Being a student midwife can be a lonely place if you do not seek friendship with other students.
The midwife community should REALLY be a community of friendship and that starts with making long term friendships while you are still a student. Sure, you have your preceptor you can fall back on if you’re able but it is nice to have others in the same season of life as you are.
When you start a friendship with other students you find study partners, you find students struggling with the same thing you are and you find students who excel where you fall short who are there to help you better your skill.
How to find other student midwives
- Find out if your school has a google hangout or facebook group, request access.
- Search other student midwife groups on facebook.
- Find other student midwives on instagram and other platforms.
- Find your local student midwife group.
- Join your local midwives group.
- Follow this blog! You’ll get helpful tips as if I were right there with you to guide you.
Find friends at school
If you’re in school you probably have a class of students you can connect with but if you’re doing the PEP process you may not. As soon as I registered for my school I found the facebook group for all students in that school and requested to be in it. Then, as other students registered for my class we created our own private facebook group.
In this group we were able to learn more about each other, share our struggles and our milestones thus developing deep friendships. These girls were the first to congratulate you when you succeeded and lift you up when you failed.
I’ve heard recently that facebook is on its way out and instagram is the new best thing. That may be the case but all of the current midwifery groups are on facebook and the knowledge in those groups is irreplaceable. Even if you do not enjoy facebook you can spend some time in these midwife and student midwife groups reading about birth, business and other midwife related topics.
Join all the groups! Seriously, you do not want to miss all of the resources instantly gained by facebook groups. Find the local groups, your school groups, the national groups, and then find some more.
Friendship is easy to come by when you find other students with things in common. One of my friends instantly found other students with big families and they all meet up every few months to let their groups hang out while they talk birth.
I follow many, many midwives and students on instagram and see what new and innovative things they are doing. I’ve made a few friendships here that I would have never made otherwise and I value my midwifery sisters so much! On instagram you are able to see their day to day tasks, their birth items they post, how they decorate their office, what their birth bags look like and celebrate their client births along with them.
Plus, you can start your own following if you post about your life as a student for other students to see! Just make sure you are not posting personal information about your clients and get approval from your preceptor and the client if you post a photo with them, their information or their baby in it. You should probably read up on HIPPA while you are at it.
You can follow me at Fort Worth Midwifery and I’ll follow you back! See? There is the start of a beautiful new friendship right there!
Related: Social Media for Student Midwives
Local Students
Find out if there is a local student midwives meeting. Here in DFW all students are welcome to meet at a local birth center every 2nd Monday of the month. Many a friendship have been fostered there. We have our own small workshops, speakers, movie nights and whatever else we fancy. I have made so many connections with the future of midwifery (us!) that way. We are the new generation of midwives and we need to hold each other up. You never know when you might need that future midwife to support you!
If there is not a local student meeting, create it! Even if there is only 2 of you, meet together for coffee, lunch or something and hang out or go over a complication or two. Set a time monthly or every other week to meet and then actually do it.
Local Midwives
Find out if there is a local midwives meeting. Here in DFW our midwives (and students) meet every second Wednesday of the month to discuss current affairs, workshops, and whatever else is on the agenda. Then, after our meetings we have a workshop with the ability to earn CEUs.
This is where you make connections and relationships with the midwives around you. Here, as long as you are a student of a midwife or a midwife sponsors or “vouches” for you, you can attend. If you have a local midwives group go join it! These are the ladies that will support you, back you up and love on you when you need it the most.
Also, if you are not in an apprenticeship yet find a midwife who will sponsor you if your group allows that and go! Network yourself and you just may find a preceptor instantly. It is a lot easier for a midwife to say yes to taking you as her student if she knows you and other midwives respect you.
Related: 10 Things You Should and Should Not Do as A Student Midwife
Follow and Read More
I created this blog so that students would have somebody else in their corner. Right here is a new friendship just for you. Every single blog post was created by listening to the struggles of many students.
I relate to every single blog post and always have at least 3 to 10 other students that I poll for their experiences on that specific post before writing it. Many, many issues you may face as a student are timeless and many midwives before you went through your exact struggles too.
If you are facing struggles as a student you may be interested in finding a preceptor or abuse in student midwifery.
What would you add? How did you make friends as a student midwife?
