A student midwife's thoughts

[Barry MacGregor]

dear all, I am a student midwife, who spent 3 years undertaking a nursing degree in order to become a midwife, and now another 1 year at uni to actually become a midwife.    I feel very unfortunate that part of our course does not enforce or encourage student midwives to undertake some practical time with homebirth midwives.  Another problem with hospital based training for midwives is that lack of encouragement women are given to make choices during labour.  Most women look to the midwife to make the decision for her.  This can be quite difficult if your own experience is limited ( ie: in nearly six months of training I have not seen one women deliver her baby in any other position than the "stranded beetle" position).  Scary isn't it that some midwives will be registered without ever seeing a delivery with the woman making all her own choices and being supported by a midwife.   Further to this I feel that some midwives ( luckily these are the minority) are really only obstetric nurses.  I have had one senior midwife tell me that she will not allow a woman to birth in any other position other than lithotomy as she feels that the babies will only get a face full of faeces!!  This midwife is also a believer that all women should be subjected to a routine CTG on admission to the delivery suite unless they are "pushing" on arrival.  Her idea is that we work in a delivery suite and if we woman want to do any thing other than the "norm", they should go to the birth centre with all the "weirdos".   Finally, just wanted to say a thank you to everyone who contributes to the list.  With my very limited experience and that I always need to work with a senior midwife (some of whom are like the one I have mentioned above) it is lovely to know that many midwives actually believe in women to give birth naturally.   Thanks again Sonja  a student currently learning a lot online from each and every one of you.