What is a Midwife and midwifery?

The term 'midwife' means 'with woman'. The concept of partnership between the woman and the midwife is fundamental to midwifery practice and is based on mutual trust, support and collaboration. The midwife uses midwifery skills to provide care that is individual to each woman and recognises the woman's ownership of her birth experience. Care for women experiencing a physiological pregnancy and birth is the core of practice of the midwife. The midwife is the key professional providing continuity of care and promoting choice and control to women in pregnancy and birth, and to women and their babies following birth.

Course content

This four-year programme will be offered in partnership with two linked maternity care providers: The Coombe Women's Hospital and The Rotunda Hospital. The first three years combine learning in university and midwifery practice in the maternity hospitals and will take place during the academic year with the usual academic holidays. The final year will include a 36-week period of internship in midwifery practice.

This programme will provide you with the knowledge and skills to meet the needs of women and their families in an individualised, culturally sensitive manner. There are two components to the midwifery degree programme - a theoretical component and a midwifery practice component.

Like all professional courses in health sciences, Midwifery places extra demands on students' time. It can be demanding, both physically and emotionally and so you should ensure that you are in a position to fully engage with the course during your time in College.

Theoretical component

The theoretical component of the course will be taught in the Trinity College School of and Midwifery, D'Olier Street and in the Trinity Centre for Health Sciences in St. James's Hospital. Teaching methods include lectures, small-group teaching, tutorials and practice classes. You will typically spend 3-4 days in theory classes each week and each day will consist of approximately 6 hours per day in lectures, tutorials and laboratory practicals.

The programme content will cover such areas as:

• Midwifery practice - knowledge and skills
• Communication and interpersonal skills
• Professional, personal, ethical and legal issues
• Knowledge base for midwifery practice to include: biological sciences, psychology, pharmacology, non-pharmaceutical approaches
• Social theory for midwifery practice
• Research
• Health promotion
• Maternal and social care services in Ireland

Midwifery practice component

For the practice component you will be based in one of the maternity care providers: the Coombe Women and Infants University Hospital or the Rotunda Hospital. Midwifery students will also undertake other clinical placements, for example, mental health, medical and surgical. In the first three years students will be required to complete three, four to six-week clinical placements, which will consist of 30-35 hours (approximately) supernumerary practice per week in a practice setting. The final year will include a 36-week period of internship in midwifery practice.

Midwifery clinical placements take place throughout the four years of the programme. You will begin your first midwifery clinical placement in November of the first year of the programme. Before this placement you will have spent approximately one day per week with lecturers and midwives in the maternity hospitals.

Which maternity care provider will you train with?

After you accept an offer to this programme, you will receive a welcome pack from Trinity College. This pack contains a form asking you to indicate which maternity care provider you would prefer to be linked with. Requests are dealt with on a first-come, first-served basis. Where possible you will be assigned your first choice, however, if the number of applicants exceeds the number of places available you will be assigned your second choice. A reserve list is held and if a vacancy arises it may be possible to transfer to your first choice.

Assessment

Assessment of learning in midwifery practice is an important component of the programme and will take place throughout the programme. Other forms of assessment include written examinations and assignments, presentations, debates, teaching sessions, etc.

Career opportunities

As a graduate you will be eligible to apply to have your name entered in the midwives division of the Register of Nurses maintained by An Bord Altranais and begin your career as a midwife. Midwives may choose to work in a variety of health care settings. The majority of midwives practise within the Health Service, in maternity hospitals, maternity units of large and small general hospitals, in private maternity hospitals, etc. Midwives can also practice independently and there is a small-group of midwives who do so. There are also a number of midwife-led initiatives being developed.

Midwives have an option to develop their career in many different ways; progress is along three broad pathways: practice, management, education and research. The opportunities are endless. Midwives educated in the Republic of Ireland may move freely within the European Union and in most countries worldwide.

Further information

http://nursing-midwifery.tcd.ie/undergraduate/pre-registration/
E-mail: nursing.midwifery@tcd.ie
Tel: +353 1 896 2692