Midwifery (leading to Registered Midwife)

The pre-registration midwifery course will enable you to develop the knowledge and skills to provide safe and effective midwifery care and register with the Nursing and Midwifery Council to practice as a midwife in a variety of health care settings.

This programme will allow you to study a range of subjects including sexual and reproductive health, neonatal care, midwifery care and practice, management and leadership and high-risk care of mother and baby. The subjects also include research, public health, normality in midwifery practice and a range of clinical skills.
During this course you will also get the opportunity to participate in providing individual care to a woman and her family under the supervision of a qualified midwife and experience midwifery practice in a variety of settings. You will be expected to develop an electronic portfolio during your programme of study.
All theory is delivered at Walsall Campus for classroom study, and placement will be with one of five NHS Trusts including either Wolverhampton, Walsall, Dudley, Sandwell and West Birmingham (City Hospital Birmingham) or Burton-upon-Trent.

Our midwifery degree courses lead to both an academic award and registration with the UK’s Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC), ultimately allowing you to practice as a midwife in the public or private sector.
Midwifery is an integrated course of theory and practice, and you will have the opportunity to experience clinical practice under the supervision of an experienced midwife from as early as 6 weeks into the course.
You may be entitled to an NHS means-tested bursary, and your course fees are paid for by the NHS.
There are well established support systems in the university and on clinical placement; you will also be allocated a peer mentor during your first year of study who is based in the same NHS Trust.
There are two value-added components to the course which are UNICEF's Breast Feeding Initiative (BFI) and the Newborn and Infant Physical Examination (NIPE).
Students evaluate the quality of teaching very positively and have the opportunity to develop their clinical skills in well equipped clinical skills centres.
The Faculty of Education Health and Wellbeing series of seminars and lectures spans education, sport, care, psychology health and wellbeing, bringing you a variety of engaging speakers and experts from the University of Wolverhampton and many other UK universities, visit www.wlv.ac.uk/fehw/lectures

Opportunities exist to be clinical leaders, consultant midwives, work in management or at supervisory level. Midwives can also develop innovative specialist roles for example, in ultrasound, fetal medicine, public health and parenting education. There are also opportunities to work as a research midwife or in education.
Many midwives are employed by the NHS, working in hospital or in the community setting. Posts are also available in private birthing centres, or you may be an independent midwife.
There are a range of opportunities available to you to further your education and practice, for example you may choose to complete a Masters or PhD.
Opportunities may also exist to travel and work abroad.

By the end of the midwifery programme you should be able to:
Debate factors that impact on autonomous midwifery practice and explore alternative and innovative approaches to midwifery care;
Review and critically evaluate the appropriateness of evidence for integration into practice and critically reflect upon practice to reach own judgments and exercise effective decision making in complex situations;
Be an independent, autonomous practitioner and provide holistic, woman-centred midwifery care prior to conception and throughout the antenatal, intranatal and postnatal periods;
Respond effectively to the wide ranging public health needs of childbearing women and their families;
Work in a variety of health care settings both independently and as a member of the multidisciplinary team, nationally and internationally