Becoming a midwife is a goal many have but it is not always attainable. I encourage you to do the math and add up what it will cost to be a student midwife before you start your apprenticeship and schooling.
The biggest hinderance for many prospective midwives is the cost.
Other reasons you might not be able to start or finish your apprenticeship is family, transportation, your social life, maturity, the on call life, your location, your health, a hostile atmosphere, bullying and unexpected emergencies.
This life style is not for everyone. Just because you saw a beautiful video of a stunning water birth online where everything went right does not mean that that is what happens every time. As a midwife you are responsible for two, possibly three lives. At times there is a fine line between life and death. Midwifery is work not just catching babies.
Cost
It takes money to become a midwife. Few scholarships are offered for academics and even fewer schools accept government funding such as FASFA. There are a couple of schools who do accept FASFA that you can look into.
Besides the cost to attend school you also have the cost of books, internet, phone, gas, child care and more in what does it cost to be a student midwife.
Most apprenticeships are full time and you work many, many weird hours when you are called to a birth. Birth isn’t a 9 to 5 job. You might be at a birth for minutes before baby is born or 30 hours with minimal sleep. This means that you can not exactly work another 9 to 5 job to support yourself. There are ways to supplement your income as a student ranging from the occasional $50 here and there to having supplemental secondary income. There are students that make it work so be realistic. I’ve known single moms who apprentice full time that are able to supplement their income and finish school and families with a working partner who can not make this life work. Be realistic about your costs.
Family
Let me tell you from personal experience, having a family and being an apprentice is hard. Hard ya’ll. It can be done and is done but not everyone can handle it.
I birthed my daughter in my second year of apprenticing and it was the roughest season. I was able to take 6 months off of apprenticing – which is not usual. Most students who end up pregnant in their apprenticeships either quit and start all over when their kids are grown or never come back to midwifery. Or they come back 6 to 12 weeks later and keep going.
My daughter would not take a bottle for over a year. That meant any time that I was gone for longer than 3 hours, which was every single time I was gone, she would scream and refuse to eat more than 1 sip. The reality is that most students who have young children or become pregnant can not handle having young kids and consistently being away from them for 8 to 42 hours at a birth.
You also have to have around the clock childcare available at a moments notice.
This includes someone to pick the kids up from school.
This also includes young, newly married couples who want to enjoy each other for a bit. I have seen apprentices leave as soon as they came because they or their spouse could not handle the life away from each other.
Lastly, the 16-23 year old who has never been away from their parents and have to relocate to apprentice do not always know what they are getting into. Apprentices have quit due to being home sick. If you know that you will be home sick you might try something else related or unrelated to the birth world before deciding to continue as a midwifery student.
Transportation
You need reliable transportation, period. Being on call is a commitment and if you are called and you cannot come more than a handful of times you will not make it far. You can read more about transportation in what it costs to be a student midwife.
The on call life
Being on call 24/7 is not easy. You miss important things. You miss birthdays, Christmas, graduations, funerals, even milestones in your children’s lives. The on call life means that you miss sleep and meals if you do not plan ahead. Fatigue is huge in midwifery.
Now, some preceptors are more understanding than others and you need to talk about time off when you interview your prospective preceptor. I’ve had very understanding preceptors that have let me take 2 week vacations with my family, ask off for a few weddings, etc. but I’ve also missed my kids birthday parties, weddings, church, doctor’s appointments, girls night out with friends and other events to be called to a birth or do a 2 day postpartum visit with my preceptor.
Maturity and Age
Most programs have a required minimum age before you can graduate or even start their program, a few do not. If you are young, look into many programs to see what the minimum age limit is and choose one of those or hold off until you are of age. In the meantime, you could study everything birth related to be ahead of the game, or do other birth related jobs.
Lack of maturity will hinder your goal to becoming a midwife. You are seeing and hearing very personal information about a lot of clients including their sexual abuse, history of STIs, miscarriages and funky smells in their vaginas. You’re also learning how to examine a client including vaginal exams, seeing them naked, seeing a baby being born out of a vagina and much else that I am missing.
If you are not mature you will be let go from your apprenticeship. Lack of maturity is a liability to the supervising midwife.
Social life, Drinking and Partying
Your social life will not be the same after entering an apprenticeship as before. There are different degrees to this. You might only go out once a month to go see a movie. At that point, your social life might not change much. Or, you might be the person who goes out partying and drinking every weekend. At that point, your life will change drastically. Plan accordingly.
This also means that you might have a date night or two with your spouse interrupted or girls night out canceled. That happens too.
This also means that your social life might not change much like mine. You keep going out as often as you did before but instead of taking 1 car for the whole family you bring 2 with a set of scrubs ready to leave at a moments notice.
As you can see, these are important things to consider when you consider the life of a student midwife. Many of these things transfer into the life of a midwife as well. Look for what can hinder your goal of becoming a midwife pt. 2 coming soon! You will read what other obstacles you may face.
Did you find this list helpful?
Does it change the preconceived ideas you have about being a student midwife?
