StudentMidwife.NET - Student Midwife Support Network

So.... who are we? StudentMidwife.NET was born on 28th October 2007 in the middle of the night.... like so many babies are! One of the founders, Josie, a student midwife at the time felt a huge lack of professional support on the web for midwifery students, so she decided along with her partner, 'Rob' (an IT geek) to create StudentMidwife.NET [or SMNET for short]. Our aims are simple, to offer a big web of support in as many subject areas as possible to those who want to become a midwife, to students and to anyone involved in midwifery who can benefit or needs support from the SMNET network. We are supported 30+ volunteer staff, from wannabes to student midwives to qualified midwives - who are all fantastic - very friendly, kind and clever people whose passion for midwifery is second to none.

For those who are not yet midwifery students SMNET offers this support:-

• Information to help members decide if midwifery is for them.
• Help and support during A' Levels or access to midwifery course (for those lacking enough credits for direct entry).
• Guidance and advice through the university application process, personal statements and preparing for interview. Including training days via the SMNET Edge service.
• Confidence building, a shoulder to lean on and motivation should members fail to get a place - encouragement, support, advice and renewed direction should members want to re-apply.

For those who are accepted onto the course, or are already studying, SMNET offers:

• Educational resources containing videos, links, articles and much more to support our students learning. We also offer a bespoke search facility via our SMNET Toolbar where with only one click members can search the top 20 most relevant midwifery websites on the net.
• Support and guidance on all matters concerning professional conduct. We support and advocate the Nursing and Midwifery Council's code and guidelines and advocate that all members conduct themselves both on and offline in line with the NMC's Guidance on Professional Conduct for Nursing and Midwifery Students.
• Live online learning and revision via the monthly SMNET Midwifery Quiz where members can win £250.00 of midwifery text books. The quiz is supervised by our resident Registered Midwives (3) who all achieved first class midwifery degrees and is sponsored by Elsevier.
• An assigned student mentor once a place is secured. SMNET ensures members don't start university without knowing someone there already. We strive to put members in touch with a student who is at least part way through year one (in uni's with 2 intakes) or in year 2 or 3.
• Online university social groups - we have groups for every midwifery university in the UK - cohorts can converse and get to know each other before the course even begins - members have reported this to be an extremely valued and appreciated feature.
• Support and guidance throughout the course on Midwifery Assignments, Clinical Placements, Portfolio/Skills Document/CAP, Clinical Assessments/Exams/OSCE's and more
• Help, advice and support is available once members qualify to help with consolidation, interviews and finding a job.

For those who are registered midwives, we offer:

• Opportunities to become involved, to inspire, to teach, to give back some knowledge and help in the support of students. This can be very useful for CPD purposes too!
• Ability to conduct online research (we can facilitate many methods of information gathering).
• A hugely receptive audience for RMs and authors who wish to write articles and deliver research - SMNET has major developments under way in this area, contact us for more info.

For everybody, we offer:

• A growing educational resources section with videos, articles, links and an extensive glossary that interlinks midwifery abbreviations and obscure terms to definitions throughout the site. This really helps students and wannabe's understand clinical discussions as the topic author may use midwifery jargon they don't yet know.... a definition for words and abbreviations they don't understand is as simple as clicking the word.
• £250.00 worth of new midwifery textbooks (courtesy of Elsevier) are given away each month as prizes in our midwifery quiz (overseen by an RM).
• Regular competitions to win free places at conferences, study days, exhibitions and other events - some CPD events too for RM's - all events donated by event organisers.
• Social groups to encourage friendships among those with similar interests... for instance, we have a social group for many topics... eg. one called 'midwives with ink' whose members are all tattooed, ... a member recently set up a social group for 'muslim midwives' - there are loads and loads of others.
• Peers against bullying project (this has only be used 4 times in a year.... a good indicator).
• A chance for personal development and to become involved in the running and direction of SMNET with SMNET representative posts and staff posts. Many staff run projects, liase with midwifery organisations and come out on The SMNET Edge training days and are encouraged and supported to give talks to prospective and current students.

The website is a community based forum in the most part, with the addition of blogs, social groups and other bespoke systems aimed at facilitating everything SMNET. We strongly encourage and promote anonymity on our website among members to protect them on many levels. We have a strict, but fair code of conduct and will not tolerate personal attacks against any members, staff, lecturers, mentors, personal tutors, Universities, trusts or other midwifery related websites and organisations. We rigorously uphold the reputation of the profession.

In the two years we've been running we've gone from nowhere [literally] to being the busiest dedicated midwifery website in the UK, and quite possibly, the world (based on information we have available). We are strongly influencing most midwifery students in the UK... influencing the midwives of tomorrow and their practice.

We have reams of testimonials from members - how we've helped them get accepted onto the course (some have failed several years running)... how we've given them belonging and friendship and motivation to keep going and for dozens, how they could not have done it without SMNET.

We often help members away from the public forum, to deal with crushing situations - One member in particular secured a place on the course and had her place revoked when her university received a spiteful reference from her employer. The employer was angry about losing a staff member and having to find a replacement. Mrs X was distraught and ready to give up her dream but because of our intervention, and Josie's background as a CIPD qualified HR consultant Mrs X is now in year 2 and will make a fantastic midwife.

If you would like to see what people say about us and how they are supported by StudentMidwife.NET then you'll find comments by members all over our website.

We consider our project to be just beginning - we have the fortunate vantage point to still be able to look back and see where we've come from and to be able to see where we are going. Join us and be part of the SMNET story.

Please feel free to register and recommend us, membership is 100% free so register now!

If you have any questions about SMNET or any of the projects we undertake then please contact us and we'll be more than glad to help.