Becoming a midwife

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Not sure where to post this...

I've been thinking on and off for a number of years that id like to become a midwife.

Reasons to want it are helping women, having a clear profession/job, possibly being able to work elsewhere, and, well, newborns

My closest friend is a midwife, she retrained in her thirties and says she wishes she'd done it years ago, she loves it.

She says it's an extremely rewarding job but also relentlessly busy and she often feels dangerously underresourced, and the paperwork is a killer. She's an NHS midwife in Scotland.

I don't have a medical or similar background so it would be a case of starting from scratch with an undergraduate course. I currently work full time in the NGO/charity sector and have a 4yo who starts school in a few weeks and a 20mo.

If I did it it would be at a London university as that's where I live.

Anyway, just after any comments or info from anyone who is a midwife or become one as a mature student or any words of wisdom...???

Thanks

Bumping for you OP... Keen to see what responses you get!

Can you afford the training, childcare etc? It's not especially well paid at the end of the training.

My mum was one...
Long hours/nightshifts
Worked many many Christmases when I was a child. She qualified when I was a toddler and they do tend to give the undesirable shifts to the newbies and unfortunately that means me and dad having pretty boring Christmases for quite a few years. My dm has never actually told me anything she LIKED about being a mw. Just told me the things that put me off following her into it.... which I seriously considered at one point. She told me she would support and help me should I do it but she would rather I get a job in an office and spend nights and holidays with my babies.
When my peers were becoming midwives and nurses and she had known their mothers who were also midwives and nurses she used to say "what are they thinking!" Understaffed underresourced overworked.
Sorry I'm sure this isn't what you wanted to hear!

Remember when training you will be doing a lot of on the job training shift work do you gave support for when your on nights etc during training?

I did it. Started my training at age 33 when kids were 4 and 6.
Bloody hard work and big sacrifices to finances and family life for 3 years. The first 18 months qualified were fecking tough and stressful too.
I now have a permanent position in community and love it. The stress and responsibility is immense and the money doesn't match that.
When you do apply please don't mention how much you love babies. It's all about the woman.

You will need masses of family support and 100% support from your partner.

I looked into midwifery and began an access course for uni. Quickly realised my heart wasn't in it but a good resource I found was studentmidwife.net.

Uni places are fought for hard by applicants so ensure thorough research and planning to ensure you have enough credits for the uni course and include some kind of volunteer or paid caring work to add weight to your application.

I ended up doing law in the end and start uni this September. I obtained my Access diploma via the distance learning centre and I'm funding my studies via student finance. I will be 47 when I graduate but it will be worth it.

Good luck!

At the moment student nurses and midwives get their university tuition fees paid, and an NHS bursary. That is set to change in September 2017 which will mean fewer mature students being able to afford to trainif they have children and financial responsibilities.