Friday's home birth was my 50th birth on my license, marking the point where I've officially attended as many births as a midwife as I had attended as a student. One hundred first breaths, one hundred new humans.
I applaud all of my classmates who graduated from school with their 50 managements and embarked on independent practice. I am only starting to feel confident in my skills as a midwife so to be on my own right off the bat would have been very stressful. I am very grateful for being in a practice with experienced midwives as my mentors and guides. It's also been great to be in a practice that does approximately 150-200 births a year. Being busy has given me the opportunity to attend a lot of births in a short period of time, allowing me to practice and perfect my midwifery skills every day!
As I embark on my next 50 births, I am making a conscious decision to become more integrated in my local midwifery community. I also want to promote midwifery by embracing student midwives and help them in anyway I can. I find mentoring student midwives a great way to share what I've learned and to also reflect on my own practice. They offer an astute mirror to view your practice style if you're open enough to respect their thoughts, questions and opinions.
Onward I go!
100 new humans! egads!
ReplyDeleteCongrats to you, lovely lady! You never cease to amaze me, not only in your care of mothers and babies, but your strength of character and drive in all you do. Watching you cross the country on a bike, never having been a cyclist, was so awe-inspiring. Our community is SO LUCKY to have you. I hope you can attend my next birth because you are truly one-of-a-kind!
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