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Births attended by midwives has increased dramatically in the past years. More and more expectant mothers prefer midwives – and experience good outcomes.

Research illustrates that mothers and babies are more comfortable with midwives, as well as doctors. Women who receive treatment from midwives often show high levels of satisfaction with their overall care and expertise gained from their provider.

This blog discusses all the important details that might need to know about the role of a midwife.

What do Midwives do?

Midwives offer support and guidance for women and their babies during conception, childbirth, and the postnatal period. The role can be complex, satisfying, demanding, and exhilarating, all at the same time.

Like qualified practitioners, midwives, nurses, and doctors need to attend intensive training to ensure that they are trained for this critical care role. Don’t panic, as a three-year midwifery degree program can be more than just training you for the profession you’re about to embark on.

Responsibilities of a midwife

To give you a better understanding of what it’s like to be a midwife, here are some of the tasks and responsibilities of a midwife:

• To conduct gynecological tests on expectant mothers.
• To support all parents with the preparation of preconceptions.
• Treatment for mothers and unborn children during infancy.
• To direct the mother during work and childbirth, to ensure the welfare of the infant.
• To provide information and advice on breastfeeding and the treatment of the infant.
• Midwives are most often left to handle various sensitive topics, such as domestic violence, grief or intimacy, and sexual wellbeing issues.

What skills do you need to be a midwife?

• The capability to work under stress: Being the primary caregivers for women and their newborns, midwives face the constant challenge to provide good quality, healthy service. Often they have to operate under-staffed for an increased birth rate. Practice sometimes leaves no room for error, and a midwife’s decision sometimes creates a distinction between life and death.
• Capacity to assess research: Midwives should evaluate evidence and adapt it to realistic conditions, sometimes under pressure.
• Emotional resilience: Midwives must control their feelings in front of their families. They must also be respectful enough to cope with delicate topics at pregnancy or postnatal treatment.
• Outstanding teamwork skills: These skills are required to connect with medical practitioners and work successfully with expectant families.
• Effective decision-making skills: The ability to focus rapidly on knowledge, often imperfect, and make clinical judgments on the balance between intuition and logic is a requirement for the role of a midwife.
• Strong listening skills: The capacity to interact with a wide variety of women, to provide knowledge clearly, independent of context or scenarios should also be present in a midwife.

What are the benefits of this profession?

The following are some of the benefits of entering into this profession:

• Shaping policy: Midwives are in an outstanding position to participate in policy debates, train and impact decision-makers along the way.
• A feeling of achievement is whether it introduces new life into the world or collaborates with a mother and helps her reach personal goals. Midwifery can be very encouraging and satisfying.
• Emotional depth: The profession of a midwife has so many emotional facets that it is turned into a fresh learning experience every day.
• Remuneration is not as important as the feeling of accomplishment you get when you make a significant difference in someone’s life. Still, the financial factor also plays a huge part in work satisfaction. Midwives are among the most well-paid nursing professions.

Ultimately, midwifery is what you create of it, with the importance and excitement of what it implies to welcome new life into the world.

Probity course for Midwives

Once you have completed your certification for midwifery, it is highly recommended to enroll in the probity course and ethics course for midwives, as it will help you develop and enhance moral principles, such as honesty and decency. This will help you in integrating what you have learned with honesty and trustworthiness. Probity and professionalism help patients put their faith in midwives to ensure that they are not manipulated whilst encouraging practitioners to be comfortable with their truthful practice.

If you are planning to become a midwife or already are one, these are all the important things that you must know about the role of a midwife.