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3) Placement Reflections: Two Worlds, One Journey

  At the end of the first block of my second-year placement, I was allocated time between the Central Delivery Suite (CDS) and the Birthing Unit. These two environments could not have felt more different. The Birthing Unit is designed to support low-risk, physiological births, promoting choice, autonomy, and minimal intervention. In contrast, CDS is a more medicalised environment, caring for women who require closer monitoring and higher levels of intervention. Moving between these two settings often felt like stepping between two worlds, yet it offered me an invaluable insight into the full spectrum of maternity care. Despite being placed on the Birthing Unit, it was frequently required to close due to staffing shortages on the Central Delivery Suite. When this happened, the majority of midwives from the Birthing Unit would be redeployed to CDS to help maintain safe staffing levels. Although a small presence was usually maintained, the impact of these pressures was impossible to ...
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Poem

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   See the whole of me, not just what I show, There are stories beneath that you may not know. A life that has trembled, a heart that’s been torn, But here I stand waiting bruised, yet reborn. When I come for my checks and I sit in your chair, Please notice my silence, the weight in the air. Speak with calm, explain what you’ll do, It takes a world of courage to be here with you. Before you reach out, please ask, please wait, Your kindness can open or close that gate. Your words are a bridge that can steady my fear, And make me believe I am safe right here. When labour begins and the room starts to spin, Your tone is the anchor that holds me within. Tell me the plan, help me to choose, Each choice you give me is power I use. Stay by my side, steady and true, Your presence says more than words could do. When pain takes my voice, your patience is gold, You keep me grounded when memories unfold. Now the birth is behind, but my mind’s not still, My body is aching, my thoughts can ...
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2) More than numbers: The heart of midwifery

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  The Student Midwife As I begin my second year of midwifery training, I am struck by how much my understanding of this profession has grown and how much is still to come. One of the requirements to qualify as a midwife is to facilitate 40 births. It is one of the first things you learn as a student: 40 births, documented and signed, without intervention. No caesareans, no ventouse, no forceps. Just “normal” births. On paper, it sounds straightforward, even neat. But in reality, birth is rarely neat. And sometimes, reducing it all to a tally of numbers can overshadow the true essence of midwifery. Recently, I had an experience that reminded me why we do this work and why numbers will never tell the whole story.     A Change of Role I was originally supposed to be caseloading for a woman I knew. I had prepared for this journey with her, looking forward to being there in an official capacity as her student midwife. But hospital politics stepped in. I was told I could not do...
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1) From Silence to Solace

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  Trigger warning: domestic violence and pregnancy loss   I want to start with a gentle warning. What I’m going to write about isn’t easy. It includes domestic violence and the loss of a baby. Please take care of yourself if you decide to read on. No one really talks about what it’s like to relive trauma while training to be a midwife. People will say, “Oh, it’s a tough course,” or “You’ll see things that will be hard to cope with,” but nothing can prepare you for when your own past collides with what you’re learning and experiencing. It’s one thing to study hard, to keep up with the placements, to practice the skills, it’s another thing completely to realise that the very things you’re preparing to support others through are things you’ve lived through yourself. I’ve always known I wanted to be a midwife. I couldn’t even tell you the exact moment that decision came into my head, it feels like it’s just always been part of me. Maybe it came after having my own children, maybe ...
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