Are adverse outcomes making student's lose their 'Midwifery Spirit'?

I recently came across an article when researching another blog post. The title grabbed me straight away “Am I too emotional for this job?” - An exploration of student midwives' experiences of coping with traumatic events in the labour ward (Coldridge and Davies 2017).  I was interested because of a few experiences I'd reflected on recently and the articles coming out in the news last year about change from normal birth and the reduction in nursing and midwifery applications and more midwives leaving than joining the profession (see here and here).

What is happening? Is it case of the profession not being appealing to young people, the politics of the NHS budget, the pay cap (read more from the RCM here) or simply the removal of the bursary in England and Wales?

For those who are studying and coming to the end of our student midwife journey - it is important that we continue to be well supported and encouraged when studying and in clinical practice in order to sustain the demand for passionate and empowered midwives needed across the UK.

New UCAS data has revealed the number of students applying for midwifery and nursing degrees are down by 8%. (RCM)

So back to the article. Coldridge and Davies look at students experiences of coping with traumatic experiences in a labour ward in a consultant led hospital in the North West of England. Focusing on a psychotheraputic perspective of a study undertaken by Davies and Coldridge in 2015. Here they examine the psychological tensions and anxieties that students face.

A few key points that stood out for me when reading this article include

• The awareness that student midwives are more vulnerable to psychological distress due to having a more empathetic relationship with woman and the unpredictable nature of birth itself
• In many instances students are left to make sense of experiences alone
• Which can lead to feelings of being unsupported, traumatised, uncertain of their abilities and even questioning their abilities to be a midwife.
• Students often flip between role of observer and practitioner and this can be uncomfortable when discovering how to best advocate for the woman - they feel uncomfortable discussing the best versus safest options.
• Lack a feeling of belonging between the space of the woman and the midwife ('No mans land' Coldridge and Davies 2017)
• Students are often disillusioned by reality of working in a busy labour ward
• More often the student has a higher personal investment in labouring woman