Midwifery – BSc (Honours)

At a glance

Study to become a midwife in facilities praised by the UK’s Nursing and Midwifery Council. Gain the professional experience you need to gain employment by spending 50% of your time training on placement with a healthcare trust. To date, all students have found careers in midwifery following graduation.

Key points
• Train for the workplace in £13 million facilities, including a mock medical ward.• Spend 50% of your time on placement within a local healthcare trust.
• Learn from lecturers with practical experience, many of whom still work in hospitals.
• Gain an additional level 2 award in understanding health improvement.

What is midwifery?Midwifery is the study and practice of being a midwife. Midwives provide support, care and advice for the woman and child during pregnancy, labour, birth and afterwards. This includes promoting normal birth • preventative measures • detecting complications and making referrals to appropriate others for example accessing medical care or other suitable support and carrying out emergency measures.

A midwife also provides health counselling and education for the woman, the family and the community. This includes preconception care • antenatal education • preparation for parenthood • women’s health • sexual health • reproductive health • care of the newborn.

This course

Study to become a midwife in facilities described by the Nursing and Midwifery Council as 'a beacon for the future development of health education in this country'. To date, 100% of our graduates have been employed in midwifery in the UK. As a student you develop all the skills needed to provide essential support, care and advice for women and children during pregnancy, labour, birth and afterwards.

We provide modern facilities to help you develop clinical skills and specialist knowledge for your career. You study in our £13 million purpose-built Robert Winston Building on Collegiate Crescent Campus. Its clinical suites include mock birthing facilities which simulate the home or hospital environments in which you learn and work. This makes it easier to make the links between theory and practice in the real world with confidence.

Practice-based learning is central to your development and you spend 50% of each year on clinical placements in a hospital or community setting with Sheffield, Rotherham, Barnsley or Doncaster and Bassetlaw trusts. By learning this way, you will find that your academic study supports your learning in clinical practice and you are provided with a mentor to help develop your skills. Two of the above trusts provide your practice placement experiences. This is most helpful in broadening your experiences and so preparing you for 21st century practice.

To complete your practical training, you hold a small case load of women in a 14 week placement in the community supported by your midwife mentor in your final year.

In your final year you also write a dissertation, where you develop your specialist understanding and analytical skills by investigating a topic relating to midwifery. The dissertations tackle a topic of your choice. This provides an opportunity for you to explore complex and sometimes contentious issues for mothers and midwives for example women's decision making around their childbirth experiences.

As part of the course you complete a Level 2 award in understanding health improvement, which provides you with a certificate from the Royal Society of Public Health. We are currently the only university in the UK that offers this as part of our healthcare courses.

Key areas of study
Year one of the course concentrates on childbirth as a normal and healthy life event, with year two focussing on the care and management of more complex cases. Year three of the course blends all previous experiences in readiness for management of a small caseload of women and practice beyond registration as a midwife.

Key areas include • midwifery and normality health and psychosocial aspects of maternity care • infant feeding • obstetric and neonatal emergencies • promoting normality and women’s health • promoting mental health and wellbeing • public health.