Can anyone help me

I am interested in becoming a midwife, I currently life in germany with my husband who's job is here.
I have 2 small children so can't go back to school just yet.

I was wondering how I go about studying to become a midwife while I am still at home but will gain qualifications from this.

I don't know where to start
What to look for
Or how to go about starting my career off.

I'm 24 years old and have put off a career for ages as I never knew what I wanted to be but being a midwife has always been in the back of my mind and now I'm ready to say I'm happy with my career choice.

Can anyone help me on how to start

Thanks

Hi, jennyrob!

Have you tried the following search?

How to become a midwife? - Google Search (http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&source=hp&q=How+to+become+a+midwife%3F&aq=f&oq=&aqi=)

Thanks!

Yeah but its all a bit gobbly gook to me really. I must keep looking ;)

If you check out some of the sites on that search, it's likely that you'll find some that will be helpful.

i was wondering how i go about studying to become a midwife while i am still at home but will gain qualifications from this.


This is NOT something you can learn at home.



i dont know where to start
what to look for
or how to go about starting my career off.

I don't know about Germany, but where I am from you have to be a registered nurse first with your Master's Degree, then you go back to school to specialize in Midwifery.

You will need to learn about all of the medicines involved, how to read fetal monitor strips, the difference between a variable and a deceleration (both can be bad news in certain cases). You will need to learn the different stages of labor, when delivery is imminent, when it's time to call the OB for a C-Section.

Being a midwife is not just about delivering a baby. I deliver babies for a living, I delivered 2 last night, one without the doctor present, and left 3 laboring this morning when my shift was over.

I truly don't mean to burst your bubble, but it's not as easy as one would think. You have to know when uterine hyperstimulation occurs, why it occurs, and how to correct this.

I truly could go on, but there are chapters and chapters I could write when this message only allows a certain number of typed characters.

As an L&D nurse, I find it admirable that you want to do this. However, you will not be able to do it without years of college/university education.

You can, however, look into being a Doula. Basically a support system for women in labor and during delivery.

Doula - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doula)

Here are a couple of sites that may provide some info for you. The second is in German, but it is a contact for one of the midwives. You can contact her by e-mail and she should be able to help you with what is needed for training in Germany.


Birth & Midwifery in Germany (http://www.midwiferytoday.com/international/germany.asp)

Kontakt (http://www.hebinfo.de/kontakt.php)

As J_9 suggested, training to be a doula can also be a great way to start. The training is less time consuming. However, as it can be with being a midwife, hours for a doula can be irregular since babies come at all hours of the day and night. If you work as part of a hospital staff, you will have set hours, but if you work independently, your may find you are basically on call for a birth.

A couple of sites for doulas:

DONA International – Welcome! (http://www.dona.org/)

Childbirth International - training birth professionals across the world (http://www.childbirthinternational.com/)