Not sure if it's the career for me

[Ashleighk]

Is anyone else doing nursing purely to become a midwife? I'm currently doing my bachelor of nursing. I'm not interested in the nursing side and I am very weak when it comes to wounds ect. Im very passionate about the midwifery side however. Has anyone else ever felt this way? Have you been afraid of blood and wounds ect?

The thought of having to work as a nurse makes me sick, although I don't know if I can walk away from the midwifery side. Straight midwifery is not an option because of the area I live in.

Has anyone else felt this way and overcome it?

[paisling]

You know you'll see plenty of blood and body fluids as a midwife, right?

Most people have to develop a tolerance to the stuff you see in nursing, so it's very likely you could too.

Is it just the body fluids and injuries that you don't like about nursing, or is there something else?

[vanilla bean]

Have you ever been physically present for a human birth? For someone who's afraid of blood, wounds, and gross nurse-y stuff, you're unfortunately interested in an area of healthcare that has all of those things in abundance. Amniotic fluid, meconium, blood, stool, lacerations, placentas...

[elkpark]

Tons of people are going into nursing just to become CNMs. There are plenty of direct-entry MSN programs around the country that offer midwifery concentrations (the graduate program I attended (for a different specialty) offered this, and it was hugely popular. The midwifery students were quite clear that they had no interest whatsoever in nursing, and were only there for the midwifery). Plenty of CPMs are entering CNM programs to become CNMs because of the legal restrictions on practicing as CPMs in many areas.

However, if you want to be a CNM, you've got to complete "basic" nursing school and become an RN, also. No way around it. Best wishes for your journey!