A Day in the Life of a Midwifery Student: Alice

Current student Alice takes us through a typical day in the life of a Midwifery student…

6.30am

My alarm goes off and I get ready for a day on placement. I am on my community placement at the moment so I wear my full uniform. I travel by bus and meet my mentor in the community setting where she picks me up in her car.

8:30am

We arrive at the surgery early to set up the equipment and have a brew before clinic begins. My mentor asks what I want to learn and develop. This week I wanted to gain confidence in abdominal palpations, finding out the position, lie and presentation of baby in utero.

9:00am

Our antenatal clinic begins with each appointment allocated a 15 minute slot. I dip each women’s urine to test for protein and do a manual blood pressure. I then perform an abdominal palpation and tell my mentor what I can feel before she herself palpates to check I am right. We listen into the fetal heart using a sonicaid and respond to any questions the woman has.

12:00pm

We finish our last antenatal appointment and have lunch. This is a good time to reflect on what I have seen this morning and ask any questions about things I didn’t understand. My mentor is really nice and we also often catch up on what we’ve been doing over the weekend.

1:00pm

We are assigned our postnatal visits. This involves going to woman’s home and checking both mother and baby are progressing. It is great to be able to go out in the community in Manchester as there is such a diverse range of people, one visit can be in a 3 story house and then next you can be in a block of flats on the estate.

2:00pm

This week we visited a Day 5 mother and baby pair. On Day 5 it is routine to do a blood spot screening test and weigh the baby. I undressed baby and placed him on the scales, it is important to note that baby’s always wee whilst doing this so have a nappy close by!

3:30pm

My mentor and I complete our postnatal visits and head back to the community office. Here, we send off any blood and urine samples to the lab and put the new postnatal visits in the diary. Any referrals that need to be made and done so now.

4:00pm

I get the bus home from the hospital. The journey takes about 40 mins so I usually ring one of my friends from home or listen to music. Once back at my flat I make tea,
i’m not a very good cook so I usually keep it simple with beans on toast or pesto pasta! It’s nice to catch up with my flat mates over tea about their day too.

6:00pm

In the evening I went to go see the new Beauty and the Beast film with some girls on my course. It’s a good chance to relax and enjoy the city of Manchester.

9:30pm

I get back to my flat, shower and prepare my bag for uni the next day, before going to bed.