Paula: I'm currently working at Queens Hospital, I'm a band 6 midwife and I'm working on a
labour ward and I'm really really enjoying it, it's fantastic. My experience on the course
was really really good. The support of the lecturers here at South Bank is absolutely
fantastic and the passion that they instill into you on the course is amazing, it really
is amazing.
Evelyn: We deliver two courses, midwifery courses, at LSBU. We have three year midwifery
training and we've got eighteen month midwifery training which consists of 50% theory 50%
practice and the course is designed to reflect that.
Ravinder: It has been tough, the eighteen months is tough to do a degree in, but it
is doable. You do get a lot of support from the lecturers, a lot of help. You form quick
friendships very quickly and then you work with your colleagues the lecturers visit you
every week, even if you are feeling like "Oh my god I can't do this anymore" they are there
to offer you support. The mentors are very helpful as well, so a tough course, but definitely doable.
Paula: The facilities at LSBU are fantastic. The classroom environment is bright and airy,
the teaching aids that we use in the classroom are fantastic; they really give you a hands-on
experience in a controlled safe environment where you can ask questions and really understand
what it is you're learning.
Ravinder: During practical sessions we had all the equipment available to us like, for
example, to do resuscitation sessions you have the resusiter, you have the baby, you
have your bag and mask. So you actually do the whole practical assessment as you would
do it in a clinical environment, and for your palpation patient you've got your sim-mum
and you do palpation properly.
You can even listen to the heart beat as it would be with the pinard stethoscope. So definitely
I think all the equipment is available at the university to help you to work as a midwife
once you're qualified.
Paula: The support from the staff on the midwifery course was fantastic. I couldn't have gone
through the course without the lecturers that were there. The course is a tough course,
and the support that you get from lecturers, emotional and educational is second to none.
Fantastic.
Ravinder: So during your 18 moths training you go on placements. On these placements
you get to work in the community with the community midwives, you work in the hospitals,
ante-natal wards, post-natal wards, and the labour ward. You start off your training by
learning about how to look after women and at the end you know how to provide that care
with minimal assistance.
Sue: The benefits of students being placed at our trust is that we have a very diverse
population so they meet women from all different walks of life. We have low and high risk women
that we look after which gives them a whole wide range of experience throughout their
journey of their maternity career.
Evelyn: The benefits for the students going on placement is that it gives them a real
feel, a real hands-on experience. They're able to link theory to practice and they're
able to experience the demographics of the area that we are in which is quite diverse.
Paula: I would recommend studying this course at LSBU because the hospitals that they are
affiliated with, and the area that we work in is so diverse that the experiences you
will gain from working in London you won't gain anywhere else, it's fantastic. Without
LSBU I wouldn't be where I am today, I wouldn't have studied the course, and I wouldn't be
a midwife.