With so little time remaining before Christmas is upon us, many university students are now settling down for a nice month away from studying but us student midwives are still hard at work and will be right up until edge of the festivities. I am aware that many of you reading this will be in the middle of crafting your personal statements ready to submit to UCAS in January. Good luck to all- I remember the days and nights spent sweating and crying over this dreaded document but you will all get through it, just keep persevering! Given this convenient timing, this blog entry will focus on the key distinct areas of midwifery that any potential student midwife should be aware of as well as a few tips along the way that I received whilst I was writing my application.

Antenatal Clinic

Well I suppose a logical place to start would be right at the beginning of midwifery- the pregnancy. Over the course of their 40-week pregnancy (or certainly more in some cases) a woman is likely to see the midwife up to 12 times as her pregnancy progresses in order to monitor and educate the mother as well as keep an eye on baby’s time in the womb. At appointments, it is a midwife’s job to consult with the woman about how her pregnancy is going, to advise about foods to avoid, antenatal classes, potential vaccines to be considered, ensure the correct forms are signed and dated when they need to be and most importantly- support the woman’s emotional needs, answer her questions and sooth her anxieties so that when it comes to going into labour the mother is as ready as possible. As well as this, there are a number of practical skills a midwife must master in order to ensure adequate care is provided for mother and baby. A urinalysis is preformed routinely on urine samples to look out for traces of bacteria or infection that may require treatment. Blood tests are conducted to monitor iron ad sugar levels over the pregnancy as well as for detecting HIV, hepatitis B and other potentially dangerous diseases that may be present in the mother. Once the baby is big enough, the midwife will measure and “palpate” the abdomen to assess the growth of the baby and to investigate whether the baby is laying head down (cephalic), sideways (transverse) or feet first (breech), following this the baby’s heart rate may be listened to as well to create a bigger picture of fetal wellbeing. All being well, the mother will progress up to full term (38 weeks to 42 weeks) and then begins the next stage of her pregnancy.

Labour ward

The labour ward in any hospital is where the real “one born every minute” stuff happens. Woman may come here in numerous incidents; they may be contracting well or their waters have broken in which case they were progress from 1cm all the way up to 10cm at which point if the baby is low enough into the pelvis, the woman will push the baby out into the world! Otherwise, if things haven’t happened as they necessarily should have or there is a clinical reason to bring baby out sooner they may be induced which just gives baby a push in the right direction to come out. And if baby needs a hand squeezing itself out, the doctors are always there to use forceps or ventouse to make sure baby is delivered safely. Another common mode of delivery that doesn’t happen in the labour ward as such is birth by caesarean section. This can be planned during the pregnancy or may become necessary during labour for the protection of either mother or baby. Regardless of the mode of delivery into the world, every birth of a baby is a blessing to witness and every time I see a delivery, I feel an overwhelming sense of gratitude and privilege that you are present for such an enormous moment in a woman’s life. Although I am sure most student midwives would agree that delivery suite/labour ward can be the most emotionally difficult and dramatic placement area, it can certainly also be the most rewarding.

Postnatal Ward

If a mother is not discharged shortly after delivery, they may find themselves in the postnatal ward. Postnatal wards run similarly to a normal hospital wards, but midwives must be skilled in caring for both the mother in her recovery and the newborn. The most important job for a midwife in this placement area in feeding support; as a student midwife you’ll spend 3 years watching different midwives and support workers and learn the tricks for getting a baby to latch on and feed effectively. For the first time many women are learning to be mothers and with the crazy hormones flying around them, this can be an enormously emotional time in which a midwife must provide the support necessary to guide the woman on her journey. As well as this, women are helped to recover from their operations and babies are weighed and observed so that when mother and baby are discharged, they are ready to face their new lives at home with one another.

Of course this is a very, VERY brief overview of the kind of skills and experiences you are likely to face as a student midwife and the ride through the degree can have many ups and downs. One thing I think is so important to remember is that midwifery is so much more than delivering a baby- in fact in you look at the whole picture it is arguable that this is only a brief part of a woman’s journey and yet many prospective students (myself included) can lose sight of this and end up looking only at their care of women in relation to childbirth. Once you are able to understand this, you are taking the right steps in the right direction.

As a prospective student midwife you should also become aware of the 6 C’s and be able to use these fluently and discreetly when talking about midwifery and the duties midwives carry out. It is also always good to be up to date on current affairs of midwifery, either in the news or in journals, as well as having a basic understanding of events which have shaped the way we practice today (good one include the Morecambe Bay enquiry and the Francis report but any maternity NICE guidelines will be useful). The most important thing when writing a personal statement of any kind is to show yourself off whilst demonstrating why you should be getting a place on the course – and one of the best ways to show this is through work experience. Tell the readers what experiences you have had as well as the effect this experience has had on you and has shaped you into a person who would be a brilliant, caring, confident and compassionate student midwife.

I hope this provides some guidance for all you prospective student midwives out there and has told you a bit about what is means to be a midwife, the great responsibilities which come with the training and job and how to demonstrate the qualities lectures are looking for in your personal statement. If anyone has any questions about their application or wants further advice or encouragement, then please don’t hesitate to contact me by commenting on this post- I will be happy to help! Otherwise, good luck with all your applications- midwifery or not and have a wonderful Christmas.