ALT-1 Becoming an Apprentice Midwife
You've always had an interest in labor and birth. You get that tingly feeling from head to toe when your friend, neighbor, or co-worker has a baby. You thrive in birth stories and watch all the shows like Birth Day, House of Babies, and A Baby Story. You've thought about becoming a nurse so that you can work with laboring moms, but the hours are long and tedious. You don't want to go to school to be an OBGYN because all you want to do is work with pregnant moms, not all the other stuff. And, let's face it, school is really expensive and exhaustive. So, you do a bit of research and you decide on the perfect career, midwifery.
Is midwifery the perfect career? Well, it does allow you to work with laboring moms. And, it does provide that head to toe tingly feeling when babies emerge peacefully from the womb, but is that all there is to midwifery? Absolutely not. To be a midwife, one must have an endless dedication to the profession. You will be conducting prenatal appointments, dealing with prenatal issues, advising clients about nutritional matters, overall lifestyle changes, taking urine tests, blood pressures, finger sticks, listening to fetal heart tones, palpating bellies, determining fetal position, and recommending a variety of things depending on the families' needs. If you are working with a home-birth midwife, you will be traveling to prenatals, births, and postpartum exams. You will put in countless hours of your personal time. Nursing is easy compared to midwifery, folks. Nurses have shifts. Midwives don't. You can attend a 30 minute birth or a 30 hour birth. Are you prepared to really put your life on hold or your other jobs or interests on hold while you really dedicate yourself to a midwifery career?
Midwifery is one career where the idea doesn't match the reality. If you think being a midwife is the easy way or the less demanding way to bask in the glow of pregnant and laboring moms, you definitely need a cup of joe to wake up. Midwifery is demanding, yet fabulous at the same time. My intention is not to make midwifery seem uninviting, but if you want to be an apprentice midwife, you have to make some sacrifices. You should really sit down and evaluate the reason you want to be a midwife. Is it because you think it'd be neat? Well, it is until you have that baby who needs to be resuscitated. Is it because you want to help women have a more natural, positive birth experience in the comfort of her home? That is fabulous until she transports in because she wants an epidural and your expectations are now crushed. Many people start on the path to midwifery and never finish because the idea doesn't match the reality. It is hard work to be a good midwife and you must determine if this is really your life's work. If it isn't, you'll be the drop out. If it is, you'll excel and you'll realize after a 30 hour birth that this is what it's all about.
Becoming an apprentice midwife is not something to be taken lightly. It isn't for everyone. And it may or may not be for you. Do your research, do it well, and decide if this demanding lifestyle is one that you want to embark on. If it is, then congratulations, you have just entered one of the best professions in the world. If it isn't, that is okay too.
