Gaining Confidence as a New Midwife
Five Tips to Gaining Confidence as a New Midwife
You have finished midwifery school and passed your boards!! You will be starting a new midwifery job and have a mix of emotions. One minute you’re excited, then you feel anxious and fear even creeps in at times. Are you really ready? This question seems to cross your mind a million times. Will you remember what you learned in school? How will you ever manage patients all on your own? These are questions that I asked myself before beginning a new job. What if I told you that you are ready. You will be able to manage your patients and you will be a great midwife. It’s ok to have mixed emotions, its normal. You are about to embark on a new journey. It will have ups and downs, but you can do it. As a new midwife it always feels amazing to get reassurance and to have a pep talk from time to time. So here it is! I wanted to share five ways that you can gain confidence as a new midwife.
Use your Resources
At this point your mind is full of a plethora of knowledge. However, there is no way that you will remember criteria for every diagnosis, medication dosages, or even treatments. Everyone has a different clinical experience. For example, you may have treated less gynecological patients at your clinic or may have seen one menopausal patient. On the other hand, someone else may feel like an expert in menopausal women. There are many resources available to help you feel confident in your management and treatment. I would recommend signing up for an UpToDate account to have access to the latest evidence-based care. Many employers are now providing access to this resource. I would recommend asking before you pay because it can be pretty expensive. Other apps I would recommend include OB wheel, CDC Contraception, CDC STI, Bishop Scores, ASCCP guidelines, MenoPro. These are apps that I use on the daily basis when treating patients. You literally have the answers at your fingertips!
If possible, I would find someone at your job that you feel comfortable with asking questions to. If you are in the job searching process, be sure that you choose an environment to work in that is open to new graduates and provides a space where you feel ok asking for help. This is a very important factor in growing and developing in your first few years as a midwife and was a criteria for me when finding a job. It is great to have a midwife mentor that you can go to for guidance.
Use your experiences as opportunities to learn
In the first six months on my new job, I decided to keep a reflection journal. My goal was to write down my feeling, new things I learned and ways to improve. We have a habit of reflecting on the mistakes we make or ways we need to improve. Each day I try to find one thing that I did good for the day. This helps you to build your confidence as a midwife and celebrate your wins for each day.
Even on the days that you feel overwhelmed, stressed and ready to give up, remember that it won’t last forever. After a bad day, I focus on the fact that I made it even though it was hard. This reminds you of your power and that you can be successful even outside of your comfort zone. Use your experiences as opportunities to learn. For example, lets pretend you encountered a shoulder dystocia, or treated a patient for a diagnosis you were not familiar with. Be sure to write down what did, what you learned, and how you could improve. Trust me you will learn so much by doing this and will feel more confident the next time you experience something similar.
Learn to use your voice
As a midwife you must be able to advocate for your patients. Be sure they are well informed and able to make decisions that work best for them. In the birth world we can be pressured to follow the physician model of care or practices followed at our institutions. Remember that as midwives our goal is to make birth as normal as possible. There of course are many situations where we collaborate with physicians and cannot always follow the midwifery model and that’s ok.
The more you advocate for your patients and speak up the easier it will become I promise. I used to think that I did not know enough to give my input but that was not true. Be sure that you are providing input into your staff meeting at work. Your voice does matter, and your patients and community are counting on you to make a difference. If your institution is practicing things that are not evidenced- based, you can bring this up and help to make change.
Trust your intuition
As a new midwife know that you can make great decisions for your patients! At the beginning you will feel like you need more reassurance and that is ok. We all have said to ourselves at some point, “Something told me I should have done that”. I am a spiritual person, so I believe God and the holy spirit talk to me all the time. If you are a spiritual person, listen to what god is telling you. Realizing that I can trust myself with decisions took a little time. But the more you trust yourself you will become more confident. This skill takes some practice, but you will become more comfortable with it. I promise.
Be Kind and Patient with Yourself
Being a midwife is not an easy job. It’s very rewarding, to help women and to catch babies. However, there are days you feel overwhelmed and drained especially as a new midwife. Do not beat yourself up. Its going to take time to adjust to a new job, learn your flow, and to feel proficient. Don’t speak negatively about yourself. Positive affirmations are a great way to begin and end your day. Start and end the day saying something nice about yourself. Remember that you are still learning! I had to keep reminding myself of that.
Overall gaining confidence as a midwife comes with time. However, I hope these five steps will help you in your journey. You can always come back and read this when you are feeling down or just need a pep talk. I am rooting for you and cheering you on!
Until next time…….
Jashia P.