Kirsten's Story: Completing Third Year as a Student Midwife

What does it actually feel like to hit your 40th birth, hand in your dissertation, and land your very first job as a newly qualified midwife?

I've been quizzing my lovely customer Kirsten - a mum of four who has just completed her third and final year of student midwife training! She shares the reality of third-year pressure, how her family supported her through the madness, her emotional 40th birth story, and her best advice for anyone stepping onto the ward.

The Journey & Getting Started

Q. When did you know that you wanted to be a midwife and what led you to it?

After having my eldest 14 years ago, I didn’t really have any ambitions other than being a mother. Once I’d seen everything the midwives do, it ignited something in me. It wasn’t until I had my third child in 2015 that I really cemented in myself that I have to chase this dream. It took going back to do my functional skills, GCSEs etc. to finally get where I am today.

Q. When was your first day and when did you complete your third year of training? What was your last day like?

My first day was daunting. As a “mature student” I wasn’t sure what to expect - seeing other mums and older students definitely helped ease my nerves. Placement on the other hand was a different story. Having only ever been a patient in the hospital, I was way out of my depth, but having the support from the midwives (who have been where I was) certainly helped.

I am currently finalising my placement hours, which is so bizarre - knowing I have all my competencies complete and now just waiting to get these hours done. I know it will be a very strange last day when that comes at the end of August!

The Reality of Third Year: Pressures & Balancing Life

Q. How did you feel differently going into your third year than you did in your second year?

The expectation of being a third year is somewhat higher than 2nd year. Having to consolidate everything and taking the lead in care more is a lot - a lot of pressure, especially now! But the good thing is, we’re not expected to know everything. We still have the support from the midwives on shift and it’s okay to not know everything!

Q. What were the big milestones that you achieved in the final months of your last year, and did you do something to recognise and honour your achievements? 

Big milestones - it's crazy because each thing we do is big! One of the ones is obviously our 40th birth. Even though what matters is caring for the woman and families, it's the end goal, isn't it? The final thing we need to qualify. In my Trust they have a beautiful mural of rainbow wings on the maternity floor. The midwife I worked with gave me a sash and a crown with "40 births" on it, and it's a big thing to have your photo taken in front of the wings.

Q. Are there lots of things going on all at once at the end like signing off proficiencies and doing exams and finishing a dissertation? How do you balance all the clinical proficiencies with the academic requirements?

Yeah, the last few months are always wild: pending results of dissertation, the final assignment, chasing signatures to get your final proficiencies signed - it is a lot. There's a lot of pressure to get everything done before we can register for our NMC PIN. We are supported so much by the university though to help us meet our goals.

Honestly, I don't even know how I managed to balance everything. Being a mum of four, assignments, exams, placement requirements - I look back and I ask myself how I have not only managed to do it, but managed to do it with my sanity intact!

Hitting the 40-Birth Milestone

Q. When did you achieve your 40th birth? Did it feel really special? Did you decide to give a keepsake to the baby's family? And did you do anything to treat yourself?

I achieved my 40th birth in July. It was a very speedy birth - mum was incredible, an absolute superstar. The midwives in the room congratulated mum and dad and then congratulated me, much to the confusion of the parents! Once we had explained the importance of this specific birth, they were elated to be a part of it.

I actually bought a little 40th birth postcard from Womb To World, and I wrote a little note to the baby, thanking them for helping make me a midwife. The parents thought it was a beautiful gesture and it's something I’ll forever remember. The parents even asked if I wanted a photo with the baby to commemorate the moment, which is just something I will treasure forever. I did also buy a 40 Births Rosette from you which sits proudly on my desk with a lot of your artwork.

Q. Did you ever worry that you wouldn't get to 40 by the end of your training? If you hadn't facilitated 40 then what would have happened?

I’m quite thankful I was in a very good position to be able to reach my goal before I finished, so it wasn’t something I was worried about. Unfortunately, for a lot of my cohort, they have a lot of students in their Trusts in the same boat, which means they’re still trying to get all their births. I know university and placement are working hard together to ensure everyone has enough time on the Delivery Unit to help them achieve their births on time. If not, they have provisions in place to be able to extend for a couple of weeks.

Placement, Imposter Syndrome & Special Relationships

Q. What's it like on placement as a third year midwife? Do you still get imposter syndrome sometimes? Does it feel sometimes like people expect you to know everything because you're a third year, but you still feel like you're learning all the time?

Oh, imposter syndrome is so real! Doing ward rounds with all the obstetricians and the midwife in charge is always daunting. Thankfully, even though we are senior students, they know we don’t know everything. Even as qualified midwives, they still learn new things every day. It's one of those careers that you never stop learning new things as policies change, reviews come out, we learn from mistakes, and we learn as medicine changes.

Q. Do you feel like others treat you differently when you're a third year? In good ways and bad ways?

I haven’t experienced being treated differently, really. They push you to be more confident in your knowledge and to lead care more, as it’s what we will be doing when we are a newly qualified midwife. But the pushing is always done with kindness, and they wouldn’t do it if they didn’t believe you could do it.

Q. How have your peer relationships made a difference in your third year? Now that you finish studying, will that mean that you won't be working with the same people that were in your cohort?

In third year, I feel like I have become closer to those at my Trust who are training at different universities. We are all cheering each other on, we’re all in the same boat trying to achieve our goals together, so it's nice to have that. Hopefully I will get to work with them once we’ve qualified.

Q. Have you had some really special mentor relationships that have supported you completing your studies?

I have worked with so many amazing midwives over the last 3 years. Each one of them has had a lasting impact on my journey. Some have become very close friends who I genuinely could not have gotten this far without. I’ll forever be thankful to them.

Q. Are there things that you do in the third year that you don't do in the other 2 years? Like NIPE? And writing a dissertation?

We started doing our NIPE training in 2nd year to ensure we had the full knowledge for when we complete our summative NIPEs in 3rd year. 3rd year is more about consolidating our prior learning, being a leader, educating junior students, and getting us ready to become newly qualified midwives.

Family Support & Landing the Job

Q. How did you find managing all the requirements in your final year with being a mother and being there for your family, and looking after yourself?

Honestly, my husband was a huge pillar of support - holding me up when things got too difficult, encouraging me when I needed it, helping me revise, disappearing with the children so I could sit and focus, and proofreading my dissertation a million times. My children were my biggest cheerleaders, celebrating every pass with me and telling me how proud they are of me. To me, that means more than anything.

Q. What was your favourite milestone in your third year? What do you feel most proud of yourself for?

My favourite milestone: getting my job. 100%! It still hasn’t sunk in!

I also had a very special story where my close friend of 17 years or something daft, had her fourth and I was lucky enough to be able to support her during her c-section, in which she found out she was having her first girl after 3 boys.

Q. How long after graduating did you start applying for jobs? What was the interview like?

So we started applying for jobs as soon as they were available. Unfortunately, those are few and far between recently - despite the Health Secretary promising more funding and jobs for us. It's just sad: thousands of students unable to work due to lack of jobs!

The interview was intense. It was a points system with 5 obstetric scenarios to test our knowledge. After it, I genuinely had no idea how it went!

Q. How did you feel when you got offered a job as a midwife? When do you start? Do you know who you'll be working with already because you've been working there before?

I cried. I cried and cried! I had waited all day for the phone call and it was about 5pm when they rang to offer it. I was in disbelief.

I will start my induction process in October, so I will have a month off before things really get going. Yes, with having trained at this Trust, I am thankful to know a lot of the midwives anyway. Some of the other students who trained there were also lucky enough to be offered positions too.

Looking Ahead to the Future

Q. What's it like when you've been studying for years already and then you come to the end of being a student midwife, but at the same time it's the beginning of being a midwife… it must feel odd being at the end and the beginning at the same time? And great I imagine!

It's such a bizarre feeling. I’ve waited so long and worked so hard for this. I don’t think it will really register until I'm in my blues!

Q. When it comes to picking a job, what were the main things you considered when choosing where to work as a new midwife? What advice would you give to someone trying to decide what's right for them?

The support was a huge one for me. Thankfully, seeing it in person working within the Trust, I knew it was where I wanted to be. From the education team, the managers, midwives, obstetricians, support workers - each and every single one of the team are an incredible place of support. It's tough working within the NHS with how tiring and stressful it is; being able to work alongside people you can turn to is always a huge positive.

Look at the Trust values. See how you can instil those into your daily life, and see if those values line up with your views. If they do, go for it! <3

Q. What would be your best advice to a student midwife starting out in their first year? And what was the best advice that you received?

Don’t put pressure on yourself to know everything straight away. Knowledge and information will come. Ask questions: ask why, what, and how come certain things are being done.

Q. How are you feeling about the challenges that we're facing in the UK with over-medicalisation of birth and rising intervention rates - do you feel hopeful that you and your fellow student midwives will be able to make a difference, one birth, one mother and baby at a time? 🩷

It’s a hope of ours. We have to be the change, we have to be the future, and we have to be the ones to ask: Is this necessary? What are the risks of this? Is it beneficial to mum and baby? Work together to reduce interventions.

Image: Kirsten also kindly gave me one of her special memories as a reference for a drawing, which is in my September 2026 student midwife planner

Thank you so much to Kirsten for sharing her amazing journey. It made me feel all emotional reading it! I'd love to highlight more student midwife stories so if you would like to share your story please let me know! And I'll gift you a voucher as a thank you so you can treat yourself to a little something from my shop.

If you're looking ahead to graduation or know a student midwife who is, then you can find lots of new midwife gifts in my shop to treat them to celebrate.