Midwifery Career Guide

Working as a midwife is considered one of the most rewarding vocational career choices, and midwives have been an instrumental part of society for centuries. However, being a midwife is not just cuddling new babies! It involves providing acute medical care and monitoring to labouring mothers and vulnerable newborns, often in emergency situations. This career choice requires years of study and can be physically and emotionally demanding.Despite the challenges, midwifery is still a popular career choice and can offer job satisfaction that is hard to match with any other job role.

In this Career Guide, we’ll delve into a career as a midwife – how to become qualified, what the job entails, career prospects, salary and more.

Potential Roles in Midwifery

Women and babies receiving maternity care come into contact with many healthcare professionals, the most common being midwives, radiographers, support workers and obstetricians (read about other health-related job roles in the Healthcare and Medical Career Guide). Radiographers and obstetricians undergo very specific training, which is different from that of a midwife.

Here, we’ll focus on two job roles in midwifery: midwife and maternity support worker.

Midwives are trained, qualified professionals who must undergo a compulsory 3-year degree to practice and maintain ongoing registration with a professional body. Pregnant women receive care from a midwife throughout their pregnancy. They will see community midwives before and after childbirth but will be under the care of a hospital midwife when they go through labour and delivery. A midwife’s job is to facilitate a safe pregnancy and birth so that the mother and baby are well cared for and healthy throughout.

Maternity support workers help midwives and provide emotional and practical support for women in hospital giving birth and in the early days of having a newborn. A job as a maternity support worker requires no specific training. It relies more on appropriate characteristics, personality traits and soft skills to perform the job well. Other names for this job include maternity healthcare assistant, midwifery support worker and, in the US, midwife assistant.

Salary and Career Progression

There is reasonable scope for progression in the field of midwifery, both through further training and experience.

Midwives in the UK can climb the career ladder with experience, moving up the NHS Agenda for Change salary increments yearly. A midwife becomes a Band 5 immediately after qualifying and then can apply for promotions to enter Band 6, 7 and beyond. Each pay band has a fixed salary range, as follows:

Band 5: £28,407 – £34,581
Band 6: £35,392 – £42,618
Band 7: £43,742 – £50,056
Band 8 (a-d): £50,952 – £96,376

Midwives also receive additional pay for working unsociable hours, including weekends, evenings and nights.

Pay is higher in the US, with an average salary of $112,000 and some Certified Nurse-Midwives earning up to $160,000.

Maternity support workers in the UK also sit within the NHS Agenda for Change pay scale but have an upper ceiling of Band 4 unless they take on further training to become qualified midwives to move up to Band 5. Maternity support workers with little or no experience typically start at Band 2 and can move through Band 3 and up to Band 4 by completing training courses to develop their skills. The pay bands are as follows:

Band 2: £22,383 fixed
Band 3: £22,816 – £24,336
Band 4: £25,147 – £27,596

In the US, many midwife assistants are paid hourly, earning around $49 per hour, on average.. Those who are salaried typically start at around $50,000 per year. The pay scale can be broad, and depends on location, employer and experience.

Qualifications, Education and Experience

Midwives must be qualified and registered with the relevant regulatory body to practice. They need the following:

• 4-5 GCSEs at grades 4-9 (C-A*) in the UK / High school diploma in the US
• 2-3 A Levels to access university (UK)/SATs or ACTs if required (US)
• A Bachelor’s degree in midwifery or a postgraduate midwifery course if you hold a degree in another subject (UK)
• An ACME-accredited midwifery course, usually a Bachelor’s degree, and ideally, a Bachelor of Science in Nursing degree (US)
• Qualified nurses who undergo additional midwifery training become Certified Nurse-Midwives in the US
• Registration with the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) to practice in the UK and with The American College of Nurse-Midwives to practice in the US
• Ongoing continual professional development to demonstrate learning and experience
• Periodical revalidation to prove that you are meeting training and practice requirements to continue practising as a midwife
• You must pass a criminal record check

Maternity support workers do not need a university degree to work in this job role, but they can benefit from the following:

• Some GCSEs at grades 4-9 (C-A*) in the UK
• Some A Levels (UK)
• High school diploma
• Completing a Midwife Assistant course if working in the US
• Experience working in a caring role
• An NVQ in health or social care may be advantageous
• You must pass a criminal record check

Skills

Midwives and maternity support workers rely heavily on interpersonal skills, compassion and empathy. These soft skills are just as important as tangible skills, like numerical, IT and literacy skills.

Midwives must have the academic ability to obtain a Bachelor’s degree as well as possessing the following skills:

• Good numeracy skills and grasp of mathematics to work out drug calculations safely
• Excellent communication skills: written, verbal and non-verbal
• Kindness and compassion
• Empathy
• Ability to stay calm under pressure
• Acceptance of different lifestyles
• Non-judgemental
• Intuitive
• Ability to cope with blood, surgical procedures and other medical situations
• A good level of physical ability and fitness
• A driving license if working in the community

Maternity support workers can benefit from the following:

• Patience
• Compassion and kindness
• Ability to stay calm under pressure
• Interpersonal skills
• Understanding when to seek help
• Not squeamish about seeing medical procedures
• Non-judgmental and accepting of all lifestyle choices
• A good level of physical ability and fitness
• A driving license if working in the community

Working Hours

Typical working hours for midwives and maternity support workers depend upon their clinical setting. Community midwives tend to work office hours of 9am to 5pm, running clinics in local community centres or visiting women in their homes. There may be some element of on-call rotation to cover home deliveries, in which case, you would need to attend the birth at any time of the day or night.

Midwives and maternity assistants working in hospitals work shifts, as they must be present to care for inpatients around the clock. Some night shift work is to be expected. Shifts typically last for 8-12 hours whether practising in the UK or the US.

Notable Locations

Every pregnant woman is entitled to maternity care, so midwives and assistants have the potential to work in any location throughout the UK and US. Depending on where you live and which type of work you prefer, you can find jobs in cities, towns or rural areas.

Working in a city hospital is fast-paced and busy, and you may find they have a wider demographic of patients than smaller towns or rural areas.

Notable Companies

All NHS city hospitals have a maternity department, and some cities have a dedicated NHS Women’s and Children’s hospital for maternity services, including

• St Mary’s Hospital, Manchester
• Birmingham Women’s and Children’s Hospital, Birmingham
• Leeds General Infirmary, Leeds
• Chelsea and Westminster Hospital, London
• The Royal London Hospital, London
• St Mary’s Hospital, London

If you live outside a city, you may have to travel to find your nearest maternity provision. District general hospitals tend to have smaller maternity units and patient caseloads.

Midwives and maternity support workers can also work for private healthcare providers outside the NHS. Some NHS hospitals, including Chelsea and Westminster and Guys’ and St Thomas’ Hospitals, offer private care. Dedicated private healthcare providers include HCA Healthcare and Bupa, as well as several smaller specialist private maternity providers across the UK.

In the US, most of the well-known hospitals have dedicated maternity services, including:

• Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN
• Northwestern Memorial Hospital, Chicago, IL
• Pennsylvania Hospital, Philadelphia, PA
• The Mount Sinai Hospital, New York, NY
• UCLA Medical Center, Santa Monica, CA

Next Steps

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