Sara - thanks for the advice and congratulations - it's so different with the second baby - it's easy to forget that I'm pregnant (apart from feeling ill the whole time!) as I'm so busy with my son. With my first pregnancy I read all the books, took monthly progress photos and talked about it continuously!

studyingmumma - thanks as well for being so generous with your words - you must be devasted about the course after all your hard work. I know that since I began researching midwifery I have been really down about how bloody hard it is especially here in Tasmania. Until I found out about the external course at UniSA I was looking down the barrel of a 2-3 year nursing degree, minimum 1 year working as a nurse then 2 years postgrad diploma of midwifery. And I've already done a 4 year science degree with honours! It seems such a shame given the shortage of midwives in Australia and the number of keen people around that it should be so hard to get qualified and that there are so few direct entry courses. You're so tough doing study with all those kids - I don't know how you manage!! Still, at least you're in SA which is one of the best and most progressive parts of Australia when it comes to midwives and birthing options, continuity of care etc.

Emma - although it might be harsh it's good to have the opinions of someone on the "inside"! I have already been advised by several people at UniSA (including senior lecturers) that as long as I complete at least 1 unit in the first semester (I intend to do all 3) it will be fine for me to have 12 months leave of absense (meaning I won't study at all between mid 2008 and mid 2009). I realise this mightn't be popular with other students but I am passionate about this (as we all are) and have been thinking about it for a long time already. I want to make a start and if I didn't start this semester I would need to wait till 2010 to start (as I'm not prepared to start a degree with a toddler and a 6 month old baby). I have also been advised that it is possible to study the course part time (maybe this is only available to external students??) - obviously the placements would still be full time for the units I was studying. Because of this flexibility, while I might not neatly fit into the ideal 3 year full time mold, I don't think there's any chance of my place being "wasted" by me dropping out. In fact one of the main reasons I think the BMid would be a better option for me with young children is that it is so much more flexible than my local nursing course which I can't take leave of absence from, can't study partime and is an accelerated course which runs all year with no breaks. The other great advantage is being able to study online.

About the prac placements - when I first became interested in BMid through UniSA last year I began ringing my local hospitals . On the whole the response I got was pretty negative - they're set up for local nursing and post grad mid students - "we can't support special cases ie direct entry" but I did find one smaller private hospital in Hobart that was open to the idea. What I don't understand though is that the two hospitals who specifically said "no" to me on the phone (a private and our main public one) are affiliated with UniSA (according to someone in the Clinical Placements Unit who I have been emailing). I don't really understand what "affiliated" means - I plan to ring the CPU and talk to them about it. I'm a bit hesitant to call hospitals again as the lady from the CPU specifically said that they like to do all the negotiations with the hospital themselves. I do feel that the small private hospital is a real chance though and I haven't tried other parts of Tasmania yet - only Hobart.
About the follow throughs - are the details of this all explained at the start of the first semester? Is it part of the uni degree or a separate requirement of the nursing board? Can some be done after the end of the degree? How does one "find" pregnant women? Do you go to all of the antenatal appointments for every woman or only some? If I need to find pregant women outside of my placements then I'm pretty sure that our local homebirth/independant midwife will take me on for 12 months which would really help.

Anyway, better get my little boy up.

Good luck to everyone.

Nina