How to stay motivated as a student midwife

There are times as a student when you lose motivation for your course. But how can you find that passion again? Louisa shares her tips in this video.

Hey y'all, welcome back to my channel Being Louisa.

So today's video is going to be how I stay motivated in midwifery.

Today’s video is also going to be sponsored by Nurses.co.uk, which is an online website where you can find all things nursing from job posts to blog posts and the midwifery section, which is expanding with us!

Read more

• How to change your career and become a midwife

• How to be successful when applying to university for a midwifery course

• How to qualify for and find a job as a midwife

As I said, today's video is going to be about how I stay motivated.

This was so relevant for me about a month ago when I was coming to the end of one segment of placement which brings on labour and delivery, which you guys will see a video about next week or at the end of this week - I'm not sure!

It was very hard at that point, I know what happened but I will talk a lot more about that in my labour and delivery placement as a second-year video, that I will be doing soon.

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But basically stuff happened and my motivation was dwindling, my passion and love for midwifery was dwindling.

At one point I was like ‘I wish I could have that passion and that fire for midwifery like I did before I started the course’ and I see so many people on Instagram have because they haven't started yet or in their first year.

It had just gone, it was just like the stress of uni, the stress of placement and doing assignments - it was all just getting on top of me. So here are some of the things that I did to stay motivated.

Remember why you started this journey

One - I kept on reminding myself of why I first got into midwifery, which for me was god.

First, he is one who told me to do this, secondly, I felt I'd be able to help women - I was able to support women, I'm able to be there for women which is just so lovely, it's such an honour.

It's not just the women as well, it's also their partners and it's just really nice to think about helping this new family, it's just it's a privilege and I just remember how lucky I am to have this privilege in the first place, even if I didn't like Hospital politics.

And then the thing I had to remember is my hopes and dreams for the future, and when I would be a qualified Midwife and after I've gained my experience I will be able to practice the way I want to practice when I move, so I just have to keep thinking about those things.

These other things and the reasons why I want to be a midwife, why I want to continue doing this and how I'm gonna continue doing this, and that was a really important thing for me.

Just remember these things.

I'm the type of person that thrives off of plans for the future, even though these plans don't always come true, I thrive off of just like knowing it’s a possibility.

So when it comes to midwifery it seems like these plans are actually working out - I'm almost at the end of my second year, I'm about to be a third year in September.

It's just scary but it's scary that these plans are working out because this is God's will for me, but it's like exciting all at the same time!

Sticking with my faith

Second thing I do to stay motivated, which may not apply to a lot of you, but I just pray to God a lot. I remember it's his will for my life, it's his desire, it's his plan.

Who am I to say no to his plan?!

Also, I could have never imagined this for my life.

I remember one time I thought about it because a girl I knew I was going to do it, and it's so funny because I didn't remember this until my first year of midwifery, and I realized how I knew this girl ages ago who was wanted to be midwife.

It was hilarious to me because I was put spent so much time with this girl. I thought I was too emotional to become a midwife and what I had dreamed for my life was basically being an artist.

I wanted to travel the world and take photographs, like capture the beauty of the world basically.

I never dreamed of this for my life but God did, he has a bigger purpose for my life than I could have ever made and he's making all my heart’s desires come true.

He's reigniting all these things in me that I thought I was never gonna be able to do, and he's saying ‘you should do it because I'm here and I'm with you, you did it through my strength’ so that's enough that's kept me really motivated.

My student career is short compared to my career as a qualified midwife

Number three is thinking that this time as a student is short compared to my career as a midwife, and that's what I just have to think.

It's a short period of my life where I'm not in charge, I'm not in control I can't speak up for myself - that’s a lie, okay!

I'm Louisa, I speak up for myself - I sometimes speak up too much for myself and it gets me in trouble! I've been like learning to like restrain that.

But this is only a short period of my life where, as a student, you're not always taken seriously or you can't speak up for yourself.

You can speak up for yourself because I do it in a respectful way and in a way that was not pushed too far across the line.

I just think this is just such a short period in my life that will be over sooner than I realize. It's scary to think that but then it's also like thrilling to think that because I have to like hopefully choose where I work, which hopefully will be a place where we have the same values and opinions and thoughts on how midwifery should be and how we want to practice.

So I just think about how this is a short period and there will be a much longer period where it's my career as a midwife and I get to go around the world and do things that I love.

Always try and see the good in the bad

Number four is, I don't know if this something I did as this was something God did for me, but I guess the way that you could do it if you don't believe in God is you can see you have to be open to see the good in people and the good in the situation when you feel like you're drowning in a sea of negativity.

I thought I was drowning, I was getting so lost in all the Hospital politics, the hospital staff and the hierarchy within the hospital.

I was getting so lost in that and I felt so drowned and I just felt my spirits were being beaten and God presented this family to me and it was amazing.

The moment I saw them I just knew this is why I wanted to do midwifery.

So lately I've been changing my mind on what direction I want to go.

Before I didn’t want to specialise - well actually, at the beginning I wanted to specialise as perinatal mental health Midwife, then I kind I didn’t want to specialise at all.

But lately, I've been thinking and hearing all these stories about how black and Asian and minority ethnicity women are more likely to die in pregnancy and childbirth than white people, so it made me think that I’d like to not specialise but be an advocate for the black, Asian and ethnic minority people.

But then I met this family who was not any of those things, and I don't know but at that moment I met them and they opened their mouths I was like ‘ah, you're my people, it was love at first sight for me!

I think but it was funny because I was so open to finding that positivity because I was struggling so much and I was just like open to it.

I am ready to just see where God takes me and it was amazing.

It was funny because I didn't even think I was gonna get delivery and yet I was still so happy.

Usually, if I think I'm not gonna get a delivery I'm upset because I was behind on my numbers but I didn’t care, but this family were hilarious and I was full-on in love with these two people.

I felt like I was with friends, I felt like I was in the company of friends but yeah because I was open to receiving them and receiving that positive energy I got it.

God placed them in my life at that time, I was like open to it and they were sweethearts.

I loved them so much that I after my night shift I went home and then I went back to the hospital just to see them and be like ‘ are you guys okay? I hope you're okay! I'm so glad I got to see you before you went home’. It was lovely.

See friends and family

Another thing I redid that kept me motivated was that I hung out with my best friend a lot actually, like my secondary school best friend and then with my uni best friend.

I felt like surrounding myself with that positivity and also like their problems really helped.

I've already surrounded myself with people who support me and who will lift me up and who helped me in any way they can really help.

My secondary school best friend helped me with editing my essay, made sure I spelt everything right and then my uni friend helped me to lift myself up and we lifted each other up when it came to midwifery.

So it’s really good to surround yourself with people who love you, people who support you, people who will cheer you on, people who will give you a big head when you need it - it's amazing to surround yourself with those people.

So, those are my tips on how to stay motivated.

I hope they were helpful, I hope you guys liked them and until next time, keep on being you!

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