What is Midwifery?
A midwife is a trained health professional whose role is to help women during their labor, delivery, and after the birth of their babies. Midwives may deliver babies at birthing centers, hospitals, or homes.
Midwives manage many common obstetric complications and many works in collaboration with Obstetricians to provide safe care for women. The word “Midwife” originates from the old English word mid “with” wife “women”. While the profession has changed in many ways through centuries, the concept of being “with women” has remained the same. Midwives pride themselves on providing personalized, respectful care for each client. Midwives listen to women, and believe in collaborative care with each woman and her family, tailoring their health care to their needs and helping them make the best decision for themselves and their family.
A midwife’s role is not solely at the time of birth but starts in pregnancy, through the birth, and continues after the baby has been born. A Midwife will provide pregnancy options counseling, family planning counseling and administration, and insertion of contraceptive medications and devices.
What 3rd level courses are available?
Universities and colleges in Ireland are offering Midwifery courses in the following subject areas:
- Midwifery practice – Gain the knowledge and skills of communication, biological sciences, maternal and social care services.
- BSc (Hons) In Midwifery – Develop the professional knowledge, skills, and understanding needed to fulfill the role of a midwife.
- CK 740 Midwifery – The study of the knowledge, skills, attitudes, and professional values for midwifery practice.
- Mature Nursing Midwifery Test Preparation Course – An introduction into the nursing profession and midwifery.
Studying Midwifery in college
Many full-time Midwifery courses run anywhere from 1 year to 4 years depending on the course and modules selected. There are also part-time courses and night courses available so you can be sure to fit in your studies no matter what your schedule is like.
Courses will cover all theory work through lectures, assignments, tutorials, and taught modules. Assessments will take place continuously with written examinations and practical assignments combined to achieve a qualification.
You could also, consider work experience or work shadowing in gyms or leisure centers to gain real-world experience. Contact local employers to see if they can help you. Experience in a caring role within health and social care is a distinct advantage. Many midwives with previous nursing experience believe that this was useful when they started midwifery training. Useful experience might include supporting teenage parents, working with breastfeeding groups or charities dealing with issues such as birth defects, bereavement, or miscarriage.
Career options
After completing a course in Midwifery you will be able to get started in a career that uses specific knowledge of pregnant women requiring professional support and advice. You are likely to be the lead health professional and contact for a woman, providing evidence-based information and helping her make informed choices about the options and services available throughout her pregnancy.
Midwifery services are increasingly moving from hospitals to the community, so where you work could reflect this. Antenatal care in the community is provided in women’s homes, local clinics, children’s centers, and GP surgeries. It can also be provided in hospitals where you may work in triage and assessment areas, high and low-risk labor, postnatal wards, and neonatal units.
You’ll work with a range of other professionals including gynecologists, GPs, health visitors, neonatal nurses, and maternity support workers
Working hours will be all over the place and you will need to be very flexible as you will be working on the schedule laid out by the babies wanting to be born, which could happen on any day at any time. The full-time working week is usually 37.5 hours and is likely to include day and night shifts. Community and independent midwives are regularly on call across 24 hours and you should expect to be part of an on-call rota at some point in your career.
If you are working as a community midwife, you are likely to develop good professional relationships with your families, which can make counseling easier at difficult times. You could be working with women from a variety of backgrounds and you will need to be confident enough to communicate with different people. Some women and their families might be homeless, socially excluded, have disabilities, or be very young. Other clients may be from certain cultural or religious backgrounds.
Related jobs include:
- Preceptee midwife
- Community midwife
- Home birthing specialist
- Health promotion specialist
- Health visitor in training
- Intensive care neonatal nurse
- Volunteer midwife
- Antenatal screening
- Breastfeeding advice
- Home birthing
- Intensive care neonatal units
- Labour ward supervision
- Parenting education
- Public health
- Ultrasound and fetal medicine
Further study
After completing a course in Midwifery you may choose to pursue further study in a specialist field to increase your knowledge base and skillset.
You’ll need to be committed to learning and always keep your skills and knowledge up to date. Once you have qualified as a midwife, there is a wide range of opportunities. You may want to undertake further training and become a health visitor or move into management, teaching, or clinical research.
There could be opportunities to extend your role by taking specialist courses in areas such as enhanced midwifery practice, family planning, teaching in clinical practice, and research.
FAQ
Are there any particular qualities you need to study Midwifery?
Midwives need to have the ability to communicate well and clearly with a diverse range of women. They should have a caring and calm manner for dealing with emotional situations and an ability to react quickly and effectively in times of stress or when immediate decisions need to be made during labor.
A Midwife should have strong team working skills to liaise with different medical professionals and also strength, stamina, and physical fitness to work long hours that can often be physically and emotionally tough.
What are the typical responsibilities of a Midwife?
As a midwife, some of the typical responsibilities may be:
- monitor and examine women during pregnancy
- develop, assess and evaluate individual programs of care
- provide antenatal care, including screening tests in the hospital, community, and the home
- identify high-risk pregnancies and make referrals to doctors and other medical specialists
- arrange and provide parenting and health education
- provide counseling and advice before and after screening and tests
- offer support and advice following events such as miscarriage, termination, stillbirth, neonatal abnormality, and neonatal death
- supervise and assist mothers in labor, monitoring the condition of the fetus and applying knowledge of drugs and pain management
- give support and advice on the daily care of the baby, including breastfeeding, bathing, and making up feeds
- liaise with agencies and other health and social care professionals to ensure continuity of care
Where can I study Midwifery?
Explore your options here
Did You Know?
· Even today, it is still not known exactly how a pregnant person’s body starts labor or when it will happen, but recent research has revealed that two proteins in the fetus’ lungs are produced when the lungs are mature. These proteins seem to produce an inflammatory response in the uterus that begins the labor process.
· A non-pregnant uterus is the size and shape of a pear. But at full term, that uterus has grown to the size and shape of watermelon to accommodate the mature fetus. At this point, it is the strongest muscle in the human body. It takes a lot of work to dilate the cervix and get that baby out through the pelvis. During the pushing stage of labor, the uterus does about 80% of the work, with the laboring person adding that extra 20% with conscious pushing. If a person was unconscious, and in labor, their uterus would still be able to push that baby out without any additional pushing effort from the pregnant person.
· Changing positions during labor and pushing are very important. Doing so allows the baby to move down through the pelvis. When a laboring person squats, they can increase the diameter of their pelvic outlet by 28%, which is approximately one to two centimeters.
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