Six months in…
(May 2016)
I have sat down to write this at least 3 times now and each time deleted every last word. Like Goldilocks trying out the three bears armchairs I ended up with too hard, too soft or broken.
It seemed important today however that I make some sense of my thoughts so today I am doing that most valuable of writing traditions… typing until something takes form and makes sense, I hope you’ll bear with me.
Let me start by saying just how much I love this profession. Today is International Day of the Midwife and my Facebook and Twitter feed are filled to overflowing with evidence of the passion that midwifery inspires not only in midwives ourselves, but in the families we touch. I work in an obstetric unit and I am going to go out on a limb and say I am proud to do so. I soaked up ROAR and see so many opportunities to provide women centred care, kindness and compassion in the hospital environment, helped along with a generous dollop of newly acquired assertiveness it has to be admitted.
I’ve made good headway into the skills I need to achieve in my preceptorship year but right now I am bringing kindness to myself. Workplace stress is a real hazard, seen personally within my friends and colleagues and reading accounts online as well as articles. The RCM published an excellent paper with helpful tips to deal with stress, making time for myself, taking breaks and eating properly being top of the list, all three oft neglected by people in the caring profession.
The final thing I wanted to say was about expectations. I read and loved Spiritual Midwifery and many other texts which feed my soul and remind me what the body is capable of and the midwifes role of being ‘with’ woman. I did however go into qualified life in a hospital with my eyes fully open to the constraints I would work within. I had no romantic view of what it would be like once free from the watchful eye of my mentors, though I looked forward to developing my own style, promoting normality and being ‘with’ woman, which I believe is no less possible in hospital than anywhere else. This might seem to some to be a terribly sad way of looking at it and that I should aim higher, aim for romance perhaps even but right now I am over the moon to be a hospital midwife. I am tired…. but learning more than I ever did as a student, developing resilience by the day, one painful encounter at a time.
I am not sure I achieved coherence today and my post night shift brain feels unbearably murky. If you followed any of these thoughts and made sense then thank you for sticking with me.
Happy International Day of the Midwife.
It seemed important today however that I make some sense of my thoughts so today I am doing that most valuable of writing traditions… typing until something takes form and makes sense, I hope you’ll bear with me.
Let me start by saying just how much I love this profession. Today is International Day of the Midwife and my Facebook and Twitter feed are filled to overflowing with evidence of the passion that midwifery inspires not only in midwives ourselves, but in the families we touch. I work in an obstetric unit and I am going to go out on a limb and say I am proud to do so. I soaked up ROAR and see so many opportunities to provide women centred care, kindness and compassion in the hospital environment, helped along with a generous dollop of newly acquired assertiveness it has to be admitted.
I’ve made good headway into the skills I need to achieve in my preceptorship year but right now I am bringing kindness to myself. Workplace stress is a real hazard, seen personally within my friends and colleagues and reading accounts online as well as articles. The RCM published an excellent paper with helpful tips to deal with stress, making time for myself, taking breaks and eating properly being top of the list, all three oft neglected by people in the caring profession.
The final thing I wanted to say was about expectations. I read and loved Spiritual Midwifery and many other texts which feed my soul and remind me what the body is capable of and the midwifes role of being ‘with’ woman. I did however go into qualified life in a hospital with my eyes fully open to the constraints I would work within. I had no romantic view of what it would be like once free from the watchful eye of my mentors, though I looked forward to developing my own style, promoting normality and being ‘with’ woman, which I believe is no less possible in hospital than anywhere else. This might seem to some to be a terribly sad way of looking at it and that I should aim higher, aim for romance perhaps even but right now I am over the moon to be a hospital midwife. I am tired…. but learning more than I ever did as a student, developing resilience by the day, one painful encounter at a time.
I am not sure I achieved coherence today and my post night shift brain feels unbearably murky. If you followed any of these thoughts and made sense then thank you for sticking with me.
Happy International Day of the Midwife.
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