..... an international section..... so how long are your courses? what are your placment allocations? what are your job prospects like?

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Josie
StudentMidwife.NET Co-founder & Director

The course I am on is a 3 years full time degree course.

Started in Feb and finshes Feb 2010

We have 5 week blocks of placement with 5 week blocks of uni. And six weeks off over the academic year. 2 at Christmas, 2 Easter and 4 in the summer. They also add on reading weeks to holidays too, which is nice.

Most of us started with 2 5 week blocks of community placements, those that were hopsital based are now in community. We will have this placement and another in the new year and then we are second years

After this we have general medical placements a week in each area (obs and gynae, general, etc)

End of third year we get our own caseload, this has just been decided so we finish on ten weeks of community!!!

I think that's it!

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Lead administrator
Head of student services


Have you just been offered a place? If so and you want a mentor please post in post this forum (also post here if you would like a mentee)

In Australia there are 3 avenues of becoming a midwife;

Do a 3 year general nurse degree followed by a graduate year then a post graduate diploma of midwifery ( 1 year full time or two years part time)

Double degree of nursing/midwifery over 4 years

A Bachelor of Midwifery over 3 years.( This is a new course)

It is a very interesting the view taken by our Nurses board regarding the Bachelor of mid, as these midwives at the current time cannot go on to do the post graduate maternal and child health diploma.
We currently have a shortage of midwives and m & c nurses.
The job prospects once you have graduated here are excellent if you are happy to work in the hospital system.

In America, you can become either a nurse midwife or a traditional (direct-entry, professional) midwife. To become a nurse midwife, you must have your bachelor's degree in nursing and be highly recommended for the nurse midwife program. So, four years of nursing school and either one or two extra years of cnm school. However, a lot of schools won't consider you unless you've worked as an RN for X amount of years and have experience in certain areas.

Traditional midwifery depends on the state you live in. There are so many different variations that I'm just going to tell you what I need to do in Kansas to finish (there are a couple of other Americans here, hopefully they'll come around and explain for themselves). In Kansas, all I need to do is apprentice with a midwife to be able to call myself a mw. No set time, the state has specifically stated that mw are not to be regulated as medical professionals, which is actually good in this country. I am taking the Midwife-to-Be course which is a long-distance correspondence course. There are 30 units and if you really buckle down and get after it, you could probably do a unit a month. Not me, no way. I decided to go ahead and take the course as a way to intro myself into the world while waiting for a preceptor, and also to be able to show others that I am serious about this path (lots of preceptors take on apprentices who decide not long into it that they don't want to do this).

So, in Kansas, we're free to learn in the most traditional way, the way midwives had been trained for decades before they were outlawed. Again, each state has it's own process. And, if I chose, I could get certified through NARM, but it's not necessary. If I decided to move, it may or may not be an issue, so I am probably going to pursue that. Besides, it's comforting to clients to know that I do have that certification.

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Sasha, Doula, Mama, Wife, Student Midwife

Three little wild boys and one soldier husband

In Denmark:
We have 3 schools of midwifery in the country. I'm submitted to the school in Copenhagen. Entry is directly on basis of your highschool grades or you have to write an application. Connected to the last one work experience, travellling etc are good skills to have.

A rough explanation of the building of the Danish Midwife education which last 3½ years:
1st semester: theoretical education at school (5 months)
2nd: clinical pratice. Focusing on the ''normal'' and uncomplicated pregnancy, birth and perinatal period (5 months)
3rd: Theory at school (5 months)
4th: Partly theory (3 months), partly clinical experience (2 months)
5th: clinical experience
6th: clinical experience . 4th, 5th an 6th semester's clinical experience is based on the complicated pregnancy, birth and perinatal period.
7th. Writing of at final project. + 4 weeks of clinical practice (some people go abroad theese 4 weeks) (5 months)

The job prospects are very fine at the moment. Far the most midwives work in the hospitals, home births is just a very few percentages of all births (which is approximately 62,000 a year)

Wow! Thanks you guys its really good to see how midwifery education is executed around the globe...

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Josie
StudentMidwife.NET Co-founder & Director

Its great to see how many interntaional members we have now since I last posted on this thread. We really are an international website and Im delighted

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Josie
StudentMidwife.NET Co-founder & Director

In the Netherlands:
There are 4 midwifery schools: Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Maastricht and Groningen. There are 60 places per year per school, except for Groningen (40). You need to do a computer test on your social skills to get in, after you've completed high school ofcourse.
There are four years to complete. About half of that are internships. In Holland we have a special midwifery system. All women begin in the midwifery practice and go to the obstetrician when medically necessary, for example with breach delivery or a former c/s. About one third of dutch deliveries starts at home. Women with a low-risk pregnancy have a choice to deliver at home or in the hospital. If a low-risk pregnant woman wants to deliver in the hospital, the midwife will go with her and she'll see no obstetrician (unless necessary).
Job prospects are very poor right now, about 15% of the midwifes have no job. New possibilities are created like preconceptional care.

In Norway:
There are 5 different places to study: Oslo, Bergen, Tromsų, Vestfold and Trondheim. First we have to study to become a nurse (3 years), then we work for at least 1 year full time as a nurse, and then we can start on midwifery (2 years). The job prospects vary from place to place, but it can be difficult in the beginning after ending the studying program.

:-)

Wow Nymfen, I had no idea, 3 years as a nurse first?! that used to be the case here in the UK but now you can be a direct entry student and study for a 3 year degree in Midwifery without having to do nursing first, it must be really difficult for those who dont want to do nursing but have to to get into midwifery........

When you say its difficult after qualifying what do you mean?

Thanks for posting, I love knowing what goes on around the world!

Josie

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Josie
StudentMidwife.NET Co-founder & Director