One applying every minute

With the current phenomenon of the Television show ‘One born every minute’ and the recent hit BBC drama ‘Call the midwife’ applications for midwifery have increased.

These successful TV series have caused a mini-boom in the industry with applications in 2012 increasing by 20 percent from last year.

BBC drama ‘Call the midwife’

‘Call the midwife’ gathered an average viewing audience of around nine million, proving to be very popular. The drama highlights the plight of mums in London during the 1950s and shows a newly qualified midwife who begins her career alongside other nursing nuns. The series shows the harrowing, poverty stricken times and the complications midwifes faced. However, there is a light-hearted aspect to the drama that shows the joyous roles within midwifey.Kathryn Ratcliffe, a community midwife in Long Eaton has been in midwifery for nearly 30 years. Working in hospitals and on the community as well as being a part of many new projects, Kathryn has seen many changes to the job role of a midwife in the past 30 years.

‘There is a lot more paperwork as with many other jobs these days, we are involved in the social aspects of midwifery a great deal and there are much more obstacles we face as a public service. For example the multi cultural communities we work in mean we face language barriers effecting our communication with patients and obviously birth rates have risen since I first began. This means there is a lot more pressure on midwifes and there simply isn’t enough midwifes to meet the targets.’

The NHS are constantly battling with the health issues caused by drinking, smoking, drugs and obesity is a huge problem in this country. Midwifes also face the battle trying to warn their women of the dangers and there job is made harder due to health problems such as obesity.

‘Times have changed and technology has developed so we have better equipment and the standards of the health service are better, but the job is no longer about simply delivering babies and looking after pregnant women. We have to identify deviation from the normal and refer our women to the appropriate consultant. Making sure the right person gets the right care.’

Equally, although times are tough for midwifes in this country Kathryn highlights how there are advantages to the depths and extents of their job expentancies.

‘There are more policies in place to keep staff, mums and babies safe and although we deal with a lot more as midwifes these days it brings a variety to the job. Each day is not the same, and on the community we help families from all cultures, backgrounds and positions.’

‘Call the midwife’ shows through it’s storylines how the art and science of midwifery has progressed over the last 50 years but the basic needs of women and their babies has remained unchanged.

Kathryn shares her views on the show

‘One born every minute’ is a reality show which shows footage from inside the labour ward. Although the programmes very popular to the public and supposed to be a ‘reality’ show, the show isn’t as appreciated by midwifes themselves.

‘I have seen it, but I wouldn’t particularly sit down and watch it, firstly it’s too much like being at work! I just feel shows like that are somewhat unethical. I know the women agree to be filmed and it’s great to show people what the birth process is like, but they chose the women that are most entertaining to watch.’

TV depictions of birth can be annoying for midwifes as the drama of giving birth has to be contained to short episodes with as much excitement, alarm, noise and agitation as possible. The advantage to these shoes is they have definitley increased peoples interest in the job.

‘It’s great that shows like these have influenced people to want to join midwifery, I’m not entirely sure they understand how much of a demanding job it is, from just watching ‘one born every minute’ but it’s great people want to. It is a very rewarding job, meeting the women and families and supporting people is a great feeling.’

To become a midwife there are more requirements than there used to be, you must hold a pre-registration qualification in midwifery at degree level. It’s great that entertainment such as these shows can have a positive effect on our country, an increase in people wanting to do a worthy, respected job is always a success.

 

If your interested in becoming a midwife there are some relevant links below

http://www.nhscareers.nhs.uk/midwife_entry.shtml – NHS careers

http://www.babycentre.co.uk/midwives/midwifery-training/how-to-train-to-be-a-midwife/ – More info on being a midwife

http://info.britishjournalofmidwifery.com – All the best info