I’ve had so many messages lately from people considering going into Midwifery but wondering how the shifts work and if you actually get a life alongside the job, so I thought I’d share some details and then share a few of my latest rotas to show you how much I work and the kinds of shifts I get.
All the details are below, including my schedules, and I have also filmed a youtube video on the topic if that is something you would be interested in watching instead of scrolling through lots of words – up to you!
Shift Requests
Obviously every unit is different and some hospitals run on a self-rostering basis, but I believe the majority run the way my hospital does where you get a set number of requests every month that are “guaranteed”. In my trust it is 4, so I can request to have a day off, or request to work a certain shift up to 4 times a month, and they should be pretty much guaranteed.
You can be quite clever with it if you’re organised and ensure you get the odd long weekend etc off without taking annual leave, as if you, for example, requested to work Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday of one week (bearing in mind most weeks you do 3 shifts a week) and then used your 4th request to request the following Monday off, then you would be guaranteed to be off from the Thursday to the Monday without taking annual leave, which is a complete winner! It would mean that you wouldn’t have any more requests for that month, but its a good way of making it work.
Contract details
The shifts you work do depend on your contract. Obviously, the number of hours you are contracted to do, but also if you have any extenuating circumstances or need a flexible working contract.
My trust, and, I believe most other trusts, don’t run on a set rotating shift pattern, but you can ask for a flexible working agreement on your contract with the hospital to work certain shifts in a pattern due to things like childcare. If you have one of these, you agree on certain shifts you will work, generally on a 2 weekly pattern, so you always know which you will be working. I don’t have one of those (as we don’t have kids or extenuating circumstances) so I pretty much work what I’m given, aside from my 4 requests a month.
Regarding hours, my contract is classified as “Full-time” but I don’t work the full 37.5 hours, instead, I work 36 hours a week. Not a huge difference and doesn’t make a huge difference in pay, but makes a HUGE difference in my work-life balance. This is because every 12.5 hour shift includes a half hour unpaid break. So three shifts a week actually only adds up to 36 hours worked. So every few weeks, you need to do a fourth shift or “make-up-shift” to make up the extra 1.5 hours a week that you haven’t worked. I have chosen not to do this, so I get paid for 36 hours instead of 37.5 but only ever do 3 shifts a week.
Annual Leave
Your annual leave allowance varies depending on how long you’ve worked continuously for the NHS, and also varies depending on how many hours you have on your contract.
The standard allowance on first starting working for the NHS is 27 days plus bank holidays, but you always take it in hours, so you actually get 202.5 hours plus bank holidays – this is so you get the same amount of annual leave as someone who works shorter days but in a higher quantity – a week off is still the number of hours you are contracted to work that week, regardless of whether that is 3 shifts or 5 – fair really.
So if I want a day off as annual leave in the hospital, I take 12 hours of leave (1 shift) and that means I am guaranteed to only work two shifts that week.
Actual Rota
Ok, so now we’ve covered the nitty gritty details that affect everything, let’s have a look at a couple of my rotas that I’ve worked in the last year, so you can see how my 36 hour contract pans out in practice and the kind of shifts you will work if you become a midwife.
I’ve picked out a few months that give a real idea of what shifts I work…
Long Day = 07.30-20.00
Long Night = 19.30-08.00
I’ve labelled the months A, B, C & D just for confidentiality so you don’t know exact dates that I worked – they were not in this order and were not consecutive months.
MONTH A
This month was mostly days, with a handful of night shifts thrown in. This is the balance that I prefer – I don’t like doing loads of nights if I can help it! I also had 12 hours of annual leave in the first week, which I tend to do to lighten the workload rather than take set blocks off – at least while we are saving for the wedding and not planning any travel…
| Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Saturday | Sunday |
| Long Day | Long Day | 12 Hrs AL | ||||
| Long Day | Long Night | Long Night | ||||
| Long Day | Long Day | Long Day | ||||
| Long Day | Long Day | Long Night | ||||
| Long Night | Long Day | Long Day |
MONTH B
This month had a few more nights in it, and a bit more time working on the weekends (bearing in mind that a Friday night wipes out Saturday too)
| Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Saturday | Sunday |
| Long Day | Long Day | Long Day | ||||
| Long Night | Long Night | Long Night | ||||
| Long Night | Long Night | Long Night | ||||
| Long Day | Long Day | Long Night | ||||
| Long Day | Long Night | Long Day |
MONTH C
This month was pretty tough – lots of nights in blocks, with very little recovery time between. This month I just wanted to show, not to emphasise how tough nights are but more to demonstrate the real difference that can happen month to month when the rota is concerned.
| Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Saturday | Sunday |
| Long Day | Long Night | Long Day | ||||
| Long Night | Long Night | Long Night | ||||
| Long Night | Long Night | Long Night | ||||
| Long Night | Long Night | Long Night | ||||
| Long Day | Long Night | Long Day |
MONTH D
Bit of a more gentle month with fewer nights and also 24 hours of annual leave meaning I had two weeks where I only had 2 shifts instead of 3.
| Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Saturday | Sunday |
| Long Night | Long Day | Long Day | ||||
| Long Day | Long Day | Long Day | ||||
| 12 Hrs AL | Long Day | Long Day | ||||
| Long Day | Long Day | Long Day | ||||
| 12 Hrs AL | Long Night | Long Night |
So that gives you a bit of an overview of how the scheduling works for me working as a full time midwife on a 36 hour contract. My hours and schedule will be changing completely in a few weeks when I go into Community so I will definitely share that with you too.
Obviously some weeks and some months are easier than others schedule-wise, but then your pay is affected hugely by those weeks and months that are tougher (see my What Does A Newly-Qualified Midwife Get Paid? post and video for more information).
I hope that this post has helped give you a bit more of an insight into how the rota works as a midwife in the UK – obviously each hospital varies and some hospitals do a lot more of the shorter shifts, whereas my hospital tends to focus more on 12.5 hour shifts rather than early/late shifts – but it should give you an idea of how your work-life balance can work as a midwife and what kind of shifts you will most likely be working.
Please leave any comments or questions below!
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