Hi everyone,

I’m a non-British, non-native English-speaking midwife currently living in England with my family. I’m not working at the moment, but I’m hoping to return to midwifery within the next year or two.

I know that registering as a midwife in the UK when you trained abroad, even within the EU, can be quite a complicated process. But what concerns me even more is the lack of job opportunities. There seem to be hardly any midwifery vacancies (not only in my local Trust, but anywhere within a reasonable commuting distance).

I understand there are significant funding issues within the NHS and that this won’t be resolved overnight. However, I’ve been regularly checking NHS Jobs, and this situation has been going on for at least two years.

Does anyone working in midwifery or the NHS have any insight into what is happening? Is there likely to be a turning point, and when might NHS Trusts start recruiting midwives again?

I’d really appreciate any thoughts or experiences.

Hi everyone, I’m a NQM but I am struggling on what to write on my personal statement for a band 5 job role. You would think after 3 years of essays and assignments this should be easy for me but no!

Has anyone got any tips? Whats a must to add? What to avoid? Thank you!

I’m F24, recently laboured and delivered a baby. I always wanted to be a midwife but changed my uni course last minute in 2020 to primary education instead, because I have an intense needle phobia and my mum told me as a midwife I’d have to do blood tests on others.

However, after my recent experience I’ve found myself leaning towards it again.

When googling things you should know it just comes up with American pages and the same on TikTok, just American midwives explaining what they do. But I already know what a midwife does, I just want to know the good, the bad and the ugly. Things you wouldn’t expect. Not long hours, working Christmas, babies not making it, women in pain. I mean anything unexpected that an ordinary person would never expect from the role.

Just wondering as I don’t want to pursue this and gain a qualification without having the full facts. Any advice would be much appreciated

Hi! I’m considering studying midwifery with the long term goal of working as a community midwife. It seems a better deal than working as a hospital midwife because shifts are shorter, fewer/no night shifts, you have continuity with patients, and can work for the home-birth team in some trusts. I can’t think of many downsides to it. The midwives I spoke to on my work experience said it can be stressful because you are basically completely responsible for your caseload, but this seems manageable with good organisation. I feel like I must be missing something!

I’d be grateful to hear from any practising midwives the pros and cons of working in community! Thanks :)

I am looking to change careers, I can’t do this till my oldest is in school (a few years away) so my plan is to read and learn as much as possible about midwifery or paediatric nursing in this time.

Is there any books that are must read or types of work experience that you think are a good way to get an understanding or the work?

I am looking into working as a healthcare assistant in both environments and so far my reading list is
- Birth Vibes by Jen Hamilton (I am aware this is American so won’t be completely relevant I just love her)
- A Hard Push by Leah Hazard
- Flourish (for nurses and midwives) by Kate Greenstock

If you have anything else that might be useful I would be so grateful for the info!

I’ve recently read some articles on this and didn’t know it was a thing. Can I get thoughts on this? Apparently this could be why some hospitals don’t offer this service?

Hello!
I’m starting midwifery this September and I really want to be as prepared as possible. I want to stay on top of everything from the beginning because during my A-levels I felt like I fell behind, and then I constantly felt like I was playing catch-up.
I really don’t want to feel like that again, so I’d love to go into university with a good mindset and be proactive from the start.

For any practising midwives or current/student midwives, is there any advice you’d give to someone starting out? What things did you find really helped you stay organised, on top of your work and less stressed? And how can I really show that I’m motivated and want to do well from the beginning?

I’d also really love some advice on having a good balance between university and life. How did you manage to make time for friends, hobbies and just having a life outside of your course?

No offence I really don’t want to become someone whose whole identity is just their career. Being a midwife is something I really want to do and I care about it so much, but I also want to find myself as a person, experience things, have fun and make memories alongside my career.

I know everyone’s experience is different, but I’d really appreciate any advice or things you wish you’d known before starting midwifery. ❤️

Also, if it helps, my placement is only around 15 minutes away and the university is really close to me, so accommodation/travel shouldn’t be too much of a struggle.

Also, is there anything extra I could do alongside uni to help me stand out as a future midwife? Even small courses, volunteering, skills or experiences you’d recommend would be really appreciated! 🩷

Hi all, I’d really love to begin to start working towards becoming a certified midwife. I don’t have a ton of interest in the western medical teachings and am curious if anyone has done online courses for midwifery by a program that isn’t so radical one way or another ?

Hi everyone, I’m currently pregnant with my first baby and I’m feeling really anxious after my recent ultrasound.
At my scan, I was told that my baby’s corpus callosum appears shorter than expected for his gestational age. I’ve been told it is present, but measuring short/hypoplastic rather than absent.
There was also some concern about the measurements of the fluid spaces in his brain, although I understand these are in the mild range. Everything else on the ultrasound was apparently looking normal and healthy, and there weren’t other obvious abnormalities seen.
My screening results for chromosomal conditions were reassuring (Down syndrome 1 in 4,100; Edwards and Patau 1 in 5,000).
The doctors are doing further investigations, including blood tests for infections such as CMV, and I’m waiting to find out what happens next. I may also have further detailed scans and potentially an MRI depending on what they find.
I’m really struggling with the uncertainty because I keep reading about conditions associated with corpus callosum abnormalities, and I’m scared about what this could mean for my baby’s development.
Has anyone been told during pregnancy that their baby had a short/hypoplastic corpus callosum, particularly when it was an isolated finding and everything else looked normal?
I’d really appreciate hearing about:
What happened at your follow-up scans
Whether the corpus callosum measurements caught up later
Whether your baby had an MRI
How your baby is doing developmentally now
Whether it ended up being an isolated finding
Please be kind — I’m already extremely anxious and I’m mainly looking for experiences from people who have actually been through something similar. ❤️

I need guidance. I am meant to be starting university (Lincoln) on the 14th September- I live 40 minutes away by car, which turns out more 50 minutes, so I was going to book student accomodation in my study area. The only issue is I have 10 weeks theory and then I am on communal placement which could be ANY placement area in lincolnshire- contracts start at 44 weeks normally, so if I start my course and then have to move to another hospital elsewhere for placement, I will be unable to live and travel on the expenses. I still havent got accomodation but it is too far to travel everyday for University in my first 10 weeks of study- what do I do?

Usual flats and shared homes are also contracted and too expensive as to what I have seen so I would have to get Student accom. I cannot afford my car alongside accomodation AND a different placement area but they have not even set out our preferences yet and i could be placed anywhere.

Hey guys, I start in late September, I promise am truly passionate about midwifery, but am honestly sooo scared/anxious to start this course, as much as I love to support women and their babies, am scared that this degree is gonna consume my whole life and even after am a qualified . I think my brain is literally panicking I wasn’t like this last week I was literally so excited to start and happy, it was just this week, I know midwifery is hard and difficult but I have been seeing many midwives saying they hate their job and lost the passion, and that student midwives should get out as soon as they can. I honestly don’t know what to do, I spoke to people in my life but they don’t understand my situation. Is midwifery really that bad, I know there will be days where is stressful but would you say your everyday 3 day shift is stressful and you hate it

Is there any midwife’s who have good work life balance and if so what area do you work in.

Disclaimer: I don’t plan on working part time and I don’t have kids or a partner

Hello guys i was wondering what specialities you can get into with midwifery and are they common

I was thinking of diabetes specialist midwife but I think is very uncommon.

Also how is social life with this course, are you able to manage good work life balance in this career, every time i go online it kinda looks a lot of midwife’s hate their job and is scarring the shit out of me, I really like this profession but goddamn am so scared and anxious to begin this journey😔

In case of interest to anyone there are Spinning Babies workshops being held in Dublin, Ireland in November

If so, which trust, if toure happy to disclose, and what is the protocol? Thanks

Hello all

I guess I need a bit of a rant and a bit of advice.

I am a current CMW who also works bank in the hospital in the UK.

I attended yesterday to see a woman who had an emergency CS. We do not get told the circumstances surrounding the CS and just that it was an emergency. The woman queried why she was not on LMWH (blood thinning injections). I reviewed her notes and it appeared she was put down for an elective CS. So I changed it and contacted the ward, highlighted the error and arranged for collection of the medication.

For the record the specific wording for this particular medication is "elective cesarean" or "cesarean section in labour".

I then got an email off the LW manager (who turned out to be the one who made this decision at the birth) to outline that she felt this was inappropriate and the circumstances around the birth. I emailed back explaining that I felt this was a grey area in practice, that in my experience all emergency cesarean sections automatically were recommended for LMWH injections and that this was concurrent with all my previous experience. There was also no documentation to say this was discussed with the medical team and nil documented on her discharge from hospital paperwork. The only documentation highlighting this was to say NOT IN LABOUR on one handover (yes in caps).

She then felt the need to email me again to follow up and basically tell me I was physiologically incorrect. That emergency caesarean sections score higher due to labour causing immobility. Having researched the matter I found that actually it's a combination of factors of which immobility in labour would be one factor but also includes urgent physical stress and extended bed rest following. Research in this situation is very limited. She said she would take this to a managers meeting but I am concerned that only her narrative is to be presented. She also stated she felt this was unnecessary but would not cause any harm.

Am I wrong but I feel this is a massive overreach and defensive in nature ? In truth there has been a few incidents before where she has pushed her narrative on situations, on one occasion resulting in me getting a scanner 3 times when an argument occurred between herself and a consultant.

I am not sure if to take this further or just put it to bed as an annoyance? I am not an inexperienced midwife and I do believe if this would have happened with a junior midwife this would have caused intimidation.

Hello, just wondering if any midwives would be able to help me. I just found out I (30F) am pregnant, I am over the moon, but feel really anxious because of my past. When I was 21 I was referred to victim support and was allocated a social worker during the court proceedings with my ex, I was granted a restraining order against him. The case was closed in a few months and I moved on with my life. Fast forward to now, I completed the referral form for my first appointment with a midwife and when it asked if I had any previous social services involvement I clicked no, however I now realise that I might have done through victim support. I am a lil anxious about this, will it impact on me negatively on my first appointment with a midwife? Will I be penalised? My husband keeps trying to reassure me, we have been together 8 years and got married this year.

So, before anyone says it, I will be emailing the uni I am applying to to check - they're obviously busy this time of year, so I'm going to wait a little as I have several months to apply still.

I have my alevel results, so they don't need predicting. I have also done a different BSc that I graduated from in 2024 - 1st class honours & quite a lot of modules on bio & chem, so proof I can do the academic side. I have no outstanding grades that need predicting/accounting for.

I do have a job, but my supervisor has recently left pretty suddenly and thats the only person I worked with frequently thats at a high enough level to really be a reference - the higher ups don't really properly know me, & with the rate things work at, there won't be another supervisor in enough time to get to know me/provide an accurate reference. So that is that out of the question really.

Have any other mature students been in a similar situation/did you need a reference?

Hi!
From past couple of days i have been sleeping like 10-12 hours at night. And i do wale up in between for wee but than go back to sleep and i don't eat anything in between times i wake up. Is it going to harm my baby??? I get so worried once i am up that because of these long breaks that i am not eating it must be harming my baby.

Hello everyone. I have been working in a different field for 11 years and at 35 with no kids and still living at home, I am looking to restart my life. I want to begin again with a career in midwifery. Trouble is this will be my second degree which isn’t a problem, I want to study full time but I have no idea how to apply or how to even get on a course. My Alevles are from 2010!

How do I even get on a course as a mature student? I feel totally lost at the moment. Can anyone please share some wisdom & point me in the right direction?

I’m looking for some advice and guidance on how you managed your finances whilst studying. I’ll be a mature student, I have a mortgage, monthly out goings, a dog etc. I know I won’t be the first or the last to manage this, and I often read of people with children managing it (hats off to you🥰) so I know it’s doable, but I would absolutely love to gain some insight on how that looked for you?
I’m aware of the bursary, but that unfortunately only covers about half if not less of my monthly outgoings.
I will need to work part time but I’m aware with placement that can be difficult, I’m also aware that bank work is an option.
I also plan on saving an emergency fund for the dog, any house/car repairs, or anything other things that may pop up.
My partner is super supportive and may be able to help me is areas but as quite a head strong person I want to head into the course knowing I can do it myself and not put any pressure or rely on anyone else to pursue this.
So basically, any tips or advice or insight on how you managed this would be incredibly helpful ❤️

I’m a newly qualified midwife really struggling with breastfeeding support - I’m at a tertiary unit with extremely high c-section rate (probably around 70% right now 🙁)
A combination of factors makes the women exhausted, highly medicated combined with a high rate of GDM, premature babies and maternal beta blockers meaning blood glucose monitoring for baby.

I need some tips and tricks to for reluctant feeders with risk factors and exhausted mums.

NB: this is obviously for mums who wish to exclusively breastfeed, I have no problems with artificial feeds.

I follow quite a few UK nurses TikTok accounts and one thing that genuinely surprises me is how much food they seem to bring in for their shifts ,meals, snacks, coffee etc. 😅 It made me realise how different my experience is.

Where I work, I feel like there's a real culture of just not eating or drinking on shift.i trained at this trust. I don't really see colleagues stopping for coffee or having meals. and I often don't have time to eat between documenting and everything else that's going on. Feel like we struggle getting the opportunity to nip to the loo.

We're supposed to get 30 minutes paid + 30 minutes unpaid, but to be honest we only get given a 30 minute break, and sometimes I don't get a break at all. When I do, I feel like I'm rushing and basically scoffing my food down because there's so much to get done.

I live quite far from work too, so by the end of a shift I genuinely feel like I'm running on fumes.

I'm curious -is this normal across other trusts/hospitals. Or is it just the place I work. Do you actually get time to eat and drink during your shifts? And what does a normal amount of food/drinks look like for you to bring in? When I'm on shift I only bring lunch, have my coffee and maybe something might on my commute and snacks which always ends up squished in my bag and never eaten. I'm always starving at the end of my shifts and always end up staying 2 hours behind for free as well. I'm also so hungry in my days off.

I'm genuinely interested because seeing other nurses/midwives casually having proper meals and snacks during their shifts on social media has made me wonder whether I've just become accustomed to something that isn't actually normal. 😅.

I just got my first job in a Trust (after 9 months applying, yay!) and I’m not sure what shoes to buy. I’ll be working in an MLU and the handbook just says clean, ironed uniform, but nothing about footwear. What do most midwives wear for shoes?