We’ve looked at nurses and vet nurses, but another one of our Healthcare Heroes are midwifes. who look after new mothers and bring life into the world. A very demanding job, midwifery isn’t purely about birthing babies and looking after new mothers, but the care leading up to, and post birth.

Let’s look at the profession of midwifery and whether this job may be your calling.

What general duties does a midwife perform?

The first thing you may be thinking if you’ve considered studying midwifery is what a day looks like in this profession. Midwives are involved in a range of tasks that provide prenatal care and childbirth assistance. During their shift, they also monitor their patients in labour by checking vital signs, monitoring contractions, and performing physical examinations. According to Pregnancy, Birth & Baby, during pregnancy some tasks performed by midwives include:

• Checking a baby’s health, growth, and position
• Advising or helping with hospital bookings, routine checks, and tests
• Giving out advice and support
• Helping prepare a woman for labour and birth

Some of the duties of a midwife during labour and birth include:

• Giving out information, encouragement, and emotional support
• Monitoring progress and suggesting strategies to help with labour
• Monitoring the baby’s heartbeat and other signs
• Offering pain relief or arranging for a doctor to administer it
• Arranging extra medical help if needed

Once a baby has been born, midwives assist with:

• Helping to breastfeed and settle the new baby
• Showing the new mother how to bathe the baby and change a nappy
• Administering or organising a doctor to provide pain relief if needed
• Carrying out routine health tests such as newborn screening

While this isn’t a comprehensive list, these are just some of the tasks midwives will find themselves completing each shift.

What are some of the challenges involved with midwifery?

While it can be a very rewarding career, midwifery comes with its own set of challenges – just like any other job would. Some of these challenges may involve:

Irregular schedule and fatigue - Much like other frontline workers, a midwife’s roster is constantly rotating between day, afternoon, and night shifts, which puts a strain on sleeping patterns and social lives. With burnout and fatigue a growing issue within healthcare workers, it’s quite common for midwives to experience these issues, as they spend long shifts on their feet with limited breaks.

Difficult birthing experiences – Midwives working on the frontline see the best and worst of humanity. In birthing suites, emotions are often heightened as a spectrum of feelings from fear to joy to frustration and everything in between spill out from mums-to-be as well as partners present. Anything goes in the birthing suite so it’s important to be prepared for a range of scenarios. Whether the people in the birthing suite are being difficult or the new mother is struggling with the birthing process, midwives need to be prepared to deal with any situation that is thrown at them during the birth. Maternal Child Health Nurse Jenny Stevens* says that she debriefs with colleagues after difficult situations. “It’s valuable to find a colleague with similar values to you, so you can feel safe in sharing and having each other’s backs,” she advises.

Empathy and coping skills - One of the hardest things a midwife will have to deal with is stillbirths. Midwives should approach any conversation with the parents of a stillborn baby in a sensitive, dignified way. This involves maintaining privacy and talking to parents in an empathetic manner. These conversations can be difficult to have – especially when the midwife has formed a close bond with their patient. When it comes to patient empathy, Jenny says know that you can’t fix everything. “It’s complex working with people and families. Some days it’s hard to know where to even start, but the best thing I can do for families – particularly more in these uncertain times – is to listen and validate.” It’s important to reach out to someone if you are struggling to cope when you find yourself in these situations. Speak to your colleagues or reach out to a professional service if you find yourself not coping.

Thinking fast and keeping a cool head – With challenges popping up left, right and centre, keeping a cool head is essential for midwives. As things can go wrong in the blink of an eye, thinking fast and decision-making skills are also crucial. Each shift you work will give you more and more experience you need to cope with some of these decisions as well as keep your cool.

Tips for new midwives

Has midwifery been a career you’ve always wanted to go into? Or perhaps you’ve worked in healthcare, have worked alongside midwives, and think the role is suited to you. “One of the best things about my role is being part of a team of passionate professionals as well as being privy to each family’s journey on some level,” Jenny says.

While this is an extremely rewarding role, it’s important to investigate the role in detail before applying to study for the course. It’s not a role for the light-hearted and is a full-on profession.

If you are wanting to pursue a career in midwifery, here are some things to consider:

• Do your research – and lots of it! Research everything you can about the role before you make any decisions and reach out to midwives who will be able to give you a more personalised experience on what the career pathway looks like and whether it’s right for you.
• Consider how you’d cope under large amounts of stress, as well as how you would deal with giving bad news and grieving families. As this is an important part of the job, you need to know that you have the mental strength to cope with this.
• Are you a bit squeamish? If so, midwifery may not be the job for you! Births aren’t how they’re portrayed in movies and contain lots of blood and other bodily fluids, including sometimes even faeces and vomit. If the thought of all that makes your stomach churn, it might not be the right career path for you.
• Are you a sociable person? Midwifery will have you dealing with women from all kinds of different backgrounds and walks of life. Creating a rapport with them to ensure their birthing process is as smooth as possible is an extremely important aspect of a midwife’s job.

Delivering babies and making people parents is one of the most rewarding jobs in the world, but with it comes a whole lot of challenges and difficulties including dealing with grief and loss. If you think you have what it takes to become a midwife, why not explore the career pathway? Biz Care will be here for you when you graduate and are looking for your new uniform!

*Name has been changed for privacy reasons.