Why study midwifery?

What is midwifery?

The profession of midwifery involves the provision of healthcare during pregnancy and childbirth, as well as dealing with newborn care and postpartum health. They care for mothers and their newborns, and perform a diversity of roles besides the delivery of a child. Midwives must understand the emotional, physical and psychological aspects of having a child, and be able to communicate with women who are experiencing many different pregnancy experiences.

Reasons to study midwifery

1. The skills you’ll learn

Midwives learn a wide variety of skills, many of which are technical and relate to the medical care of pregnant people, newborns, and new parents. These can include examining and monitoring the health of pregnant people, and the progression of their pregnancy, assessing care requirements, writing care schedules, screening tests, and performing antenatal care in hospitals as well as making home visits.

There are also a great many skills which a midwife develops which are less technical and more interpersonal. Skills such as compassion, empathy, the ability to listen, patience, observation, initiative, and decision making.

2. The career you could have

Becoming a midwife in the NHS has a lot of benefits. There are loads of places around the UK where you can be employed which means that if you’d prefer to work near your home, or move to a location of your choice then there should be decent opportunity to do so.

You’ll work a standard 37.5 hour week, which can include shift work, early mornings, nights, evenings, weekends, and bank holidays. However, you’ll also get a generous pension scheme, health service discounts, and 27 days of annual leave. Pay starts at the NHS band 5, which means £28,407 for a newly qualified midwife, with opportunities to progress to positions at band 6 as a team manager and to midwife consultant at bands 8b-8c.

Increasingly, midwife services are moving from hospitals out into local clinics, so you may find that you’ll be scheduled for more work within the community, either at the clinics or in people’s own homes.

NEXT: Not sure what your dream career is? Use our Career Matcher today.

3. All the topics that get covered

Midwives are trained to combine clinical knowledge, medical skills, and interpersonal and cultural understanding. 

During their degree studies, students will cover biological sciences, psychology, pharmacology, non-pharmaceutical approaches, social theory for midwifery practice, research, communication and interpersonal skills, as well as professional, personal, ethical and legal issues.

4. You can study all over the UK

There are midwifery degree courses all over the UK. Around 60 universities offer accredited training courses, and the three top ranked universities in the UK for nursing courses which offer midwifery according to Complete University Guide are:

NEXT: Check out the full nursing league table from Complete University Guide.

5. It’s something you enjoy!

It’s hard to think of something more amazing to experience at work then helping to bring new life into the world, and yet this is exactly what midwives do on a weekly basis. Many of us started our lives in the hands of a caring professional midwife, and the trust that can be built between families and medical teams can last generations. You’ll have a key guiding role in the biggest adventure that most expectant parents will ever experience, and the emotional rewards are huge.

NEXT: Does working as a midwife sound like a fruitful career choice? Start searching for courses now!