Are You a Student Midwife? Follow these 10 Tips for Succeeding in Your Profession

Midwives are recognized through their skill and competence — an aspect that very well elucidates the vitality of performing well in this profession.

The term “Midwifery” is, in fact, old English, which means caring for the woman in the labor room. However, over time, midwives have found newer roles in the fields of newborn care, obstetrics, and women’s overall reproductive health.

Students who enroll for midwifery courses often need to understand that their job is critical and requires utmost patience and exceptional skillset. And those are the things that don’t come easy, or do they?

Practicing and learning a skill means devoting yourself entirely to it.

But with a hectic schedule to handle and a shift job that always keeps you on your toes, it is challenging to keep the focus intact.

So, as students of a profession that handles probably the most crucial aspect of human lives, you must be equipped with the knowledge to progress seamlessly.

The Top 10 Tips for Midwifery Students

Skillsets that a midwife requires in her career and ways to better them relate to both the domains of our mind — the cognitive and the affective.

Cognitive domain – Concerned with intellectual learning, mental skills, and knowledge acquisition

Affective domain – Concerned with attitudes, feelings, and emotions

The following tips reflect upon improving the cognitive and affective skillsets — to help you become the better version of yourself, of course.

I’ve specifically segregated the tips into two portions, with one of them addressing the cognitive skillsets while the other expanding on the improvement of the affective domain.

Note: Their tips might sound cliche to some, but here’s the thing- there’s no shortcut to a successful career. also, there’s no rocket science to get yourself rewarded throughout your profession. you’d face challenging times, and you’d only cope with them by acknowledging the most preferred practices around-  and these practices, my friend, are no magic wands. so, if you’re looking for timesavers, this might not be a suitable read for you.

The Cognitive Domain

1. Be Creative

As opposed to common beliefs, creativity is a highly desirable facet in this profession. It is a skill midwives must develop in themselves to become better in their profession.

“Every birth is different”, as is often quoted by many midwives — means you will have to do something different each time you have a to-be-mother on board.

Creativity in your field would definitely need answers to the issues mentioned below:

• Practicing creativity skills in terms of how you can make the patient feel better.
• How can you keep your interests high, each time doing the same work which is slightly different from the previous case you handled?
• What can you do to improve the safety of the mother and the child?

2. Be Accurate in Your Evaluation

Evaluating a situation is not only the forte of surgeons and doctors. It should also be the strength of every midwife- “gauging the situation merely by looking at it” can change a lot around.

Frankly, if you can’t evaluate well, you can be in soup every time you enter the labour room.

So, what can you do to learn evaluation skills?

The most straightforward way to develop evaluation skills is merely by studying records you can lay your hands on. It could be old record books, old and experienced midwives, even doctors who can advise you what subtle signs lead to what in a patient.

Secondly, keep a cool head to improve your observational skills (Extremely important).

3. Analyze Appropriately

Always remember, evaluating a patient is not enough, for your job also requires you to correctly analyze the reports.

Here’s what you should do to improve upon that:

• Once you have evaluated the tell-tale signs, go back to the best knowledge source. Based on that, you have to inform yourself about what or how you must analyze in a given circumstance.
• If you are finding abnormalities that are not covered in your field, reach out to people who can help you.
• Try to complete your assignments and learn from them.

4. Understand Concepts

Try understanding what you need to know. Almost always, knowledge in any field involves going through the most apparent and not-so-obvious concepts.

Try reading about the discreet concepts since even though your regular work might revolve around normal births, there are chances once in a while, you would experience something unconventional.

It is here that your expertise would be tested, and your skills as a midwife would be recognised.

5. Applying Those Concepts

The challenge does not end if you have gobbled up all the concepts written in your books and journals. It is such a profession where practicing regularly helps you progress swiftly.

What you practice, you remember, what you don’t, you might forget.

So, as a student, try to find out the best ways to practice even the rarer of the rare concepts you’ve come across.

A simple way is to practice concepts visually. Try watching videos and learning from typical records distinctly.

6. Remember Everything You Learn Through the Day

Now, this is a challenge. The best way to keep track of what you have learned is by keeping visual notes of daily sessions.

Try to prepare a flowchart diagram where you could mention the important everyday lessons in a word or two.

Try linking the concepts taught in these lessons and form perhaps a cluster of ideas on the paper. Believe me, it helps.

The Affective Domain

7. Develop Values and Hold onto Them

Try adapting to some of the most concrete values associated with your professional career. These possibly include:

• Punctuality
• Genuineness
• Compassion
• Treating nervous young mothers with kindness
•  Gentleness

Try inculcating some of these values, and no matter how your life is treating you at a certain stage, do not deviate from them.

8. Work on Organisational Abilities

Having strong organizing abilities is a must in this profession. It is quite an unpredictable job, and if you do not know how to organize well, you are sure to suffer setbacks.

From the labor table to collaborating with the doctors and the patient, the right organization can well and truly make you successful in this profession.

• A straightforward way to learn organization skills is by being aware of your duties and others’ duties at a certain time.
• Once you are aware, you would know what is expected out of you in a certain situation.
• Whether at home or in the office, try practicing organizational skills as a student by organizing something — it could just be your field book alone.

9. Value Everything

Do not demean or undervalue facets associated with your field or otherwise. Remember, every human, every lesson, and every important message matters.

10. Inculcate These Standard Skills

• Practice effective communication.
• Incorporate cultural humility
• Spread awareness about diseases and health
• Be positive and optimistic

Additionally, if you can,

• Be active and not sluggish.
• Become a kind and benevolent soul,
• Be a detail-oriented person,
• Try being skillful in knowing what would work when can make you more efficient as a midwife.

Managing more than one patient at one time can indeed create a lot of confusion; hence building up on your focus through effective practices like meditation, walking, and practicing focus can solve many things.

Note: Always remember, knowing which patient needs ibuprofen,  and which needs the oxygen mask and delivering or using the right stuff at the right time can save lives.  

Liked what you read? Well, I try my best to keep things as simple as I can. I’m building a knowledge base for nursing and midwifery students. To that end, I’d say be sure to check out these articles. I believe they’ll suit right to your needs.