How stressful is being a midwife?

**LibraSunCNM, BSN, MSN, CNM** · Sep 17, 2015

Everyone experiences stress differently. What I find stressful you might not. In general, yes my job is stressful. Overall, I still enjoy it enough most days to outweigh this.

Example of a stressful situation: I'm on L&D for a 12 hour shift, and the MD I can't stand is covering. I feel her breathing down my neck all day about my patient who has a so-so tracing. I feel she is sharpening the scalpel for this patient, even though I think the patient can do it. The nurse working with the patient could not care less about her, and keeps disappearing. I think to myself if I just worked somewhere where I had more autonomy, I could better manage the patient. Triage is continually filled with patients with minor complaints that they came in by ambulance for. I'm tired because I just worked a night shift and then only had one day off before coming back to work today. I think to myself, for this kind of money, I should go work in an office job.

Example of a non stressful situation: I'm in the clinic and have had a few no-shows, so I have the time to spend with a patient and her partner who have a lot of questions, and at the end of the visit I feel we really connected and I really made a difference to them. A patient comes to visit me with her baby I delivered a few weeks ago, because she knows my regular clinic days and knows I'll be there, and to thank me for taking care of her. Hugs are given and pictures are taken. When she gets pregnant again in a couple years, she asks for me to be her midwife.

Most days fall in the middle of the spectrum illustrated above. If you're just in nursing school right now, I wouldn't waste too much time or energy worrying about being a midwife yet.