Student Midwife (at birth)

PM Katte she's a mw student & will be able to give you all the correct info. Tell her I told you to PM her.

I had a student midwife at my natural birth (2nd ds) and she was fantastic wouldn't fault her at all!!!

My midwife's student was present during my labour. I'm not sure what she did exactly (it was a bit of a blur)... She didn't actually deliver the baby, but she did some other things, while my midwife gave her instructions. She was lovely anyway, and everything went great! No problems with her at all.

I had a student deliver my first daughter. When I arrived at the hospital at 9pm, they mentioned that there were students around the next morning and asked if I was happy to have her involved if the timing was right etc. She arrived at about 7am and She delivered Leah at 9am. As far as I am aware, and according to my photos, she did pretty much everything at the end, guided her out, caught her, clamped, cut and all of the post birth tests on myself and Leah. My MW had been there 12hours caring for me, so I am sure she was relieved to have the student take over. As far as I remember my MW left soon after the birth and the student did all the necessities and helped with latching/feeding, assisting the OB with stitching etc. (obviously the MW didnt leave until we were stable etc).

She was really wonderful and I put all my trust in her. She also did some post natal check ups too. In fact, she randomly became my MW with my second daughter.

Regarding the student being more careful than a real MW? I am sure all real MW's are just as careful as any student would be....surely?

Bowie, the hospital you are delivering at are wonderful, people often say this is the best place to have a baby at in NZ As long as you have full trust in your MW than I am sure any student working with her will be wonderful.

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Oooh all good feedback, thats so good to hear! Not that i expected anything different i guess.

I had heard it was a bit of a fight to get to witness a birth as midwifery students have to do it, but so do general med students and not many woman want a stranger around at that time - which is fair enough

Lol, Pekay, i meant that because they're being judged and marked on what they're doing that they're extra extra careful to do everything exactly right and explain properly!

I look foward to meeting her next week - and the no doubt awkward moment where she gets to explain breastfeeding to a stranger!

I was like Red above, didn't think I wanted any students (medical or MW) but, my birth wasn't quite as planned and so ended up with some intervention and there ended up being a med student with the paeds registrar that was there - I remember that, in the room full of people, there was one face that was absolutely beaming with a smile - SO excited to be there. It was the med student. She didn't actually do anything (except pick out the woollen hat and singlet for my low birth weight DD) but she was SO super excited to be in the background. So, in the end, it was a nice experience.

Also, if you ever had any concerns about the person you had following you, you are within your rights to opt out.

I was a bit nervous having a MW student at the birth as I wanted my MW to deliver baby, not the student. Anyway, on the day my MW was flat out with 3 woman in labour and asked if it was ok if the student helped help out, otherwise she'd need to call on the hospital MW's. I agreed and she was wonderful!!

S didn't deliver baby, as I ended up having a reg do a vontouse delivery, but she did all my obs, weighed baby, helped me shower etc. I mentioned her in our birth notice and she was so thrilled, as it was the first time anyone had done that!

My MW had a student MW working with her when I had my kids, and she was brilliant! She would take my bood pressure, check the pee stick thing, feel my tummy etc etc and sometimes talk to me about things.

She is now a fully qualified MW

Lol Nutella!

I had student midwives with number 2 & 3 (mw didn't have one with number 1) and they were great! Everything they did was supervised by my mw and if it was to do with me, i.e. examining me during labour, they always asked first ... but then again my mw always asked too. And they were great at explaining what they were doing. DH caught both kids though and cut the cords which is what we wanted.