Becoming a midwife after already going to university/what is it like to be a midwife today?

[meadowkoa]

Hi all,

I wondered if anyone had experience of doing a second degree in a completely different field? I studied childhood studies when I went to university and as I’ve gotten older and had children of my own I wish I could go back and choose midwifery. It’s something I’ve wanted to do for years and feel like I even more so after having two children. Problem is, I’ve already got a degree so do not think I’d secure funding for a second course. I’d also have to go back to college to get the appropriate entry requirements. Has anybody done this or something similar? I wondered if it was different due to being with the NHS. I’ll always wonder what if… if I don’t put the feelers out.

i also wanted some advice for current midwives. Is it worth going in to? We all know the NHS is largely stretched etc…

TIA xxx

Following

Midwifery is funded as a second degree so that’s all ok. How old are you? I think certain health careers that are a.very physical b. involve shifts/ nights etc , can be a bit brutal once you are past a certain age. Current problem affecting many health professions is an overall shortage of staff combined with lack of posts for newly qualified staff ( due to recruitment freezes) who are then struggling to get work …when you are settled in a specific area of the country it makes it that much harder then if you were 22 and able to move where the work is, However you could always do a midwifery/ nursing degree and perhaps go in something like the health visitor direction, your background would be excellent for this. Also worth looking into degree apprenticeships via your local nhs trusts .

@Tiddlyswinkthank you! That’s really helpful. I never knew it was funded as a second degree. I’ve searched high and low on google and it all seems confusing and never a straight answer! I am 29, I’ll always wonder what if- if I didn’t just go for it !

The mw who helped deliver DS1 was a trainee in her late 40s. She was exceptional! Never too late 😊

Ooh yes you are still a youngster!

@RobinTheCavewomanthis is what encouraged me even more. Most the student midwives I met were ‘mature’ studnets! X

I’m a midwifery lecturer. Yes you’d definitely get funding. Students on midwifery courses get an extra approx 6k per year payment which they don’t have to pay back as well as normal student loan. Plenty of mature students

you might not need to go back to college to get any more qualifications before starting as you already have a degree. That may vary between different universities so best bet is to go to an open day asap and ask at your local uni.

Good luck. Best job in the world but you do need to consider things like it’s not overly family friendly. The course itself is hard work and stressful. Maternity services are having a rough time atm with various reviews and that’s likely to continue.

i retrained and qualified at 40. I was one of the last cohorts to get full funding and as far as I’m aware you now have to pay university fees. You might get a bursary but still have to pay the £9k a year or whatever it is now. If you already have a degree, you might get accepted onto the course without retraining. But I just want to warn you, it is absolutely brutal. I did the training with two small children - I loved the academic side of things but I was given shifts to work with only 10 days notice and they could be anything - three nights in row, all weekend etc. we only coped by having an au pair. I found it quite hard being shouted at/patronised by a lot of midwives while I was training. I won’t say bullied but one hit me on the arm one day and I had to make a formal complaint about how another one was treating women in labour. I was shocked to be told we weren’t allowed to sleep during our break on night shifts. In reality, midwives did try and kip for a bit and I remember trying to sleep on the floor next to the fridge in the ward kitchen and next to the photocopier in the office. When I qualified, I was thrown in at the deep end which I think was usual. Experienced midwives gave me extra work to do, telling me I had to learn to be ‘resilient’. After one difficult delivery, my Band 7 ward manager shouted at me. A midwife at my trust had committed suicide a few years earlier after being blamed for a neonatal death. I stayed four years. I was most happy on the postnatal ward despite running up and down the ward looking after 16 patients (8 women, 8 babies) for 12.5 hour shifts with very small breaks. When I went into the community, I was regularly working 9 hour days and being paid for 7.5. In the end, I decided it was not worth my sanity and I left to work for a private company in a linked field. I am not saying don’t do it - plenty of people like being a midwife: but please go into it with your eyes open, both about the course and the reality of the job. Good luck.

Midwifery is an incredible job, and I love it, but in the last few years its also soul destroying. Midwives generally burn out by year 5 now. Shift life is horrific for family life and after age 30 night shifts are painful to recover from. You need a very good support network and the ability to cope with emotional trauma by the bucketload. Think carefully before putting yourself through it.

Just on the student front, I found mature students progressed much quicker on placement because their communication skills were so much better. The younger students get there but need much more support. Since funding changes we rarely get mature students at my trust and I miss the mix. Its another thing that has added pressure and made the work harder.

I did it as a second degree.

The training is hard. Long shifts, night shifts, academic work at the same time, little flexibility. I experienced bullying.

Your childhood studies will give you a great foundation in relationship building and baby brain development which is positive. I suspect you have a lot of applicable knowledge there.

The job? It is pretty brutal being a midwife right now. Staffing shortages have piled pressure on and the reviews of maternity services in the media are heartbreaking but also just make you feel like your whole profession is being kicked while it's down.I'm just trying to say it is tough and morale is pretty low in a lot of places. Attrition is high, many newly qualified midwives leave midwifery soon after.

The job satisfaction of course is in supporting women and families in times of joy and of grief. And a good unit will have good teamwork, I've worked with some excellent teams which has made a brutal shift feel not so bad because we've all looked after each other and come together.

Working as a clinical midwife can be a juggling act around family but also can offer flexibility. If you work long shifts then you may only work 2-3 days a week depending on how many hours you do. You usually get shifts around 6 weeks in advance and you can put in a set amount of requests a month for days off so you can plan your life a little. But you have to remember you may work bank holidays, Christmas etc. In the community you work more standard office hours but there will be evenings to work too to cover antenatal classes and things like that and weekends. Some areas have continuity models which include on call.

I'm a specialist now which is more office hours. I don't think I could manage the long shifts and nights any more! It really takes a toll on your health. But I do have a passion for my speciality and I wouldn't be here without going through the years of training and working as a midwife in hospitals and community first.

I guess think very carefully about what you want from it, why you want to do it and where you see yourself in the future.

I have a relative doing this as a mature student. I’ve been shocked by some of what she’s shared. There is a huge problem with newly qualified midwives finding jobs (I assume because of the hiring freezes mentioned upthread) and the course content and teaching sounded very out of kilter with the reality of life in the maternity ward. She found the shifts brutal.

Quite noticeable how often the word ‘brutal’ is coming up. I couldn’t believe what I was being asked to do for £36k a year.

You could look into maternity support worker roles at your local hospital, you'd be starting on a band 3 so not great pay but it'd give you a realistic view of the job and whether it is for you. Some Trusts will fund staff to do further training to move to a band 4 role and possibly even onto midwifery training. I lasted 15 years as a midwife (went in straight from college), it was the most incredible privilege but I'm not sad to be out of it now. Good luck whatever you decide.

Yes I started as a Maternity Support Worker before training and absolutely loved that role. I was in the community and did breastfeeding support, the day 5 visit etc. some hospitals train you to take blood etc as well. The money isn’t great - Band 3 or 4 - but it is a nice job and as the previous poster said, a great way to get the inside track.

I did my midwife degree later on in life after doing other degrees. It was hard going as I had a young family and I had to miss holidays etc due to the demands of the course. Thankfully when I qualified it was easy to get a job but recruitment freezes in our area has seen nqms really struggle to find work, some having to move to other parts of the UK to work.

Midwifery is a very challenging career. I am a specialist midwife and I love my job. But would I do it all again, probably not given how much it has impacted my mental and physical wellbeing in the past.