Academic Workload

Contrary to many beliefs, the academic workload that comes with studying midwifery is high. Even though some might think that it is just dealing with women during birth and delivering babies, it is so, so much more than that. The knowledge you need before you can even understand the proces of conception, growth in the womb and all the other processes is never-ending, not even mentioning all the assignments.

I must honestly admit it myself: I thought it would be easy. Studying has never been really hard for me and I have Always managed to get high grades without trying too much. It was a shock once I realised how many things I had to learn once I started this degree. More often than not do I find myself stressed about all the things I still have to learn while due dates creep up on me faster than I can work. There's an ongoing list of literature to read, assignments to make, presentations to give and tests to make. Now even though those things alone would still make it pretty hard, it is the personal demand it places on you that makes it so difficult. You're continually facing yourself, becoming better then you have been before. You grow from it really fast both personally and professionaly, so fast there's no time to reflect on how you're doing as a person. Getting caught up in all that has to be done is so easy you just forget about yourself and forget to think about what you would like to do. And every once in a while you just feel like you've hit a wall and then you stare at yourself thinking how on earth you have let schoolwork take over your life, just to start all over again once you have stopped standing still. 

But you know, the hard part of continually running to keep up with yourself is also what makes the academic side of studying Midwifery worthwile. Gaining knowledge about not only the functioning and anatomy of the human body but also about psychology, clinical epidemiology, science and many more disciplines gives you the opportunity to understand how people function in different aspects while also giving you the opportunity to see different things from different side and to come up with possible solutions yourself. I can see why we have to know so much: to care for women and their babies not just with passion but also with rationality. Knowing what must be done and how it must be done, without wasting time on looking it all up when there's no time left.