Do you enjoy your job?

Do I enjoy my job? The first question I get asked when people find out that I'm a student midwife. The answer sometimes varies in length and breadth, but the general gist is, yes - most of the time.

Do I love my job when I finish a day on the Birthing Unit at 10.30pm instead of 8.30 pm because I've had a delivery right on handover, and then ran to an emergency buzzer? No I don't.

Do I love my job when I volunteer to help in the Assessment Unit because the ward is overrun by women with complex needs who have been waiting forever, because the midwives are understaffed and overworked. Then missing a delivery because I'm still stuck there 7 hours later. Of course I don't.

Do I love my job when I've slogged all day, supporting fantastic women, only for them to need an assisted delivery or have a third degree tear? Absolutely not.

Do I love my job when we have poorly women or women who've lost their babies? No. No. No.

Do I love my job when I'm washing the amniotic fluid/blood/poo of my arms and legs in the shower at the end of a shift?….. Do I even need to answer this one?

The list goes on.

Do I love my job when I don't get to eat until 4pm? No.

Do I love my job when I don't have time to sit with a woman and talk through things? No.

Do I love my job when I don't get to know my women and their family? No.

Do I love my job when I'm waking up at 6am for 3 long days in a row? No.

No. No. No. No. No.

This blog post may make you think… oh my god. If she hates her job so much, why does she carry on doing it? But I think what speaks volumes about how amazing my job is, is the fact that I keep getting up and going to work, in spite of all these things.

There are 100 times more things that I love about my job. Moments that anyone who's not a midwife will never understand. Such as….

The moment you deliver a baby onto Mum's chest and the look in her eyes that says - I did it!

The look you share with the midwife, when you both know a woman's close to delivering.

When women look for you in a room to support them, when they need you.

The laughter and talking once baby is here and watching their faces light up when their baby yawns or feeds or sneezes or poos. Watching them fall in love with their little life.

Sitting down with a cup of tea after a beautiful delivery.

Getting sweet notes or cards from parents.

Hearing lovely feedback from parents and mentors.

And when people ask me…. what do you do?


Do I love my job? Most of the time.

Is it worth it? Absolutely.

Save the student midwife: commonly used abbreviations...

Hey guys, sorry it's been a little while. Thought I'd come back with a short but useful post, something that I wish I'd had before I started. Abbreviations are an unavoidable part of midwifery but it is something you pick up over time! Enjoy….

PV = Per Vagina
PR = Per Rectum
PO = Per Oral
SFD = Small for dates
LFD = Large for dates
GDM = Gestational Diabetes Mellitus
IDDM = Insulin Dependent Diabetes Mellitus
VTE = Venous Thrombo-Embolism
Multip = Multiparous (2nd or subsequent pregnancy)
Primip = Primigravida (first pregnancy)
USS = Ultrasound Scan
TA = Transabdominal
TV = Transvaginal
Subcut = Subcutaneous (under the skin)
VE = Vaginal Examination
NAD = Nothing abnormal detected
PP = Presenting Part
Ceph = Cephalic (head first)
OA = Occipito Anterior
OP = Occipito Posterior
SVD = Spontaneous Vertex Delivery
NVD = Normal Vaginal Delivery
LSCS = Lower Segment Caesarean Section
ECV = External Cephalic Version
FBC = Full Blood Count
Hx = History
H/o = History of
IOL = Induction of Labour
Cx = Cervix
TOP = Termination of Pregnancy
SFH = Symphisis Fundal Height
EBL = Estimated Blood Loss
FHHR = Fetal Heart Heard Regular
LMP = Last Menstrual Period
SROM = Spontaneous Rupture of Membranes
ARM = Artificial Rupture of Membranes
PROM = Premature rupture of membranes/Prolonged rupture of membranes/Preterm rupture of membranes
VBAC = Vaginal Birth after Caesarean
APH = Antepartum Haemorrhage
PPH = Postpartum Haemorrhage
CCT = Controlled Cord Traction
DVT = Deep Vein Thrombosis
EDD = Estimated Date of Delivery
FMF = Fetal Movements Felt
GA = General Anaesthetic
IM = Intra-muscular
IV = Intra-venous
IVI = Intra-venous Infusion
MSU = Midstream Specimen of Urine


This is all I can come up with off the top of my head. Be careful how you use them, some of these are considered "official" abbreviations and others are more slang words used by midwives, it's also very trust dependent. Be wary if you use abbreviations during documentation, always check with your mentors first as sometimes abbreviations are inappropriate. But hopefully this will allow some of you to make sense of conversations or documents that you read!

Love N x

10 deliveries later I'm back in the land of non-midwifery

Good evening everyone, hope your Monday has been a productive one!

It feels like ages since I've written in this blog, and on reflection it has been ages. Honestly, with the midwifery course, one week blurs into the next and before you know it, you're in placement and then off placement and then it's Christmas and then it's not! Time sure flies when you're having fun and by fun I mean you've got an overrun and understaffed labour ward and a tea and coffee shortage.

It's not all bad, but there's never a dull moment in maternity. In December I went to Labour Ward, I had a good time and felt positive about it at the end, however the beginning of it was a big adaptation for me. I had only ever experienced low risk birth and deliveries and Labour Ward made me feel as if the midwives had no faith in their women, and I just wanted to rip the CTG monitors off of the wall, pop them on a birthing ball and massage them with some Clary Sage. But midwifery isn't always that clear cut.

I came round eventually to the labour ward midwife's way of life, and the adrenaline and scrubs that came with it; I really did find my feet and got lovely feedback from my mentors and women and got 9 deliveries, making my total 10. Only 30 to go (internal scream).

After labour ward I headed for the neonatal unit. The buzz of delivery suite compared to the NICU would mean I would be so bored - at least that's what I was told, and that's what I prepared myself for, how wrong I was…. shouldn't I have learnt by now to never underestimate or try to predict anything on this course?!

I wasn't expecting to like NICU, but I did, I enjoyed myself hugely and found the work so rewarding. I am very passionate about continuity of care, and I think that's probably one of the reasons I enjoyed NICU so much. I knew the babies, I knew the parents and they knew me, and we built up good, trusting relationships.

Looking after individual babies may not be as thrilling as delivering a baby but when you're in a room with 6 special care babies, you do more exercise silencing sats monitors than I've ever done on the ward, I genuinely heard the alarms in the shower when I got home.

It probably helped that the ward was rammed, the unit was full, and was often closed to new admissions when I arrived on shift. But all of our babies were in it for the long-haul and weren't going anywhere fast, so we cracked on and carried on growing and warming and feeding these precious little ones.

I developed my confidence quite quickly, despite the fact I was scared of how small they were at first, but prems are so feisty they always remind you how resilient and strong they are, and they all know exactly what they want. For the majority of my placement I was autonomous, I had to be, they needed my help and I was glad I could support them. I think that's probably what made the placement so fulfilling for me, I really feel I made a difference there, and I got cards from Mums when I left thanking me for my care.

I wish I hadn't allowed people to cloud my judgement of non-midwifery placements, particularly NICU, these placements have truly affected and improved my practice and I have learnt so much from my experiences. I honestly believe you just have to embrace what this course throws at you, everyone's experience and development and journey is different and midwifery will just carry you through the wildest ride of your life.

N x