Previous life experiences that led me to midwifery

Everyone has a reason why they got into nursing and midwifery. In this blog, Louisa tells us some of her own life experiences that led her down the path to midwifery!

Hey welcome, welcome back to my channel Being Louisa.

Today's video is going to be all about my previous life experiences that led me to midwifery.

It's also going to be sponsored by Nurses.co.uk - Nurses.co.uk is a online website where they teach you all things nursing and now midwifery, thanks to us!

In the blog posts you can also get tips and tricks on nursing, how to get into nursing school, what it's like, and now midwifery, which is great!

My previous life experiences that kind of led me to midwifery...

I had to think really long and hard about this because, as you guys know if you'd been watching my channel for a very long time, you all know that I always say it's God that led me to midwifery.

I did not think of it because I wanted to be a photographer, but then again one of the specialities I went to specialise in was maternity photography because I've always been fascinated with pregnancy.

That kind of started when I was like 13 and like the whole rave of ‘16 and Pregnant’, that TV show and like there was a UK version - ‘15 and Pregnant’ or ‘Underage and Pregnant’ something like that and so that whole craze happened!

Then that's when I found JesssFam - I can't believe she's been making videos for almost 10 years, I think it’s like 9 years?! Anyway so that's kind of like how I got into pregnancy and birth, and it's like the main experience that led me to it.

But I've always said there was three things that I wanted most in life that I felt would fulfil my soul, and I realised midwifery could kind of lead to all three of these things - I was like; wow I didn't realise that, that's amazing, it's awesome!

That's kinda like one of the things that sold me on midwifery.

I’ve always said that God knew what was in my heart and he knew that this career path could lead me to the things on my heart and I was just think it’s amazing.

My family have also influenced my nurturing side

Also I have a crude tonne of cousins so I was surrounded by babies quite a bit.

Even though I was not the oldest cousin - I'm probably the mid cousin of the older lot - I happen to be the most responsible plus I didn’t really like family gatherings, I’m not really a partier!

So I was the one that got locked with all the little cousins and I would be the unpaid, unofficial babysitter which wasn't fun because if one of those little ones did something wrong I would get shouted at!

I’d be like, I didn't even ask for this!

Anyway, I just have this knack with babies I guess.

It's just like all the overflowing love I have in my body, I don't know I just have this thing with babies.

I'm very patient with them - I'm not patient with normal human beings, like adult human beings I am NOT patient.

That’s a lie, I actually am - the amount of patience I have is pretty decent for adult human beings it's pretty decent, it's a bit more than what regular people have so I am quite patient with adults.

But with babies I have like this immense amount of patience because they can't help themselves, they don't know any better like so I just have an immense amount of patience.

I feel like that kind of like that also led me to this career because I have that exact same amount of patience when I'm looking after a newborn or when I'm trying to teach a mama how to breastfeed - well, not to teach but to help and assist, I should say.

I have so much patience in that situation.

I just pray that one day it will rub off on the right mum who needs the patience and realises that it’s okay and to take time. So I do have quite a bit of patience and that kind of led into it.

Once I became aware of home births, I became so fascinated by them

One my cousin's, their mother had a home birth and that kind of like really fascinated me. I don't know how old I was, I was a teenager.

But because the way she got treated by the her midwives when she had her first baby she didn't like it, so she decided for her second baby she’d have a home birth and that really fascinated me. I loved the idea of it, it just seemed really cool.

Then also Jessica on Jesssfam, she had two home births and I'm just like so fascinated by giving birth at home - what, you can do this?!

So I started research on that and I just fell in love with that. So those are kind of like my experiences that led me to midwifery.

Most of them anyway, that kind of touches the labour, birth and baby side really.

For me, midwifery is about empowering women!

I feel like the main thing that really influenced me into really loving midwifery in the but more woman centered in midwifery.

I love midwifery for the fact that I can advocate for women and I can empower women and I love that so much.

That's my thing.

I’ve wanted to advocate for people for so long, but when midwifery came up - well no, it was more when I realised that I identified myself as beautiful because of beauty standards of this world, and that was just messed up.

I was like, I wonder if other people felt like this and I realised other people my age - well I was 16/17 when this happened I realised a lot of people my age still believe that they had to look to others for validation on if they were beautiful or not.

I was just like, that makes no sense! It's a changing thing as well.

One, this is all the social contract anyway, but two, what beauty was back in the day with Marilyn Monroe, that I was an hourglass, bombshell body and then at one point it was a straight, thin body and then at another point it was like the triangle so it changes all the time.

I realised that it’s just messed up!

So I finally got to a place where I'm like, yeah I'm beautiful I don't care what anyone says. I could be looking crusty as hell and I'm like, yeah I got it going!

You need to have that inner self love, you just need to have it because that way when people say horrible things about you, you’re just like, cool, go do you! I don't know who hurt you, love, and I'm sorry but you don't need to take that out on me!

It's just as simple as that.

But anyway so I realised I had to work on myself.

Then I was like, wait - I wonder who's telling these women and these girls like that they're beautiful, that they're pretty, that they're amazing, powerful bodies can do such amazing things.

And so that's what I do now in my midwifery job, because I realise like when we are younger we get told that we’re beautiful or pretty we can do this, we can do that so much.

But because I was so self-conscious and so shy I wasn't really absorbing it yeah and then when it's the most pivotal time for people to tell you that you’re beautiful, that you're gorgeous, that you can do all these things, you can do anything - that's when they kind of stop telling you that's it's like they don't want you to have an inflated ego or like a big head.

But that’s when we need it the most because then we go into this like crazy system, you go to places in society, you go to school.

You go to secondary school at the age of 11, for people in America it's like middle school; like that's when you just get torn apart, like you get torn to shreds okay and your self-esteem gets torn to shreds.

It's just not a good time for anyone and that's when you need to most be telling your children and telling yourself that you're beautiful, you are amazing, you can do anything and everything that you set your heart to.

For me that would've been now, it would be like I can do all things through Christ, who strengthens me!

That's when we most need, in times when we’re growing and changing. Like we're going through so many hormonal changes, our body's changing and it's just like; oh my gosh, what I do, how do I get used to it?

That's when people these days turn to men or time to like someone of the opposite sex or time to people maybe refer to people of the same sex, will turn to magazines, and that's what they picture is beauty.

When people look at TV and go, that's how you give birth because that’s how they do it on TV! Your body is so much stronger than that, it's crazy.

You don't even realise it and I just like to empower women and tell women that basically all the time.

And even if they do want to give birth like they do on TV, I want to at least educate them enough in the short amount of time that I know them that they know that there are other options.

You don't have lay on your back, you can actually move and you can get up.

You have an epidural? So what!

If you can feel your legs I’m going to get you up, trust me!

So yeah, I went off on a rant, sorry about that.

One of the main things I really loved is I could empower women and even their partners as well and just let them know they’re doing a really great job, they're doing amazing, they can do it and that it's gonna be the craziest ride of their life but it's gonna be amazing and their body is so amazing that it can adapt and do so many more things are you even realise and could ever imagine.

But yeah, so that's kind of my past experience that led me to midwifery!

I hope you enjoyed the story time.

Sorry it kind of went a bit ranty but I tried to pull myself in!

But yeah, I hope you enjoyed and in the meantime keep on being you.

If you like this video, give it a thumbs up, comment down below any questions or suggestions and don't forget to subscribe to get weekly updates! Bye! 

Looking for a nursing job?

Next Steps...

Create an account.

We will help you build a CV as part of that process.

This will get you ready to start searching for jobs.