Midwife considering a different NHS role with more family-friendly hours

[LIB2020]

Hi,

I am currently a midwife that works part time but I’ve honestly hated it for a long time now and it gives me such bad anxiety.

The job has changed a lot over the years and it just feels impossible to do a good job now. Too much is expected - a lot of demand yet no staff, no breaks, off late literally all the time and then taking that mental load home - I’m constantly worried about what I might have missed etc.

I just wanting to explore what I could do instead so I’d be grateful for any suggestions.

I would quite like to stay in the nhs as I’ve got over 10 years continuous service.

I also have a young children so ideally would like something that would be less or no weekend/ nights and it would be amazing to not have to work a Christmas! I know it’s only one day a year but having small children even working one takes away one of the limited amount of believing ones we get 😢

sorry for blabbing on, I’m interested to hear any suggestions/ experiences.

Thank you

Health visitor?

OT?

School nurse? SEN schools typically still have them or independent schools.

I did only do a midwifery degree so I am not a Nurse too, so I’m not too sure what I’d be qualified to do. Id be keen to do extra training on the job but wouldn’t want to have to go back to uni.

Community midwife?

How much more training would you need to do to become a qualified nurse - a whole other degree? Would you be interested in this?

I’ve down community midwifery before and It wasn’t for me.

if have ti do another degree to become a nurse and it’s not something I want to do.

I’ve heard that midwives can be accepted to become school aged immunisation nurses but I’m not sure what extra training is involved - does anyone know about this ?

other jobs that have come up are reproductive and fertility services again does anyone have experience with this?

Thank you all for replying

Marie Stopes hire midwives.
Alternatively, work in research, infant feeding, health visiting.
I left completely, ended up working for the NMC for a bit which I loved (despite the reputation) and now in the civil service.

I’m an immunisation nurse, it’s a band 5 role which would be a massive drop in salary for you….

I've had colleagues set up their own birth education companies, but I'm not sure how profitable it was as they still did bank on the side. Same with pregnancy yoga, alternative therapies. Actually I know of one ex colleague who runs an acupuncture clinic full time.

What about NICU? I imagine staffing pressures are similar and it would still be shift work, but from there could do an outreach type role which I assume would be more office hours

What about specialist roles such as antenatal screening midwife or midwife sonographer? Band 7 but no unsocial hours👍

I did consider health visiting at one point but some say the stresses of the job are just as much and I really need something with less mental load.
infant feeding and Marie stopes are something I’d be keen to look into.

Do you have the family nurse partnership in your area?

My private ivf clinic had midwives. That you could chat to for all the blood tests and first 6 week monitoring.