So this week was my last week on Community – it was only a short placement but it feels like it has whizzed by!
It was a really nice week with a real variety of things to do. We did some clinics, and I did few more sweeps (and I found out that the lady I gave a sweep to last week went into labour the next day – yay!).
We also did some visits this week to see ladies who are newly postnatal. I’ve always liked doing postnatal visits. There is something about coming to see someone in their own environment and being one of the privileged few to enter the new baby bubble of their home environment – it’s so special. People are just so welcoming to midwives – and you wouldn’t believe the number of cups of tea we get offered (which is such a change from work in the hospital when you barely get a chance to have a sip of water, let alone a cup of tea!)
We get to talk to people and hear about everything went with their birth – whether that was an amazing positive experiences or whether it was a bit more of a negative experience – and sometimes people need a bit more emotional support or even need to do a bit of a “de-brief”, but that is the blessing of these visits being in their own space – it is their safe space and they can be totally honest and open.
We also dealt with some safeguarding cases this week including needing to make a referral to social care. It’s not the best part of the job but it is the midwife’s responsibility to make sure that social care are aware if there is a situation where the unborn child might need extra care or support to be safe and secure. Thankfully in this case, they did an assessment really quickly and there is no further action required.
And that’s it, my short community placement is over, and with it the last bit of antenatal care on the course! Eek! It really feels like it’s whizzing by at the moment – and I’m hurtling towards qualification and life as a qualified midwife!
The next few weeks I’m on a bit more study time – I’ve got my safeguarding module to do, which is an online forum written module, so I need to write chunks on each subject for the forum and then tweak them into some form of essay afterwards for submission, so I’ll be working on that and also trying to finish up things like drug workbooks and reflective essays (the underlying written work that runs alongside the course is something I certainly won’t miss – I can see that it is important but there is just so much to do!)
So, 4 weeks where I’m off on study time (I’ve got two uni days but otherwise just study time at home) and then I’m head first into my final ten weeks, all of which are placement weeks!
Image by Anders Jildén
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