fao midwives with children, can i ask you a question?

[lovecamping]

I'm thinking that i might want to go into midwifery in a few years time. my youngest will be 8 yrs old when i qualify (based on 3 yrs study), what did you do with regards to childcare? especially for on call situations?

thank you ... dh doesnt like the unsociable hours ...

bump

I'm looking into midwifery too, my dds will be 4 and 6 when i qualify, and my dh works shifts. Is it just too difficult in these circumstances? Please say it's possible, I really want to do this!

I'm interested too so...bump

i'm glad i'm not the only one interested.

PLEASE please can a midwife post on this thread

its apparently very difficult to get a place on the course though (over heard a mother in the park).

If you work in a hospital, you will have predictable shifts. The 'on call' problem comes when you become a community midwife covering homebirths, particularly an independent midwife, which seems to be where many great midwives end up because they don't like the frustration of hospital midwifery.

(Former nurse, not midwife, though so am happy to be corrected )

thanks janni,

do you know about shifts/on call during training?

Trained as a midwife 9 years ago, so things may have changed but hope this helps. When you are training you will do a combination of study days at uni and shifts in the hospital. These are day and night shifts, although I didn't do nights until my 3rd year of training. As mentioned by Janni, on call is for midwives who work in the community and not for hospital based midwives. Had friends on the course with children who coped but it is hard. You need a good support network in place to cover child care. One had a DH who worked shifts and they coped okay - just lots of planning. Hope info useful.

thanks flowergirls

your info is really helpful. definitelly food for thought. thanks again

thanks flowergirls

your info is really helpful. definitelly food for thought. thanks again

Thanks, really useful info.

not a midwife but my friend is: she and her dp both work part time and cover childcare between them.
i think NHS are getting better at flexible rostering because of not wanting to lose staff but in the past she has done bank work (so you stipulate that you will do the same three days etc every week, but each time you are temporary fill-in and dont have the same set staff job) because then the shifts are regular and predictable. hopefully someone less vague will come along!

I think alot depends upon the particular hospital/area. From a hospital point of view as a nurse (no idea about community - sorry!), my experience has been excellent. Both DH and I are nurses in different hospitals, we both work part time and have fixed days off for childcare.

On the other hand, my SIL is a midwife who works about 16 hours a week and is constantly messed around by her department. They are very inflexible and she finds it hard to fit in working such few hours.

Bear in mind that wherever you work, you will know your rota in advance so can arrange childcare. If you are on call, you could arrange back up incase you are late finishing. If your youngest will be 8, then hopefully there will be school friends s/he can be with too.

Midwifery can be a fairly difficult course to get onto, it's worth bearing in mind that most courses are now degree level too, so a fair slog to get through!