They're so cute. There's nothing more incredible than the creation and birth of
new life and if you're a mother or expecting mother you'll know there's one
person you can't do it without, your midwife. Midwives ensure that both mum
and baby are healthy and safe right from conception all the way through to birth
and beyond. Today I'm at the family birth centre at king edward memorial
hospital to have a chat with Tabitha to get the scoop on what it's like to be
a midwife.
Hi Rebecca and Tabitha nice to meet you. Hey Tabitha I was just wondering if we could have a
chat about what it's like to be a midwife?
Yeah of course, let's go somewhere quiet.
So Rebecca this is one of our birthing suites. Looks lovely. Quiet, now you wanna have a
chat?
Sure, let's take a seat. So Tabitha, take me to your typical day of being a
midwife. As a midwife there is no typical day you never know what you're gonna walk
into. To start with we sometimes run clinics during the day where we check mums
antenatally, so when baby's inside we check baby's heartbeat, check growth and make
sure everything's going okay. We check mum's blood pressure, make sure she's
feeling ok and do any sort of parent education that we need to. We also have
delivery rooms where a mum might come in in labor and we deliver their babies, which is a
really exciting part and time in their life. We also have a visiting midwifery
service where we go out and visit them at home and do any postnatal education
of talks that we need to. And what made you decide that you wanted to be a
midwife? I became a registered nurse first and I decided that I really wanted
to look after healthy people. A woman having a baby, you're nice and healthy
you don't really have problems so i decided to become a midwife and i guess
empower women in having babies. What kind of places need midwives? Is it
just hospitals and birthing centers or their options outside of those areas?
Yeah there's lots of other options that you can do, there's lots of small clinics
available. There's diabetes clinics, there's clinics for sick mums or babies that you can
also be involved in. There's also lots of volunteer or missionary work that you
can do out there. So Tabitha, what's the hardest part of your job?
I guess the hardest part of the job is that babies can come at any time so they
can come 24 hours 7 days a week 365 days a year, so you know I'm kind
of on call twenty-four/seven for the women when they come in. Also sometimes
things get complicated along the way and not always mums and babies well. Wow, and
what would be the most rewarding part? The most rewarding part is having a
beautiful healthy baby in the mother's arms and seeing mum and dad with their
baby for the very first time and I guess encouraging them and empowering them to
become the parents they could be. Is that what inspires you as a midwife?
Absolutely yes, I love at the end seeing these beautiful babies and then seeing
them grow, at home when you can see them and visit them at home. And if you give
somebody some advice if they wanted to become a midwife what would it be?
I guess it would be expect the unexpected and be aware that sometimes you need to
be emotionally, take a step back and not get so involved sometimes in the
complications that come up along the way. If you can list from school to now,
what steps does somebody need to take if they want to become a midwife? What you
need to do is you need to finish year 12 and enter some sort of territory or
university where you can do a Bachelor of Nursing and then a post graduate
diploma in midwifery. Or now they're offering a direct bachelor of midwifery
course. What characteristics does somebody need to have to be a midwife? You need to
be caring, friendly, open and very compassionate. And if you could do one
thing differently but still end up where you are today what would it be?
I would have not taken a year off after I finish school and I would have gone
directly into midwifery. Great well thank you so much for having a chat with me
today.
You're welcome.
What a rewarding career if you want to find out more information on becoming a
midwife jump onto studentedge.com.au