Do I need to find my own preceptor (teaching midwife)?
No. The school has more clinical preceptors than we have students to place. However, you may need to travel, depending on where you live. If you have someone in your area, as long as they meet our criteria, they can apply to become part of clinical faculty, and given support for your training. Some clinical sites allow you to attend a larger number of births in a shorter time. However, to meet the CPM continuity of care requirements, you will need to be able to care for the same woman though her pregnancy and postpartum. This may require relocation if there is no approved faculty or site in your area.
Do I have to travel to you for on-site training?
No. We have no required on-site training. We will, however, hold optional clinical workshops once or twice a year, generally with a midwifery conference, for those who may have trouble acquiring hands-on practice in certain skills, such as IV's or suturing, in their home communities.
What are the requirements during clinical training? Certain clinical skills such as taking vitals or GYN exams can be done without the committment of the attending births, however once you start attending births, the amount of work, responsibility and committment really steps up.
To be attend births at most home birth practices, the student must make the following commitments:
- Be available 1-3 days a week for prenatals and postpartum exams.
- Be on call, 24 hours per day, 7 days a week, for months a time. Be responsible for replacement coverage, if emergencies arise. Busy birth centers may have different call schedules. Apprentices must be prepared to lose sleep, miss family or social events, miss work if employed, and generally structure plans for the next nine months on the whims of mother nature. Students must have a cell phone or pager and be reachable within minutes at all times.
- Students with children must have childcare, 24 hours a day, seven days a week including someone else to pick up and deliver children from school/child care, if needed.
- Have a working car available while you are on call (sometimes exceptions can be made).
- Plan on paying for your own gas to births/prenatals and meals while out on long births.
- The ability to follow your preceptor’s instructions and directions in clinical situations. Your preceptor is your teacher; her style of practice, clinical judgment, and method of practice is hers, and yours to learn from. They may be very different than the way you were taught, or the way you’ll want to practice, but for now you will accept your role as a student. There may be times where your opinions or experience is relevant; in those cases, never question or undermine a clinical decision in front of a client, but talk in another room.
- Most preceptors require apprentices to have their own blood pressure set and fetoscope. They may have additional requirements as well.
- Students must drug and alchohol free while on call.
When do I start attending births? You may start at any time, however we highly recommend you wait until after the first year, when you will have a more solid foundation of knowledge in which to base your experience, as well as be more help to the midwife.
