Any midwifes on here? Advice please?

RoxieW

thanks littleones- can I come and work where you work please - it sounds perfect!

midwife twinkle - yes i am planning on waiting until the babies are at school. I know from my own bitter experience that its so so difficult when they are young - have learnt my lesson there! My youngest starts school in Jan but we are undecided about having another little one. If we do, I will do prob the access course while that little one is little and wait until she's at school before anything else. Just planning ahead.

RoxieW

ooh sorry older - my children in 5 years time will be 9 and 10 (crikey!) - but i we have another little one then that one will just be coming up to school age. Hubby is out of the house 7 - 5pm but there is some flexibility for him to do 9.30 - 6.30 which is why earlies are great as he can take them to school and I can (hopefully) pick them up.

inkie

I qualified as a midwife 13 years ago. it was fine until I had my own children. Having to plan childcare around shift patterns was nightmare, and so I decided not to return following my second maternity leave, and instead took a job as a clinical nurse manager in an out-of-hours service with 'set' hours, and so I could plan as I worked when my (office hours) hubby was at home. - plus it ws a promotion as well.
As you will appreciate, there is no planning with maternity services, there are no times when you can predict that there are going to be less staff needed, in comparison to say, a service that deals with elective surgery only, for example. It is a job ideally suited for people with no children, or people whose children are old enough not to require childcare. The vast majority of people that I have wored with over the years fall into these categories.
The way that we worked, we worked earlies and lates in the same week, and also covered an on-call at night. On the on-call, you could be up all night, in bed all night, and also, if you were not out in the night you would have to work the next day - totally unpredictable!!
I am now a vicar, and so if the children are off, then they just come to work with me - no childcare to plan at all, and I get to take them to school and pick them up each day!

inkie

Do you get paid the whole time so that I could have the little ones in childcare 'in case' or are you expected to drop your family and rush in?

The on-calls are in the night, and you would be covering home deliveries, and any ladies on your caseload who you had arranged to deliver in hospital. You would be expected to be in within 30 min, due to the nature of the service, and so, yes you have to just drop everything. If you are not called out, you do not get paid other than the 'on-call' allowance which was about £8 for the duration of the on-call whilst I was doing it. Of course, if you get called out, then you get the hourly rate, but then forgo the 'on-call' payment.

inkie

Hubby is out of the house 7 - 5pm but there is some flexibility for him to do 9.30 - 6.30 which is why earlies are great as he can take them to school and I can (hopefully) pick them up.

Earlies may not finish until at least 3pm, and if you are on labour ward in particular, you cannot guarantee being off on time - you may have someone who is on the point of delivering/just delivered and then you have to write up all your notes before you leave. Or, you may be scrubbed in theatre. If you work on community, the shifts are 8.30-5pm generally, and then you may be on call immediately after that until 8.30 am the next morning.

LittleOne83

Roxie it's far from perfect...just like everywhere my trust has issues. But we have supportive management.
I work with so many midwives who have young children and they always manage the shifts and have great support from partners/family etc. My mentor has a young son and in the year that I've worked with her has only had 1 day off due to childcare falling through.
If it's your dream and it's all you can think about doing then go for it when the time is right for you. If it's meant to be then it'll all work out.

Rupa

If you have to stay later as someone is giving birth etc, do you get paid for the extra time? Or do you wait until it all adds up to one shift and have a shift off? Or are you working for free???

inkie

If you have to stay later as someone is giving birth etc, do you get paid for the extra time? Or do you wait until it all adds up to one shift and have a shift off? Or are you working for free???

For it to add up to one shift you may be waiting for quite a while! What usually happens is that there is a 'time-owing' book. You record your time extra worked in this and then ask to take the time back when the service can accomodate this. This is what happens for staff who work in the unit. if you are on an integrated team approach, then you keep a tally of your hours - for example, each shift is based on 7.5 hours, but if you are covering labour ward, this may be for 12 hours in the day, or 12 hours at night. Therefore, if you are not 'called out', then you then are 7.5 hours in deficit, similarly, if you are up all night for 12 hours, then you will be 4.5 hours in front (as the working day is based on 7.5 hours). You keep a tally of your hours for the month - if you are over, you will take the time back, if you are under (not very likely, but can happen), then you will then 'owe' hours, and work these to assist the service.