Midwifery Personal Statement

Personal Statement
I want to become a midwife because over my career I have really enjoyed working with parents, and whilst training in childcare I became fascinated by the process of pregnancy and delivery. This has led me to wanting to learn the skills to enable me to plan and provide, with the mother, individualised care based on the medical history and social assessment early on in pregnancy within my community. In order to gain the under pinning knowledge, to be a midwife, I am studying Access to Health Studies at Solihull College; this includes anatomy and physiology, health studies, psychology, maths, and study skills.
A career in midwifery would allow me to work with women and their families. Offer advice, assistance and guidance
to women, focusing on their individual needs. It would be a privilege to be an advocate for women, to provide them with informed choices and give them the birth experience they want. As a midwife, I would be able to work as an independent practitioner within a multidisciplinary team, being able to educate and care for women and their families through their pregnancy, birth and the postnatal period. Being part of a woman-centred maternity service, providing a vital contribution to their health and an essential investment in the wellbeing of their children would be a pleasure. I know the hours are unsociable, that there could be staff shortages, not being able to switch off/leave work at the door and of course, when things go wrong but the positives far outweigh all of these for me.
I have been working with families for twelve years and have a good idea of the needs of the women.
During my career I have educated parents and promoted health and education. I have undertaken short courses to update my professional skills, which are relevant to midwifery for example; child protection and CAF training. The skills that I have gained, during my childcare career, can be transferred to the role of a midwife. I am a completer-finisher as I started a business and worked within it for many years, which shows my skills of planning, organising and participating in parent education. My maturity and confidence will help with supporting and educating women and colleagues. A calming influence was needed during inspections for both other colleagues and children; this is also needed during the birth and in an emergency situation. My Excellent record keeping was noted by OFSTED which enabled me to improve an inspection from inadequate to good within six months, this is important for maintaining legible and accurate records for sharing with women and colleagues. Most importantly great communication between parents, colleagues and other professionals allowed the children in my care to flourish, in midwifery this is important for colleagues and women in order to maintain confidence and promote advice
given.
As midwifery has been on my mind for a while, I have researched certain aspects, the first being reading several university websites and looking at what is required for the course. I also joined the student midwife.net website in order to talk to other midwifery students, read online magazines and midwifery websites, such as BritishJournalofMidwifery.com, midirs.org, rcm.org.uk etc. This has enabled me to keep up to date with good practices, guidelines and policies and what is relevant in the news for midwifery.