What Its Like To Be A Student Midwife - Part 1

I haven't blogged about my education and current course of training yet so I thought today would be a great place to start. After graduating high school through home school, and completing a year at Bible/missionary college, I have taken the plunge to learning the skills of a traditional midwife. No, I don't paint the pregnant woman's stomach, sing kum-ba-yah or any other hippy dippy voo doo type of thing. And no, I don't wear scrubs and go from room to room on the maternity ward of some big hospital monitoring blood pressure. Instead, I got to make a drawing today!

Drawing by Me!

What's a midwife? And what's a student midwife? And why did I did draw this today? And what is it a picture of? You may have many questions. Here, let me answer some for you.
A midwife is not a doctor and a doctor (not even an OB/GYN) is a midwife. A midwife is a skilled, highly trained and, traditionally, an in-home care provider for pregnant and laboring women. Her practice and demeanor may be rigid and professional, or relaxed and personable, or any mixture thereof. Midwives employ non-invasive, and primarily drug-free, procedures to provide prenatal care, attendance and suitable help during labor and birthing, and postpartum evaluations. Traditionally, midwives have provided care and attended births at in-home settings, but more and more midwives (almost exclusively certified nurse midwives) are attending births at birthing centers and hospitals.

There are two kinds of midwife. The certified nurse midwife is an individual who completed pre-med, trained as a nurse, and went to graduate school for midwifery. The certified professional midwife, or lay midwife, is an individual who completed traditional midwifery courses, trained as an apprentice midwife, and fulfills all the requirements of a CPM as laid out by the National Alliance of Registered Midwives (NARM).

Well, I guess there are three kinds of midwife. The student midwife is an interesting breed all her own. She most likely has no idea what she's doing, will be in a new bracket of midwife skill and knowledge within weeks, and will be studying by whatever means are available to her. Seriously. Opportunities for learning midwifery can be varied and far between, and can be as simple as talking to a new mom who just experienced birthing for the first time, or as time consuming (and nauseating) as reading a book about cesarean prevention with a ghastly title like "Silent Knife" (its good information though, and I do recommend it).

The path of student midwife that I am on consists of taking midwifery courses by correspondence, so I am governing my studies and learning at home. My "teacher" sends me modules each month for me to complete. Each core curriculum module has requirements that are mostly based around the sciences (whodathunkit). That's why today I drew an anatomical view of the female pelvis. I'm still in the "book learning" stage of being a student midwife but I am doing my best to truck along and get it done so I can start gaining more experience. Which looks like 1-3 hours of coursework a day, depending on what my other responsibilities to my family require.

Are you pregnant or trying to get pregnant and would like to look into meeting a few midwives in your area to take care of your needs? Citizens for Midwifery is a great resource to educate and direct you. Check out their website here.

Are you interested in pursuing midwifery as a ministry or career opportunity, or maybe to gain more experience in natural woman's health? These sites helped me move out in the right direction: NARM, Midwifery Institute of America, and Michigan School of Traditional Midwifery.

Have you ever considered midwifery or having a midwife attend your birth? What has been your exposure to and experience with midwives? Do you think my drawing is any good? ;)