do blocks of placement that usually last 4 weeks and blocks in uni which are usually 3 weeks. A week in uni is 1.5 days physically in uni in the simulation suites and meeting with our tutor groups and 2 days of live lectures online from home (similar to zoom). Then 1.5 days off/study days.

Then a week of placement kind of depends where you are. Community is 8-4 Monday to Friday but you can also go on call for home births if you choose to. Hospital shifts are usually 3 long days 7am-8pm or 3 night shifts 19:45-07:15.

Other uni's do it different and do 2 days in placement, 2 days in uni, 1 study days and that just continues all year.

If you have any more questions I'd be happy to answer.

Be warned, it's not all sunshine and rainbows and midwifery is particularly awful at the moment. Only do it if you really, really want to.

I retrained at 50.
i have to say I found it hard- the academic side of it was not at all what I was used to and seemed to be a box ticking exercise (I mean there was no value placed on developing an argument etc - it wasn't 'academic' as I was used to)
I found some hostility from both other students, tutors and midwives to the fact that I already had a profession, and I was quite confident. In particular I was told very early on that questions were not welcome and that 'the way we do things' had to be followed regardless of evidence.
I loved many aspects of the training and met some wonderful midwives but in the end I could not toe the line as expected.

Sorry to be so negative,, I'm sure not all universities/Trusts are like that.

I qualified in 2019 and was 40 when I started training. Happy to answer any questions