I can hear the bells!

My friend is getting married tomorrow.  I am currently dashing back from Germany to be there, and I am so excited.  She is the second of this particular group to get married and as well as having the

I do...want to do this!

honour of watching her getting hitched to the love of her life, it also means an opportunity to catch up with the girls.

I refuse to believe I am old enough to get married, although many of my friends are determined to prove me wrong.  Of my two groups of friends from Loughborough University, we have had 6 weddings, 4 children and 8 homes bought!  It seems like it is just me lagging behind still as a student.

It’s funny where life takes you.  When I left school at 18, I didn’t know what I wanted to do.  I went to university because I always knew that was what followed A-levels, rather than having a game plan in place.  I studied Drama because I was passionate about it, and had a smidge of talent.  It was very daunting therefore when I left university the first time because I didn’t know what I wanted to be! 

The most optimistic part of me wanted to pursue acting.  I had dreams of being snapped up by a casting director as I walked down the road, but of course, this hardly ever happens.  So, I started working as a teaching assistant because I couldn’t find any other work and really enjoyed it.  I then had an opportunity to move to London for three months as my friend was going travelling and wondered if I wanted to take her room in the flat.  I had saved enough money to cover the rent so I decided to take her offer up.

Spot the Drama student

 A few weeks after settling into city life, I contacted the National Youth Theatre, of which I was a member, asking if they wanted any help, stuffing letters, making tea, that sort of thing.  They emailed me back and soon I was working as an expenses paid intern.  This was followed with an offer of a job working within the Creative Learning department and before I knew it three months had turned into two years.   The friend whose room I had taken came back and, along with her now fiancé (husband tomorrow!) lived in the lounge until they found a place of their own.

I was starting to think however, that a job in the Theatre wasn’t right for me.  Although I helped to run the Access to Higher Education course the NYT ran, much of my work was office based and I was beginning to get cabin fever.  I love a spreadsheet as much as the next geek, but I knew my future was in something more practical. 

It was either teaching or something medical.  I applied for Midwifery after being inspired by an old school friend who had recently started her training and the rest is history as they say.

It’s never too late to embark on a new career.  See you next week.

We're all going on a (belated) Easter holiday!

As you read this, I will be (hopefully) sunning myself by a pool in Germany because I am off on my hols!  Not that it will all be relaxing and sightseeing for 1) I have a chest infection and 2) I am taking my best friend 'Dissertation' with me.

Celebrate!

I am determined to be cheery though.  I have had my nails painted and I am going to spend two weeks thinking of anything other than the 10 births I have left to catch.

As a midwifery student, our terms don’t fall in line with the majority of the university.  There is no three month summer vacation for us!  It was most strange going to work as a second year on a Friday and then as a third year the following Monday last September.  I still haven’t got used to being referred to as a senior student. 

At university last week we were discussing labour ward management.  We had to imagine we were the coordinating midwife and had to assign our staff to the various women who needed care.  There were a few heated discussions as we all tried to decide who was best placed to go into each of the rooms – I heard phrases like, “well, we wouldn’t do it like that in our Trust”, “you can’t ask a student to do that!” coming from all the tables.  It was one of those annoying tasks where there is no right answer, as long as you can explain why you have done what you have.  It made me certain of one thing though – there is no way I want to be a senior midwife on labour ward!

One of my favourite things is to imagine where my friends will go with their careers.  There are some who are perfect for the wards, others more suited to labour ward.  There are a couple of people I can

I've often been likened to Miranda Hart

foresee specialising in a certain client group.  For me, community is where I have always wanted to be.  Although I love delivering babies, what I prefer is building a relationship with a woman and her family as she journeys through her pregnancy and then meeting their little bundle of joy when they get home.  It is always so rewarding to witness a woman as she grows in confidence and becomes a mother.

Throughout your training you will be able to witness the whole spectrum of midwifery; it's so exciting when you discover where you want to practice.

Bis bald!

Mentors

One of the biggest apprehensions I had when starting clinical practice, aside from my lack of clinical skills, was the relationship I would have with my mentor.  I didn’t identify this as a concern during the application and interview process.  It wasn’t until the first day of my course when we were discussing our hopes and fears in groups that it seemed to be a recurring theme. 

I hadn’t really considered it until this point.  Not that I was completely naive – at no point did I think I would be left alone to deliver a baby, I just didn’t then rationalise this would mean working with a midwife.  Or that there was a chance we wouldn’t get along. 

Mentors; guiding the way

Not to boast, but I am quite a likable person.  I have over 300 friends on Facebook I’ll have you know! Of course there are certain people who I would choose to spend my time with, but there aren’t many people I can’t have, at least a working relationship with.  So, you can probably understand why I was confused as to why all my new classmates were so worried about meeting their mentor.

As far as I was concerned, midwives have to be nice, right?  It's part of the job description surely.  Why was everyone so intimidated by them?  However, as the induction process continued, I started to get more and more fixated on this as yet faceless person who I would be shadowing. 

The lecturers made us aware that are mentors would be watching us from the very moment we started working with them.  If that sentiment isn’t enough to send shivers down your spine, I don’t know what is.  We heard phrases like assessment, grading, cause for concern, and very little about the nurturing and guiding relationships I have come to know from my mentors. 

For that is what mentorship is all about.  True, they are marking your performance and assessing you against set criteria, but they are also moulding and shaping you into a midwife of the future.  Each midwife works in a slightly different way, and as a student you have the unique opportunity to soak up all these styles and create your own from the best of each.  I know for a fact that I still carry out my postnatal checks in exactly the same way as my first community mentor.

Learn from them you will

It is also important to consider what it must be like for the midwife to be followed around by the questioning and scared novice you will undoubtedly be as a first year.  And still as a third year, come to think about it.  Everything that you do, they are accountable and responsible for.  That is a lot of trust for them to have in someone they have only just met.  Perhaps they should be more scared of the students than the students are of them!

As I am nearing graduation, I have been thinking a lot about the sort of mentor I will be.  I hope I am half as good as the mentors I have had throughout my training.  See you next week.

Happy Easter

Could this be any cuter?

I love this time of year. Not only is it my birthday next week (8th April in case you were wondering) but also because spring has finally sprung.  Or so I thought; judging by the wind and rain we have had over the last couple of days you would think it was still winter.  But no, the evenings are getting lighter, the daffodils and tulips are bringing some much needed colour to our gardens and there is blossom on the trees.  Despite crème eggs being available on Boxing Day, it has finally become acceptable to start devouring them.  And as they are eggs, it is only natural that you do this a dozen at a time!

I'll take my Diet Coke with a side of hunk!

Did you give anything up for lent?  I abstained from Diet Coke, so I already have a can chilling in the fridge to drink at 8 am on Sunday.  I’m not very good resisting temptation but I haven’t touched a drop of the carbonated nectar for a whole 40 days!  I am so proud of myself.

I’ve said it a thousand times this week, but I can’t believe it is April already!  Where is this year going?  There are only 159 days left of my course, and more worryingly, only 56 until the dreaded ‘D’ day.  Last week at university we had an interview preparation day…I was so nervous, it was almost like I was interviewing for a job there and then. 

As a midwife, interviews for jobs involve a range of activities.  Of course there are the usual “Where do you see yourself in 5 years?   What would you say are your biggest strengths and weaknesses are?” type questions.  There is also a maths test and an interpretation of fetal heart monitoring (a CTG), as well as neonatal resuscitation and an emergency scenario.  Everything that we have been learning over the past three years has been preparing us for these interviews, but looking around my classmates, I know there were thinking the same as me – “I’m not ready for this.  I don’t remember anything!”

Oh Michael Scott!

But of course we were ready.  As soon as we started running through the emergency situations or looked at the CTG we knew the answers.  Neonatal resuscitation felt like a muscle memory; like a dance learnt long ago.  What seems more daunting now is the question, “So, why should we choose you?”  Apparently my suggestion of “I can bake really nice cakes” won’t cut it.

So now all I have to do is get my CV and personal statement ready so I can upload them when the adverts are posted.  I have my NHSjobs email alerts all set up and have been filling my online baskets with an array of interview outfits.  Plenty of things to keep me from writing my dissertation; lovely!  See you next week!