But if there are no IMs, then how you can have placements with them?

Precisley.... thats why we support the campaign here

Thankyou for your tension tips post, I wholeheartidly agree, I know alot of other students will benefit from reading it

One way I have found round around the shortcuts like mentors not palpating prior to VE is to say that I have been taught at Uni to palpate first is it ok for me to do so? they always say yes.... Its hard to get the balance right between being all Uni this Uni that or Ive read this etc I have heard horror stories of students getting berated for being 'know it alls'... that concerns me... we have evidence based practice drummed into us yet when we come across something that challeneges current evidence for a certain practice we raise it and it gets a roll of the eyes or a flippant response... anyone else experienced this? slightly off topic... but still relevant methinks...

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Must echo what wannabe said about sussing out who the pro-normal midwives are in your unit. They normally are the ones just quietly getting on with it. I found my time with pro normal midwives quite challenging because they really expected me to be able to make decisions and not necessarily practise exactly like them. Once these midwives know you are there, you might find that they would stick their neck out for you a bit more - mine certainly did.
Also, when you qualify they might remember you and might have some influence on you ending up with their team (community wise) than say a less holistic one.

You have to choose your battles.

Oh, and one thing that I think is very useful is to rehearse in your head what you are going to do/say when your practice is inevitably criticised by a mentor. In a sense, it doesn't matter whether you've been doing it all wrong and your mentor is right to be appalled, or whether all the evidence 100% is on your side and your mentor is an ignorant dinosaur....the same emotional/mental process and interpersonal skills are needed. One would hope that mentors always had the skills to communicate criticisms in constructive ways, but that's far from universally true - and one has to remember that the training of mentors in mentorship is minimal (and for informal mentors, sometimes non-existent). So, the student needs to take responsibility for handling the criticism however delivered - not because it is REALLY your responsibility, but because you are the one in whose INTERESTS it is to through the situation relatively unscathed. It makes no odds to the mentor, in the long wrong, how those situations unfold, but it really matter to YOU. I think the sooner students really understand that in their bones, the better! So, take charge of damage limitation, eliminate defensiveness, embody generosity. It is really hard, but the more you do it the easier it gets.

Close your eyes (okay, you'll have to keep them open to read the next bit, but read it and then close your eyes) and visualise yourself doing something and the mentor saying sharply in front of the woman:

"No! Not like that..."
"What are you doing?!" (incredulously)

deep breath, what will you do? what will you say? (without defensiveness, to de-escalate the situation).

And another one...

after the event.

"I don't know what they have been teaching you [incredulously] but as a second/third/fourth year you should know..."

"Why didn't you do X?" (aggresively)

and so on,

Go on, do it now. Close your eyes, visualise, hear the voice of your mentor, deep breath....

Oh my God, wannabe, I remember mentors saying that to me!!!

Another one I was told, when I 'failed' to do traction, a mentor said, "do you expect babies to 'just' come out?"

And I said, "yes".

Wise words and much appreciated I know that its one of the more challenging aspects of training. I was shouted at by a theatre ODP for coming through the second door out of theatre and the door hit the drugs cupboard door that he had open (like it was my fault I couldnt see through a wooden door or that their drugs cupboard door occluded the 2nd door...) he had a reputation for making new students cry and I recognised him straightaway by his shouty red face lol I stood up for myself gave him a little bit of stick back and walked away victorious. Yet when I was berrated for not being psychic and knowing what a mentor wanted one day I felt rubbish. Incidentally this was in front of a woman who told my mentor off later ... but the women shouldnt have to feel like that....

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You see, I would think you are on safer ground if you just go ahead and do the abdominal palpation, rather than putting the mentor in the position of giving you permission or not.

You can give your rationale (to the mentor) in the form of gettting consent/giving information to the woman "Before doing a VE, I'll have a feel of your tummy/bump/abdomen* and have a listen in, because that can tell me more about what position your baby is in, and how far down he/she is in your pelvis. Are you happy with that?" If you mentor is supervising your practice what could she possibly object to in that? And you've just told your mentor WHY you are doing it (without actually telling HER) without having to allude to the theory-practice gap, or rubbing her face in the fact that uni teaches "ideal" midwifery in comparison to which custom and practice is less than ideal. So, in general, I wouldn't ask permission to do something the in what I thought was the 'correct' way if I was confident about what was correct. I would set out to do it in the what I thought was 'correct', with the appropriate commentary (to the woman!) and try not to expect criticism, just respond appropriately to it if I received it.

Actually, you can really demonstrate a huge amount of your understanding to your mentor by giving information to the woman about what you are doing and why.

Obviously, there are grey areas, because a lot of what is learned is not really taught in uni at all...so you are reliant on what your mentor teaches you, and I think you have to be totally open to all those learning opportunities. But in relation to things like palpation before VE...that's the approach I would take, in preference to relying on "Uni say the correct way to do it is...". That has the danger of setting up potential antagonism/fight for authority between uni and mentor - and remember you are in mentor (rather than uni) territory.

*whatever personal lexicon, and woman's lexicon suggests.

One midwife got really stroppy when I didn't know what she meant when she asked for SP.. I was like, err, what's SP? And she went, SP! Sp!! I want some SP!!! Don't you know what that is??? It's sanitary pads!

I felt like saying, No love, I use a mooncup.

hahahahahaahhhaahahaha!!!! Mine was even more helpful, 'a thingy, over there, the green one' .... I was looking at green top needles, green torniquets, green top gel....

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"You're braver than you believe. Stronger than you seem. And smarter than you think."
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Fancy yourself as a bit of a writer? Want to contribute midwifery or SM2B articles to SMNET? If so, PM me with your thoughts/articles

It helps to be prepared. I think working in your placement unit prior to starting the course is invaluable for dealing with the "green thingy" issue (though I would never have guessed SP!)

If you don't have that advantage...

In a quiet moment (ha!) get someone (doesn't have to be your mentor) to go through all the stock with you a bit at a time; what they are called (formal names, informal names), what they do, what they look like, where they are (meant to be!) kept in delivery unit cupboards, and in stock rooms. Also, get to grips with standard procedures from Skills for Midwifery Practice or similar so that you've got a bit of a clue what kit might be required in a given situation.