r/UKmidwives

Hi, I’m a rising junior in hs and I’ve discovered a growing interest for becoming a midwife. After doing research I learned it takes 6-8 years to become one here in the USA, and for my situation that wouldn’t be ideal as I would like to enter the workforce sooner. Further on after doing some more digging, I found that I can directly study a bachelors midwife degree in the UK.
Now I greatly want to do this route but I understand that there would be a few cons. For example; I would not be able to apply my UK degree back in the states and that would somewhat leave me at a dead end upon returning to the US. Therefore, Would this really be worth it? Like from an experienced MW natives perspective? Does it sound like too much of a risk for me to take? What hurdles are there in the uk Midwife career that arent spoken about enough? Was your degree everything you thought it would be? The nations average tuition is around 60-80kUSD for an international student. Pretty reasonable, and on terms of my Return on College Investment it would take me awhile to surpass. But from the precise degree and less years, I can get into the workforce sooner. So Id love to hear yalls opinion, thank you .

Hi there, I've never had a colleague that I have been able to discuss the complex feeling of being a midwife, experiencing a miscarriage and then returning back to midwifery.

I'm wondering whether there are any midwives out there that have also experienced this, and what you learnt, what wisdom you would pass on to the next person, and whether it affected you deeply, or not.

My personal experience was honestly harrowing, but I think that's also because I had multiple other life factors going on.

I recently had an event at work (6 years post miscarriage now) that has caused me to discontinue working for 4 weeks, be diagnosed with PTSD and I basically wasn't functioning for the first week. Not eating, not talking, not moving, nothing.

Pt asked about miso and what it feels like, and unlike ever in my career, where I would typically say "others have stated this is their experience" I said "oh I've experienced it and it feels like this" .... unfortunately pts mother progressively, once realising I too had had a loss, asked a million questions about my loss. A lot of questions that, even if I hadn't been in a delivery suite would have been very confronting. I was there intrapartum and post, and then something in my brain shut down from the end of the shift onwards.

I am of course now seeking both psychological therapy as well as counselling, but this feeling of being surrounded by the thing that was so horrible to me, which also comes with so many very intense happy/sad/confusing emotions regardless of the outcome... I don't know, I thought this might be a place I'd be able to reach out to to get some camaraderie or understanding as I know there will be other midwives out there that have too, experienced this very specific kind of pain where some days you forget about it and others really feel like you literally couldn't be in a more traumatising situation if you tried.

Note: For most of my career about 1 year post miscarriage onwards, I've managed to feel fairly able to disconnect the two things (work and personal experiences). But because it was persistently dragged back even when I was physically trying to remove myself from the situation, I lost that control.

Hi, I’m a hospital midwife who has just been fitted for Phonak hearing aids for mild bilateral hearing loss. Still coming to terms with this, one of my initial concerns is hearing subtle neonatal heart murmurs with my paediatric Littmann, worried that I could miss something. Are any practising midwives here using hearing aids? Have you found a stethoscope or setup that works well?

Hello everyone!

Im a newly qualified midwife from greece and Im seriously considering moving to Scotland to work in the NHS.

One of the main reasons I'm interested is because I have heard that midwives in Scotland have a hihg level of autonomy and play a central role in maternity care.

Id love to hear from midwives or anyone working in healthcare who live and work in Scotland.

Thank you so much!

Hello everyone, I know the title itself sounds horrible, but I literally feel like I have no one to turn to. Even now, I'm very nervous about having to type this. There is a big degree of shame, but it's only for the benefit of moving forward once I get it out there. So bare with me guys.

I qualified in 2023 (Began my journey in 2020 around COVID time), and due to the Direct Entry Scheme, I was placed in a Sister Trust that I didn't train in 2024. But I was optimistic as I could gain new knowledge in a new environment. The preceptorship program in this Trust is 12 months (based in England). My anxiety started to develop as I knew no one and truly wasn't expected to be here. I am now aware that it is very common at that stage, and some drop out. At this trust, it is bigger and busier than my previous trust, so I experienced culture shock. I wanted to go back to my old Trust so bad, but there were no vacancies, and their services will stop, forcing staff to find a job elsewhere.

Life started to become complicated, and with the struggle of trying to find my footing at work (also finishing late many times and travelling over an hour to get back home), I stopped doing my hobbies, took no joy in doing anything, sleeping longer, chores in the home were reducing, staying in bed longer, cried more and had this horrible sense of dread. Band 7s were aware of this, but I hit my breaking point in January last year and had to have mental sick leave for 3-4 months while my preceptorship was still ongoing. I then developed chronic Procrastination and even struggle to complete E-learning as I'm always feeling overwhelmed.

Within 2025, 3 very important people in my life all died and had to leave a relationship of 7+ years within the year, taking a massive hit on my mental health, all the while, still trying to find my footing. I have reached out, and they have tried to support, but it was very minimal. I tried to forbear it, but I took another mental sick leave in December 2025 as it was piling up and still finishing 2 hours late. On both occasions, I sought CBT therapy. It was a temporary fix.

3 Months ago, my dad was murdered, but I tried to push through, only taking a week of bereavement (it's truly not enough).

Fast forward to now, there are 2 types of competencies remaining, but as I have been sick with the flu, this Sickness monitoring has triggered. I have used one Annual leave to try and not trigger further, but as I am still sick, it moved on anyway. My preceptorship was mentioned during the phone discussion, and the Matron was not very understanding, even though she is aware of what had happened, but she does not know I have been diagnosed with depression and anxiety not medicated. But I also thought in the back of my mind, this is temporary, and I guess you can say I was in denial of having these things. So I carried on not telling anyone.

In her words, I have to "move mountains and come in unpaid to get them signed off, as now you're in the disciplinary stage of your preceptorship. If you don't get them signed off within a certain amount of time (she will send an email), I'm afraid you will lose your job. I know this ain't the best time to talk about this, as you are sick and I can hear you are struggling to talk, but I have to warn you" Mind you, I JUST rotated back to Labour ward with this Matron, previous Matron in the postnatal ward was VERY understanding and allowed me time.

I am extremely embarrassed and ashamed as I was told by the same Matron that "I'm the only one that's taken this long" and I'm also embarrassed that a lot of the people who started at the same time as me have finished theirs and they think I finished too...

After the phone conversation, I'm not sure how to explain this, but that sense of dread came back, worried sick, I felt myself slipping back, on edge, etc. In that moment of panic, I'm not sure if I made the right decision, but I made an appointment with my GP, and he told me he would put me back on CBT therapy, that I shouldnt be medicated yet and is happy to sign me off to not go to work for a month as he noticed I have been going through with depression and anxiety but there was no follow up.

What I'm concerned about is I'm currently on Sickness monitoring (went from informal to now formal stage, still with the flu), got an approved not fit to work note for a month, but haven't given it yet as I'm terrified, and now I'm told I have limited time to get my competencies signed off. I spoke with a trusted colleague who has been working for 20 years. She read and listened to my two-part rant and said she would re-listen and get back to me, but she hasn't yet. I don't want to bother her.

I'm not looking for pity at all. I need some direction so I can move forward. I was going to use the month off to attend CBT therapy and catch up on E-Learning, but since the Matron stated I have limited time. I don't know what to do.

I do apologise for this long-winded read. I'm literally at my wits' end with no one to turn to, and I have 2 days until I have to update them on my health and 3 days until they expect me to go back to work. But I appreciate those who took the time to read.

Hello everyone, I'm currently undertaking a study into the medicalisation of childbirth as part of my MSc in Health Research.

The study would involve an interview about your experiences of maternity care currently. If you're a midwife and interested in taking part or would like some more information, please email me at K.E.Leslie-2015@hull.ac.uk.

If you know anyone else that may be interested, please pass this on to them. Thank you so much!