How to become a midwife on the NHS

Midwives play a vital role in looking after and providing essential advice to a mother prior to, during, and after their pregnancy. They get mothers through the preparation and trauma of a pregnancy and provide vital postnatal care. Often, a midwife will be the main source of professional medical contact during a mother's pregnancy.

Role of a midwife

The role of a midwife is to provide support

• A midwife will provide advice in antenatal appointments during the pregnancy

• A midwife will provide postpartum care to a newborn and mother and ensure the well being of both the baby and mother by analysing their condition against the expected norms.

• Provide clinical care to the baby

• Advice on feeding plan for the baby

Most midwives work in association with GP practices and therefore will provide care for patients that are listed in the register of a GP in a particular area.

Where do midwives work?

A midwife will almost certainly work with the NHS at hospitals and work with mothers that are listed at a GP to which a midwife is affiliated.

Educational requirements to become a midwife

• Degree - A midwife will usually do a degree in midwifery education. Most universities, if not all, provide degree courses in midwifery education. These courses are prepared in conjunction with the NHS and therefore fully accredited education for potential midwives.

• Diploma – For those who have not quite managed to get the required grades to enter a degree course, you can still qualify as a midwife by taking a diploma in midwifery education.

Requirements to enter the degree programme

If you are student progressing from A-Levels or vocational courses, you will need to go thorough the UCAS system. You will need to apply to your preferred universities well in advance of the starting date. This will of course be done through your college.

• A-Levels - Ideally you will have at least 2 A-Levels, however, the requirements will vary depending on the university. As a standard requirement, 2 A-Levels pass grades (Usually an E grade or above) preferably in subjects like sociology, biology, psychology would be ideal.

• Vocational qualifications – Usually a merit grade is required.

• Degree access course – This allows people to enter a midwife degree course without having A-Levels or vocational courses.

Financing a degree course

• The NHS pays the tuition fees for the degree course.

• The student will receive a means tested bursary. This takes into account your/family's income.

However, the bursary may or may not cover your cost it is unlikely that this will cover all living cost, especially considering that living cost in cities like London, or any other major city centre is pretty expensive. In many cases, a student will need to get extra financing in the form of a student loan.

You can apply for a student loan through the student loans company, which provides financing for most university students that require a student loan to supplement their income so they can live through their university as adequately as possible.

Some non-educational requirements

• Well spoken – A midwife needs to be well spoken as they will be interacting with doctors, GP, mothers, etc.

• Caring personality – They should provide unconditional advice and care.

Job availability

After you complete your degree course successfully, you become a registered midwife. You are able to practise as a midwife with the NHS. There is no shortage of jobs for aspiring midwives. Also, the government has recently pledged to have extra 10,000 midwives by 2010, recognising the importance of providing more one to one care for mothers.

Midwife salary

The salaries for a midwife will depend on various factors. Midwives, like nurses, operate on a grading system. The grading system is incorporated to take into account seniority based ion education and training levels of midwives. A midwife that is just starting out can expect to earn around.

Online midwife courses

Although accredited online education courses for midwives do not as yet exist, no doubt, they will exist sometime in the future as universities expand into online education.