A student's story

A completely different experience

A midwifery student explains why her elective placement at Montrose Maternity left her “full of motivation, excitement and an ever-growing passion for midwifery and normal birth”. 

Towards the end of my second year of training I attended Montrose maternity’s annual student study day with many of my classmates. We all found the day to be inspirational in its belief in normal birth and trust in the woman’s body. Although we were all aware of the campaign for ‘normality’ in our local clinical area, it was often difficult to really see the same passion and determination to promote normal birth and improve women’s birth experiences as was shown at Montrose. For this reason, I felt Montrose maternity was the ideal place for my elective placement.

From the first day at Montrose the midwives welcomed me into their team, making me feel comfortable and encouraging my many questions on the care and services they provide.

I was lucky enough to attend several water births during my placement at Montrose. I found the births to be a completely different experience to those I had seen in my prior training, with each birth being truly holistic and individual to the women’s needs. I was really impressed with the confidence both the midwives and women displayed in allowing labour to progress without invasive examinations. Each birth I attended was equally wonderful and peaceful and would leave me full of motivation, excitement and an ever growing passion for midwifery and normal birth.

Prior to my placement here I had very limited experience in water birth as this was not a service that was widely available where I train. However, I feel that my experience of water birth at Montrose Maternity was the best possible introduction I could have received and this  left me confident in providing water birth.

I am extremely grateful to the women and midwives of Montrose for the experiences I had during my time there. I feel that I made an excellent choice in choosing Montrose Maternity for my elective placement and believe my practice and passion for normal birth have greatly benefited from my time there.

April 2010