Advice for a pre-nursing someday CNM hopeful

[SageFemmeReveur]

I am still at the very beginning of my journey towards becoming a CNM. I would love any advice that people have learned on their journey (literally any words of wisdom) but also some specific advice regarding my situation. I want to volunteer at a birth center but feel like I don't have anything to offer, any advice or encouragement? Obviously getting certified as a doula would be a start but I am poor. Should I just contact both the centers near me anyway and ask if they need any volunteer help?

[queenanneslace, ADN, MSN, APRN, CNM]

I want to volunteer at a birth center but feel like I don't have anything to offer, any advice or encouragement?

Start gaining skills! Start working on doula training, CNA training, CPR, NRP, lactation counseling. Take as many trainings as you can. Having some of those skills under your belt will make you appealing to birth centers as a volunteer. If you can take a set of vitals and are certified in CPR, this makes you A LOT more useful. That's how you get invited to births. And it shows the birth center director that you're serious about learning about being at births, and providing health care to people.

Any healthcare training- MA, LPN, EMT - is going to help you. Balance it out with doula training or some midwifery workshops - but the basics will really take you far. Trust me.

I have worked at a birth center, and MANY women come to the birth center wanting to volunteer. You need to have a skill to offer. This will only help you. I'd kept up my CPR and NRP, and I'd worked as a CNA in a nursing home - that's what got me invited to my first birth. The midwife knew I could take vital signs - I think that went a lot further than my 'passion' for midwifery. And I'd had this 'passion' for years before I got to attend OOH births. Think of these trainings and certifications as an investment, just like any other type of education. This investment will reap rewards.