Student Midwife Life | Week 5

I had a terrifying realisation today that it’s just 4 weeks until our OSCE and our first placement shifts – I can’t believe I will be out in the hospital working as a student midwife!

This week has been quite a busy one again, and we’ve learnt some really interesting things. 

Monday was split into two lectures. The first covered the history of midwifery, which was fascinating! It was so interesting to hear how the profession came about, and how medicalisation came into it. We’re almost heading back in some respects now, with a more holistic approach to maternity care overall, which can only be a good thing! In the afternoon we covered the NMC (nursing and midwifery council) code, and how we apply that in practice, and a little about confidentiality. 

I loved Tuesday. The morning was all about neonatal resuscitation, which was incredibly tough in some places, but such a valuable skill to learn. After lunch we talked about postnatal care, and what we look for in the mother and newborn baby checks after birth. There’s a lot to remember there!

Wednesday and Thursday were private study days, and I spent some time finishing off my e-learning modules and writing up some work that we had been set on Monday, around the NMC Code and applying that to a real life scenario.

On Friday we had a breastfeeding day. There was an interactive workshop about the benefits and barriers of breastfeeding, some DVD’s about positioning and expressing, and then we got into pairs to have a go at ‘teaching’ each other to position and attach a baby to the breast, using our dolls and knitted boobs 😉 

You can read about my week 4 experience here, and I’ll be back next weekend with another update – we are covering A LOT next week!