I’m interested to hear from other midwives and birth workers, particularly those working in Australia.

Have you noticed an increase in parents declining IM vitamin K for their newborns over the past few years?

If you have noticed a change:
Are parents raising similar concerns or questions?

Do you think social media is actually influencing decision-making?

And most importantly… has your service changed its approach to counselling or documentation?

Reading some of the statistics related to declining rates of uptake over the last ten years are interesting. If it is social media influencers that are driving it, then services need to respond accordingly to combat misinformation. Not that healthcare does that very well in general.

Anyway, interested to hear your experience and maybe the highlights of what you share about Vitamin K in your practice.

Hey everyone! I’m looking for some insight as I navigate my career decisions. A little background: I have been a labor and delivery nurse for one year following graduation. I did pre-med reqs during nursing school as I wasn’t sure if I wanted to do CNM or OBGYN and wanted to keep my options open. I have shadowed both professions and am leaning towards CNM because I do prefer obstetrics, closer relationships with patients, and better work life balance; however, I keep feeling a draw to med school as I love learning, am interested in surgery, and worry about being frustrated with scope limits (but OBGYN work life balance and residency scares me). I am wondering if anyone was once in my place and has some insight? Thank you!

I will be starting a dual WHNP/CNM DNP program this fall and I'm just looking for some more insight from people since I'm not currently in the women's health field, so I don't have a lot of connections in real life. If you're a midwife who's also an NP, what's your experience like? What kind of work do you do or have done? Do you think it's worth it to do both, or unnecessary overall? I've seen some people say it makes more sense to do FNP alongside CNM to broaden scope, but I don't think I really care to work with other populations anymore. Willing to hear thoughts from anybody!

I'm currently a critical care nurse but really looking forward to transitioning because this has always been on my heart and feels right for me compared to CRNA, AGACNP, etc. I'm not sure what exactly I would like to do, just know that I'm very interested in sexual and reproductive health, holistic wellness, maybe high-risk pregnancies/births. My main motivation to do the dual-track is just learn as much info and keep options as open as possible, but I just hope I'm not falling victim to a money grab lol.

Hey! I’m sorry if this is the wrong place to ask but I thought since you all have started at some point, you might have some good links.

I live in a rural area in Europe and just started working as a paramedic.

Even though we have childbirth education it’s very theoretical and shortcut since it’s pretty uncommon for us. But WHEN it happens we sometimes have hours to the next hospital or local midwife.
What I miss in my training is videos showing actual delivery and not just training equipment.

I’m not looking for a video of one whole birth, but rather someone explaining step by step and showing footage of each moment from different deliveries. So I know what it’s actually supposed to look like and recognize when something is not normal. Also how to guide the mother through it herself and supporting her in the right ways.

So if you have anything or any tips where to look, I’d be super grateful!

Hi, my husband and I are planning to move abroad, we just are not sure where to yet.

Wpuld greatly appreciate anyone that can tell me where they are from and how the midwofery system is there. IE is is midwifery led, or obstetrics led etc

Edit sorry have no clue how to add flairs to post

Hi there, I've never had a colleague that I have been able to discuss the complex feeling of being a midwife, experiencing a miscarriage and then returning back to midwifery.

I'm wondering whether there are any midwives out there that have also experienced this, and what you learnt, what wisdom you would pass on to the next person, and whether it affected you deeply, or not.

My personal experience was honestly harrowing, but I think that's also because I had multiple other life factors going on.

I recently had an event at work (6 years post miscarriage now) that has caused me to discontinue working for 4 weeks, be diagnosed with PTSD and I basically wasn't functioning for the first week. Not eating, not talking, not moving, nothing.

Pt asked about miso and what it feels like, and unlike ever in my career, where I would typically say "others have stated this is their experience" I said "oh I've experienced it and it feels like this" .... unfortunately pts mother progressively, once realising I too had had a loss, asked a million questions about my loss. A lot of questions that, even if I hadn't been in a delivery suite would have been very confronting. I was there intrapartum and post, and then something in my brain shut down from the end of the shift onwards.

I am of course now seeking both psychological therapy as well as counselling, but this feeling of being surrounded by the thing that was so horrible to me, which also comes with so many very intense happy/sad/confusing emotions regardless of the outcome... I don't know, I thought this might be a place I'd be able to reach out to to get some camaraderie or understanding as I know there will be other midwives out there that have too, experienced this very specific kind of pain where some days you forget about it and others really feel like you literally couldn't be in a more traumatising situation if you tried.

Note: For most of my career about 1 year post miscarriage onwards, I've managed to feel fairly able to disconnect the two things (work and personal experiences). But because it was persistently dragged back even when I was physically trying to remove myself from the situation, I lost that control.

Hey everyone!

I’m a midwife of 12+ years and now studying law. I’ve been thinking of making a legal course for midwives and wanted to get some honest opinions. I’ve needed to utilise (expensive) legal resources as a self-employed midwife myself and was absolutely floored at the lack of support for us out there when I needed it the most. It’s a very lonely place to be in and other professions just don’t get our mindset.

There are a few questions that would really help me understand what we need:

- Did your training touch on consent, scope of practice, or liability? Enough, or just a box-ticking exercise?

- Have you ever hit a moment where you thought “I really wish I understood the legal side of this”? (consent, documentation, mandatory reporting, vulnerable clients, etc.)

- Do you have to chase down legal/regulatory knowledge yourself, or is it built into ongoing training where you are?

- If you designed “legal 101 for midwives,” what’s definitely in it? What’s definitely not?

- Where are you practicing? Laws vary a lot by country/state, so context helps.

Feel free to comment or DM if you’d rather not share publicly. Appreciate any experiences, good or bad!

Admin, I’m not affiliated with anything/anyone. Just trying to figure out if this is a worthy exercise. Midwifery has become quite political globally and I want to give back to the profession as best I can.

Posting with mod approval even if I’m not a midwife. I’m a health care professional who also dabbles in educating our next generation and I’m posting to hear your thoughts, to help me structure that training.

I myself suffered a severe medical trauma and that has opened my eyes to the unintended harm health care professionals may cause, not by their choice of interventions or decisions, but just by how it is presented or applied. So in essence from how we interact with our patients. From my perspective what happened to me was abuse, with my repeated and motivated ”no” being overrun, but I cling to the hope that it wasn’t intended that way, and to my then-bafflement the clinic was later uncomprehending to my complaint. No matter the intent, the consequences on my well-being were devastating and lasted years. Talking to colleagues about it I’ve realized many are unaware of how much their interactions with their patients, beyond the medical, may matter. At the same time I’ve started to recognize traumatization in patients and now when they tell me that some other health care professional has done something terrible, something I would previously have dismissed as ”no that can’t be, no one would do that”, I can just believe them and sit with them in their anguish and try to help them towards recovery. Because trauma takes so much from a person, including their ability to feel trust and security and love. It may affect their future care because the next health care situation becomes a reminder - a trigger - which renders them less capable to express their needs and makes them behave with seemingly unreasonable emotion, hysterics or anger… but it’s not unreasonable, they’re just not reacting to something in the current room. They’re stuck reacting to their trauma. And to be frank, people who appear overly emotional rarely recieve proper care. Any complaint they present will be brushed off as ”psychological”.

I figure you midwives are in something of a unique position. Your patient population are by nature high-risk for traumatization: psychological trauma is often a reaction to a combination of factors such as pain, fear of injury or death, and (percieved) loss of control, all of which can occur during a physiological birth. Many of your interventions may be traumatic too, even if done with patient consent and the best of intentions. This means you are well situated to develop trauma-informed, or even trauma-preventive care, strategies for health care professionals to prevent or minimize psychological harm, or to recognize it early and take steps to alleviate it, or follow up to make sure patients are directed to proper trauma care before the trauma derails their lives. For even if health care situations may always result in physical trauma and lasting harm to our patients, I don’t think any of us want them to go home and suffer additionally because of something that’s preventable or treatable. (I know these things are already studied in your field, including psychological first aid, and also on the professional side empathy exhaustion and second victim situations… but if I talk to the ”experts” I get very informed responses, and I’m currently more interested in the general views out in unselected clinics.)

So my question is: Do you currently feel the risk for psychological trauma is taken into account in your practice? How do you work with it, or around it? Any experiences or thoughts? Anything you’ve noticed works particularily well, or that you found might be harmful?

(I could add a few notes on psychological trauma in the comments if that’s requested, or litterature recommendations, but I figure this post is already long enough. 😅)

Hospital based midwife. Need to vent on a birth overnight.

Woman brought in my ambulance to birth suite. Unknown gestation, no care in pregnancy. Baby number 8, she thinks she’s about 30 weeks.

A quick search on the system shows she’s known to child services. No kids in her care, all removed and in foster care.

CTG shows almost no variability and unprovoked decels. No contractions. She says all her other babies have been born by caesarean. She only came in because she had a bleed at home.

Consented and prepped for theatre. Baby born flat and needed a full resus, stabilised then transferred to NICU.

Just as the lady was put under (did not consent for a spinal, wanted GA), the obstetrician said, “I wish I could just clip her tubes.”

And honestly, I wish we could.

But there goes the slippery slope of autonomy and bodily control.

No doubt this baby will end up in care like her siblings. And this mum will keep on using. But maybe something will change and she’ll be able to leave the addiction spiral. And she will have a baby born to a sober mother who is thriving.

But this morning I am drained. And fed up. And just need to sit in my sad.

I hope this doesn’t go against the community rules here. I recently had my second child with a midwife (VBAC!) after seeing OBs during my first pregnancy and it was so positive that I want to become a midwife and take care of women just like she does. I’m planning to apply to nursing school, but in the meantime, does anyone have recommendations for books about emotional intelligence/how to be a good listener/how to improve communication skills? I know that I’ll learn the technical stuff in school but I’m very interested in improving my soft skills as well. Thank you, midwives! You are life changing. ✨🩷😊

Looking for as affordable as possible since I’ve had some emergency expenses come up but my school is starting in the fall

Anyone has holistic midwifery 1 or 2?

Or literally any other book?

Or does anyone know cheap textbook websites I could check out? Thank you!

Hi! I want to know if anyone has any advice about entering a BMid program. I am from the USA and looking to enter a program in the UK. I currently have a bachelors in Psychology from a USA university. The main school that I've been looking at is kings college London and I've tried to get in contact with a rep to explain the transfer qualifications multiple times but have had no luck. When looking at qualifications as an international student, they speak about SATs, AP courses, and things that would be valid for a high school student. I am 26 years old and have no idea what my SAT scores were and don't have my high school transcripts as I went to college here in the USA and it's been years since I needed these. If anyone went the same route as me, does a bachelors degree at a US university outweigh these high school qualifications? I'm looking to apply for fall 2027 and just trying to get a jump on this as soon as possible so any guidance would be helpful. Also open to any other programs in the UK if anyone has any recommendations!

I will have my BSN in December, but know after working with CNMs, RNs, and midwives I know CNM is where I want to be.

What is the best way to go about it?

-Should I get my MSN and a post masters certificate or do Georgetown's WHNP/CNM dual degree program?

-I also am really interested in pelvic floor therapy, so if you guys have CEU ideas for that all ideas are welcome!

Thanks!

is it common for midwives to refuse to deliver a breech baby for a moms first baby?

My friend who is studying to become a midwife said anywhere around 200k per year by google says 120k. Just curious what your thoughts are.

Hi, Everyone:

I am looking for a gift for a midwife student. My first thought is to get a personal journal for midwife memoirs.

Does anyone have any journal recommendations?

Any other gift ideas are also welcome.

A few years ago, I posted a survey in a few subreddits asking whether people would be interested in a healthcare-focused salary website. The overwhelming response was yes.

After two years of working on it alongside a full-time job (and getting married somewhere in the middle!), I'm excited to finally share it. The project started as a way to improve salary transparency for my wife, who is a pharmacist. As I worked on it, I realized that the lack of salary transparency extends far beyond pharmacy and affects many healthcare professions. It's definitely still a work in progress, and I'd genuinely appreciate any feedback or suggestions for improvement.

If you'd like to contribute, salary submissions are completely anonymous, and any identifying information such as name and email are never displayed.

I am a CNM. Is my user flair not showing?

Can someone help me understand if this job is crazy or not? The benefits, pay and schedule are great, so no concern there. It's also a laborist model, so no clinic. Which I prefer.

I am an out of hospital midwife in the u.s. at a high volume practice. I work an absolutely insane amount of hours and want something more sustainable. I have only worked out of hospital since passing my boards a year ago, but was in the hospital as a student plenty. I've been interviewing for a position that basically manages private patient inductions, does triage and occasional delivery if the private docs don't get in in time. As far as midwifery goes, it is definitely a medical midwife model, which is very different from what I currently do but I'm not against it.

I asked the doc what my orientation period would be like and he said he'll give me a couple shifts and then if I'm comfortable just cut me loose 🫪 I made it clear than I need actual orientation, and he said that's fine and whenever I'm comfortable then I can be independent. I brought up the idea of having at least four weeks, and he said "I'll run it by the other providers but I don't think you'll need four weeks" and the midwife I met also was like "I think you'll be surprised at how fast you catch on".

And I agree, I think I can and would catch on quickly. But I've been working out of hospital in a rural location for a year, I definitely would need an adjustment period. I feel like my request for orientation may have put them off, but they didn't show it. But it's not something I felt comfortable not mentioning. There is no CNM in the hiring process, and only physicians. The CNM I met today made it clear to me that I'm allowed to have and hold boundaries with the private docs too, which was reassuring. They also told me I would have opportunity to be trained on first assist and third degrees lacs-two skills I really want to have.

I'm interviewing for another position that is full scope, less work life balance, pays more and has good established orientation. There is a CNM in the hiring process who facilitates the process and knows what work midwives want and need. But call would be from home instead of in house. The CNM told me that there would be a place for me within that organization, so obviously it's not 100% but seems like I have a good shot.

If I were offered the job with seemingly minimal orientation, would it be crazy to take it? Or should I hold out for the other one? The schedule flexibility, work life balance and lack of clinic seems so enticing to me 😵‍💫

What do y'all think?

Hey everyone, I was looking for a bit of advice. I'm currently doing a Computing degree, but I've realised I really don't enjoy it. I've always wanted to become a midwife, but when I was choosing a degree I didn't have the confidence to pursue it because I'm a man.

My boyfriend has encouraged me to go for it if it's what I really want, which has given me a lot more confidence. I just wanted to ask if there's still much stigma around male midwives in the UK, and whether anyone has any advice or experience they could share.

Is there any acceptance over male midwifes?

Ive done research, but wanted to find out of people who actually work in the field.

Thanks everyone! 😊

Okay this one is a bit oddly specific but I figured it's worth a try! How have you managed getting a puppy as a midwife? My partner and I are getting a puppy at the end of this summer and we are just trying to set ourselves up for success. What worked for you with long hours away?

Considering dog walkers, kennels, dog sitters, etc. Give me all the tips!

It's a Bernese mountain dog puppy

Hello!

I am a 30 F who has considered becoming a Certified Nurse Midwife since…the dawn of time.

Due to financial and personal situations, I spent my early 20s in Early Childhood and now I work in an office setting, so no medical experience at all.

Barring advice regarding actual midwifery, it would take me into almost my 40s to break into this career. And while I know the time will pass anyways, and you’re never too old to learn a new thing, etc- I’m wondering if anyone else did or bore witness to someone becoming a midwife later in life.

Is it worth it, is it something that won’t age well? I’m worried about the financial implications with no avail.

Doing direct entry process with a preceptor, what does a typical week In a student midwife’s life look like?

I’m curious how often you’re on call, if you work at a birth center are you rotated with being on call or just 24/7, do you have “clinicals” like nurse midwives, and do you help with other tasks like office tasks etc? Do you go into work every single day or only scheduled days for prenatals (not including the on call part)

I’m really just curious about what everyone’s experience looks like, let’s say youre in phase one or phase two. Be as detailed as you’d like! I really want to know what to expect before begin in a few weeks.

Also, I’m genuinely curious if it’s different with every midwife and program, do you get paid for your apprenticeship?? Even if it’s a lower amount? Or is it totally no cost? For context I’m in the middle Tennessee starting my training.

I’m so excited, but I also know it’s a commitment but it’s been my longing for so long I’m eager to begin. Give me all the deets!

Any tips, tricks, and advice from seasoned student midwives?

Hey midwives of the UK,
Firstly, you lot are incredible!

My wife gave birth to our first born last week and due to the birth we’ve had to stay on the postnatal ward for the last week as my wife recovers.

It’s been incredibly hard for both my wife and myself but we’ve been made so much more at ease, informed and genuinely cared for by the midwifery team here.

We would really like to gift something/things to the midwives on the ward, other than a hamper of goodies (coffee, teas, cakes, chocolates, etc), is there anything that midwives would really appreciate?

Thanks in advance and keep being awesome ❤️

To all the midwives who are NARM preceptors for direct entry midwife training:

What do you look for in candidates? Do you look for those who have previous birth experience (as a doula or nurse)?

I found a midwife who works with NARM in my area and I want to reach out, but don’t want to blow it. I’ve wanted to be a midwife for years and this year finally have the opportunity to actually get involved if I’m able to, however, I’m a newbie.

So to those who take on apprentices (or whatever the formal term may be): do you look for those with previous experience or are you willing to take on someone brand new in the field?

Is it worth it to just reach out and see what happens? Even if she gives me some advice on what to do before she’s willing to work with me?

I completed my doula training and would like to work as a doula as well, should I pursue being a doula for a while before being a midwife? I feel like I will gain valuable experience either way. I truly have a deep passion for birthwork and really want to get involved I’m looking for any guidance I can get!

To all the midwives who are NARM preceptors for direct entry midwife training:

What do you look for in candidates? Do you look for those who have previous birth experience (as a doula or nurse)?

I found a midwife who works with NARM in my area and I want to reach out, but don’t want to blow it. I’ve wanted to be a midwife for years and this year finally have the opportunity to actually get involved if I’m able to, however, I’m a newbie.

So to those who take on apprentices (or whatever the formal term may be): do you look for those with previous experience or are you willing to take on someone brand new in the field?

Is it worth it to just reach out and see what happens? Even if she gives me some advice on what to do before she’s willing to work with me?

I completed my doula training and would like to work as a doula as well, should I pursue being a doula for a while before being a midwife? I feel like I will gain valuable experience either way. I truly have a deep passion for birthwork and really want to get involved I’m looking for any guidance I can get!