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!