advice on choosing a midwife career

[threeangels]

I know there are some midwives on mumsnet so I thought I would see if any of you could help me out with a few questions.

First, can you tell me what kind of education you have taken to become one? I guess the requirements may be different in the states. I did some reading on it for my sister inlaw and the info I got was that in the states you can become a CNM (certified nurse-midwife) or a CN (certified midwife) which could involve a # of ways of getting exp like through apprenticeship, less education then the CNM and some other ways which I can't think of at the moment.

I am also trying to find out how work hrs are. Do you work certain days and then be on call a certain times. I thought this may be the way if you share duties with other midwives.

Do you feel this is a real demanding job? Do you find it joyful? Do you feel its a good job to have if you still have young children in the home. Mine are 13,10,2. I have also wondered what it would be like to do this. I, like my sister inlaw have always been very facinated by the whole birth thing.

What kind of person do you feel you need to be to do this job.

One last thing. How do you feel the pay is for the feild you do?

Sorry for so many questions. I want to pass as much as I can to my sister inlaw since she knows no one in the feild. I also am very interested too. Anymore info you have would be great. Especially if you know of any internet sites or contacts about choosing this feild. Thanks

Midwifery is different here in the UK than it is in the USA. As far as I know, there are only a few states that allow midwives to actually deliver babies - in the main the doctor does it.
You will probably find out a lot through the internet. www.google.com is a good search engine.

I trained to be a nurse first because that was the only way to do it in Scotland when I decided I wanted to do modwifery. I love my job which can be very stressful at times, but so can many careers. Hope your SIL finds out the information she needs.

I appreciate the info Mears.

threeangels - will laso have a bash at answering some questions from this side of the pond - but appreciate midwifery over your side is very different!
Hours : I work as a community midwife, covering ante natal and postnatal care mostly, but also home births. Most days I work 8.30am to 5pm, but also do 'on call' shifts on top of this. This would mean being 'on call' for a 24 hr period. For example, I would go to work 'til 5pm, then come home and be ready to be called out thru the night if necessary. As our home delivery rate is not that high (I work in quite a deprived area), our call out rate is not that frequent - but friends in different areas have a higher call out rate. If I am called out overnight, I would still be expected to cover my work for the next day - rarely are there enough members of staff on to divide the work, so we can end up working long hrs.
Some areas offer 'domino'or 'team' midwifery, with many more 'on call' demands - basically the community midwife covers the care for all her women - including delivery (home or hospital), so is called out far more frequently. I worked on a team of seven midwives providing this service for two years, and thoroughly enjoyed it, tho' having left would not return to such a pattern of work - only when I left did I realise what a strain it had put on my home life.
Demanding: Very (leave it at that!) I do find it fulfilling and every birth is a joyful occasion - reminds you why you 'joined up' in the first place. However, a large proportion of the job is just your normal midwifery care - lots of paperwork, driving around between post natal visists, chasing up people who don't attend appointments, answering messages etc.
I find midwifery, for me, works very well with my family life.
Personality: think you need to be quite gutsy, and unshockable. Need to get on with most people (or have the ability to pretend you do). Need to be accomodating to peoples wishes and beliefs. Need to be calm and a good listener, but know when it's right to start dishing out advice. It's a bonus to like babies, but the real issue is to love the fact you're an advocate for the woman in your care. Approachable, level headed, practical. Able to rise quickly in the dead of night, and answer an emergency call - but I think we've all got that capability as we're all mums!
Pay: Still poor over here. Starting salary @ £14,000 I think