Untitled
2 months ago
I would love to become a midwife, but it is not a short term goal.
How to become a midwife
It made me
proud of myself 
"It was a long road, but I finally realized my dream of becoming a homebirth midwife!"
How I did it: First, I had a couple of homebirths myself. The babies slow your career path down some, but it's alot easier to empathize with the mothers you serve when you've had a baby yourself. Then I became a certified Bradley teacher, and started teaching and attending hospital births as labor support. Then I became a certified doula. The whole time I'm reading and studying everyting I could get my hands on. I actually moved from my home to a state where midwives are legal so I could get a legal apprenticeship. It took me years to find a midwife who would apprentice me, then two years of apprenticeship (which is much less than normal), including weeks of clinicals in Jamaican hospitals. Finally I took my NARM exam and then the state "oral boards", and- miraculously!- I was finally a midwife.
Lessons & tips: Keep your options open by doing MEAC approved coursework if possible and go for your CPM, even if you live in a state where midwifery is still illegal, because things are changing- for better or worse- and more states are recognizing the CPM credential all the time.
Resources: Pathways to Becoming a MIdwife from Midwifery Today and I feel that my time in Jamaica was invaluable.
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Applying...
4 months ago
well, it has been a long road to even finally apply…
I am still deciding between 2 schools, but at the end of the summer I will know which one and be applying for the 2010 school year. Yippee!
Untitled
6 months ago
After being accepted to B of midwifwery in Vic, my partner decided he didn’t want to move. So last year I began a B of Nursing at my local uni and I love it! only 5 years p/t to go!!!
Still a far off dream...
8 months ago
I was checking out the course content for the midwifery course at my uni. Its the first year they’ve run the course – and it makes it a lot easier because previously you would have to become a nurse and specialize in midwifery afterwards.
It looks interesting – still something i’d eventually love to do. Still a far off dream. Im focusing on getting the design degree for now. Maybe i’ll go back to uni to study Midwifery one day.
melmase is trying to get organised
On my way
9 months ago
Have been accepted into a direct entry degree in Midwifery so in three years I will be fully qualified! Can’t wait
Untitled
9 months ago
so i now work where midwives sometimes are, and that’s a nice step up. i also get to be near laboring women, but i am as of yet, nowhere near practicing. since i settled on the cnm life, there are years more to come. this job thing has been way educational though. i know how the system works from the inside even if i don’t agree with it or understand the why of it.
hmm..
21 months ago
i absolutely loved doing clinical on the OB floor. i can’t get over that feeling when you see a woman giving birth. my main goal with my nursing degree is to be a midwife! i have fertility problems and there is a chance i won’t be able to get pregnant. it was the coolest feeling (that sounds kind of dumb) to help deliever babies and help the new mother learn and explore everything.
apprenticeship aka the longest pregnancy in HISTORY
22 months ago
I’m an apprentice midwife in northern Calfornia. I am almost a year into my apprenticeship, and about 4 years into my studies total (I’ve not been studying non-stop) and I’m actively looking at clinical sites to get some “numbers” for my license. Its an amazing journey and I often wonder if I’ll ever reach the finish line. But I’m doing it a day, a birth, at a time and its enough for now.
The beginnings of a dream
23 months ago
I visited my grandmother this afternoon. Her and my sister have re-ignited my dream of becoming a midwife. My grandma was a nurse, and loved it – and my sister is now thinking of becoming a midwife also.
In leaving school, this was one thing i really wanted to do. But living in a small(ish) town, the universities here did not offer anything other than a nursing degree, and then i would have to do ANOTHER year of study to specialize in midwifery. I was NOT about to do that. And there were other things holding me back also. So i took the easier option, and went to study design.
Now im thinking, do i really want to spend the rest of my working life sitting in front of a computer screen? (no)
Tonight i just found out that my local university will be offering a bachelor of midwifery (straight midwifery, no nursing) starting in 2009. I am so excited!! It means i can maybe fulfill my dream after all! =)
It’ll mean i kinda wasted three years of design training, but i can always fall back on it if i (somehow) decide midwifery is not for me after all…..
I dunno. Im a long way off accomplishing this goal right now. Im not even enrolled at university yet. I dont even have a first aid certificate yet! But i wanted to add it to my list ASAP to keep reminding myself of this dream through next years’ hard slog of sitting in front of a computer screen… lol.
