A week in the life of a student midwife

Friday
Instead of going to university today we had a directed study day based around the Morecambe Bay Investigation.  It didn’t make for very pleasant reading.  If you haven’t read it, I would encourage you to do so.  It would be a fantastic thing to discuss in any interviews you may have.  For me it reminded me of the importance of multidisciplinary working and effective communication.  Professional relationships can be a tricky thing to negotiate, especially in the high pressure environment of the labour ward.  The most important thing is to ensure the woman remains at the centre of everyone’s focus and this will hopefully ensure a positive outcome for everyone.

Saturday and Sunday
My weekend started with work; the final session of antenatal education.  It was brilliant once again.  I learnt so much about how a baby’s brain develops.  For example, I didn’t realise that a baby could recognise its mother by smell from birth, by sound at 10 days old and by sight at 3 months.
After this, I made my way to the outskirts of London to spend a couple of days with an old friend.  We watched some (terrible) films and drank lots of tea.  She is 6 months pregnant so she had lots of questions and I was able to share with her what I had learnt in the morning.  It was delightful.

Monday
Back to work, and I was in clinic all day.  Back-to-back appointments can be quite draining but it also gave me an opportunity to practice my clinical skills in abdominal palpation, fetal heart auscultation, blood pressure reading and taking blood.  I am getting to grips with planning care and what happens at each appointment, but there is a lot to remember.
I am so looking forward to the day that I have my own clinic.  I have always felt most comfortable working in the community; I enjoy seeing the women throughout their pregnancy and building a rapport with them.  It is also wonderful to have a cuddle with their new baby when they come home!

Tuesday
Another clinic today, but mostly for postnatal women which meant different clinical skills to practice.  Newborn blood spot tests, infant checks, weighing and breastfeeding support to name just a few.
After work, I rushed back home to get changed and then met a friend to go to the cinema.  We saw Will Smith’s new film- Focus.  I really enjoyed it, and not just because of the numerous topless scenes!

Wednesday
Although I was on a late shift, my morning was filled with a course meeting.  As I am set rep I have to go to various meetings from time to time.  Today’s meeting was a forum for the set reps to bring any concerns or questions to the teaching team.  It’s wonderful to have such an open interaction with the staff and to know they value our opinion so much.
The meeting ran a little late so I raced (whilst keeping to the speed limit of course) across town to meet my community mentor.  I had the most amazing shift and it was the perfect ending to my community placement.  I am looking forward to returning to delivery suite next week though, and getting my remaining 11 births!

Thursday
Finally, a day off!  After sleeping in and cleaning my bathroom, I sat down to work quite a lot later than I had hoped.  I am starting to make some headway with my dissertation but not enough to own up to my word count!  I was very grateful for the fantastic library resources available at UoB today.  My first literature search brought up over 6000 results!
This afternoon I popped into town to get a birthday card for my step-mum and have dinner with a friend before coming home and doing some revision for our interview preparation day tomorrow.

See you next week!

Learning from the students

For the past three weekends I have been attending the antenatal classes we offer in Luton.  The course explores all aspects of labour, birth and life with a new baby.  It has been fascinating meeting this group of women and their partners and learning from them. 

It is very easy to follow our own agenda as midwives; focusing on the advice we need to give and the clinical features we have to monitor.  It is far too easy to forget that the parents will have their own motives when accessing maternity services.  They come with their own unique experience, understanding, hopes, fears and questions.

Although, as I am coming to the end of my course, I have a solid knowledge base, talking to these parents I realise there is still a lot more to learn.  I had forgotten, for example, how difficult it can be to change a nappy on a squirming baby.  For some of the couples in the group, their child will be the first contact they have ever had with a newborn.  It must be an extremely daunting prospect knowing you are completely responsible for caring for this little human.

Being a midwife is so much more than delivering babies.  It is supporting a woman as she makes the exciting and terrifying journey into motherhood.  One of the simplest ways we can do this is through antenatal education classes.

It makes sense that the better prepared you are for something, the better the outcome will be.  For example, when you take an exam at school, you will often do a mock paper in advance and your

teacher will explain the format of the examination.  They can’t tell you what the questions will be, but they reduce the stress you feel by removing any other uncertainties you may have.  Imagine you had to sit your last ever A Level examination and you didn’t know where it was taking place or what you would have to do.  Understandably you would not do well.

The same applies for labour and birth.  Many women are scared of the prospect of giving birth because they don’t understand what will happen to them.  They may have watched One Born Every Minute and expect that their labour will neatly fit into the edited one hour programme they have seen on channel 4.  This is not the case.  They expect it to hurt and that they won’t be able to cope with that pain.  This is also not always true.  Usually when we are in pain, it is because we are not well and our body is telling us that something is wrong. In labour however, the body sends out hormones which act as a natural analgesia.  If the woman can understand the process her body is going through, instead of being scared of being in pain, she can embrace it and realise that it is helping her to meet her baby.  With the correct preparation and belief in her amazing body, a mother can do wondrous things.

I am so grateful for the opportunity of being a part of the journey for the couples I have met in antenatal classes and thank them for reminding me of the importance of the softer skills of midwifery.  See you next week!

Flat Pack Furniture and Flat Mates

Last weekend I moved once again.  In my 27, nearly 28, years of life, I have lived in 11 different houses, with 30 different people (not all at the same time).  I have lived with family members, strangers and friends and I can tell you this – you don’t really know someone until you live with them.

Student Village

My mum tells me when she dropped me off at university at the tender age of 18, she cried because she was scared I wouldn’t make any friends.  Hopefully, this isn’t because she thinks I am a social pariah but more because I didn’t know anyone.  I must admit, when I waved her goodbye I sat on my bed and wondered if I had made the right decision.  Then there was a flurry of knocks on my door and a second year student came bursting in. Her name was Katie and she soon became a close friend - which is fortunate, because we shared a bathroom. 

I loved living in student accommodation when I did my first degree.  I had an immediate group of friends, all doing different courses to me and whom I went on to live with out of halls.  So it felt only natural to do the same when I started at the University of Bedfordshire.  I wasn’t familiar with Luton so living in student accommodation right in the centre of town was extremely convenient whilst I was finding my feet.  I also didn’t drive at the time so was relived to discover the university, bus routes and shopping were all in easy walking distance.

One of my favourite passive aggressive notes

 There is a knack to sharing a house or halls of residence with other people as other people’s habits will drive you up the wall if you let them.  Door slamming, milk stealing, hair in plug holes, late night music blaring – I have lived with them all.  You have to remember, it is only temporary.  There are also massive positives; another person’s DVD collection to raid, someone to make you a cup of tea when you are hung-over, someone to help you put together your flat pack furniture as you try to make a room, a home.  As long as the benefits outweigh the negatives, stick with it.  If not, move on.

Flat mates are a staple of university life.  Hopefully you will be as lucky as me and make some life long friends.  See you next week.

Housemates for three years, friends forever

Wanted: more time

I would like to borrow Bernard's watch!

I can’t quite believe we are in March already.  I’m sure time travels quicker the older I become!  I have been told many times that my final year will go past in a blink of an eye, and I am starting to realise the truth in this cliché.

According to the countdown app on my phone, I have 187 days left of my degree.  This fact terrifies and excites me in equal measure.  I am also reliably informed that there are 84 days until my dissertation deadline.  *Please excuse me for a moment of mad panic.*

I have been considering my dissertation topic since I first put in my UCAS application.  At that time, I was interested in choice of birth place as my nephew had recently been born at home.  Then when I started my course, and especially after being a patient myself, I become fascinated by communication within healthcare, particularly between clinician and service user.  As it turns out, I am doing neither of these topics for my dissertation. 

Everyone has moments which completely change their perspective on life.  For me, one of these was the first time I cared for someone whose baby had died.  I remember feeling completely inadequate and ever since then bereavement care has become a passion of mine.  It seemed only natural therefore for this to be the topic for my (mini) tome.

Grumpy Cat feels my pain

My biggest stumbling block when it comes to writing is that I am a perfectionist.  If something doesn’t flow flawlessly, I delete it. This makes the thought of writing 10,000 words extremely daunting. Consequently, I have spent a lot of time formatting my title page and searching for literature.  Now, I need to put pen, or curser, to paper. 

By no means do I have all the answers when it comes to writing an essay, but 6 years of academic writing has taught me a few lessons;

Read the question thoroughly
Highlight the important words in the question – this will give you focus in your writing.

Dissertation = an excuse for new stationary

Start with a detailed plan
Write down all your ideas and start to put it in an order.  This will probably change as you start writing but it will ensure you don’t forget anything you wanted to say.

Begin early
It is possible to pull an all-nighter and write a 2000 word essay the day before the deadline but it is not advisable.  It will never be your best work.

Leave time for proof reading
There will come a point when you can’t see the mistakes any more.  When this happens, you will need a set of fresh eyes in the form of a friend or family member.

No doubt I will discuss my dissertation in a future blog post.  Hopefully I will have made more of a dent in the word count when I do!  Until then, see you next week.