Wanting To Work On Maternity/Baby Ward - Getting Started

[AbbyH]

Hi all looking for some help/advice
When my daughter goes to school I want to go back to college and on to university to study midwifery but in the mean time I would lovd to get some work on a maternity/baby ward in a hospital..Thing is I dont hold any child care qualifications Ive heard you dont need any to be a HCA but not sure if its different when working with babies etc. Does anyone know any info to the best way of getting in to this without going college to get childcare or anyother qualifications?xxxx

Volunteer at first?

Did you breastfeed? I'm a peer supporter and do voluntary work on the maternity ward helping new Mums. The training was free (and really interesting) and I get my travel expenses. Might be a good way to get experience. Contact your local breastfeeding drop in support group and ask about it. I think you need to have bf for so many months (3 in my area) in order to do the training.

Thank you for your reply. I breastfed for fully for 10 weeks then added a night bottle until 12 weeks and slowly went to full bottles by 20 weeks. I will look into that thank you, is your local bf group led by surestart?xx

I'm pretty sure most of our maternity care assistants didn't have any childcare quals before starting - they are supported to do various NVQs once they start however, and responsibilities can be increased with those. One of them came straight from being a teaching assistant working with teenagers.

The breastfeeding thing would be great since a big part of the role is feeding support!

Hi be an auxiliary on mat ward - then u might get some experience of helping a little with babs so showing your interest!