Being a midwife can only be described as being on a roller coaster.
There will be ups, downs, you need a strong stomach and you have to keep on going (there is no ‘getting off’ half way through a shift!)
Have you got the stamina?
Midwifery is more than just a profession, it is a vocation. To work the various shifts, which are mostly unsociable, to say you can’t go to social events that always happen when you are working, to be a calm and friendly midwife for the 3rd birth of the shift- is tough going and you will need stamina. But what does keep you going is the love of the job.
Rewarding and worthwhile, even without a lunch break
Caring for women at such a special time in their life, becomes more important that having time to go to the toilet on a 12 hour shift, stopping for a lunch break, having adequate sleep between shifts or keeping your phone on in case someone on your caseload needs you. Midwifery is hard, rewarding and it is a job that you will be incredibly proud to say that you do. With time you will build resilience to the varied behaviors you’ll witness, the sad events, the inability to juggle every task that you would want to, but without doubt, the minute you loose the passion for the job is the time to call it a day.
As a midwife you are never really ‘off shift’
Even when you are off duty, when someone finds out that you are a midwife, swiftly follows a birth story, a pregnant woman previously hiding in the shadows or those wanting to know the gory details. You will live and breathe being a midwife.
