Hi, I just registered for this site, having found you all through Google! It's great to see that lots of other people are experiencing similar dilemas to me. I have a science degree and have worked in science for a while but since having my son Oliver 2 years ago I am really keen to change proffessions and become a midwife. It's good to read all the information contained here but I'm still a bit unsure.

I have done lots of research about options for study then work and it's a shame that it's so difficult. I am in Tasmania and we are pretty backward as far as I can tell. I found out about the UniSA bach mid which I was keen to do (as we don't even have a bach mid here) but have talked to a lot of people in the industry in Tasmania and found out that without nursing it will be virtually impossible to get work even if I am a registered midwife. The birth center (where I delivered Oliver) is part of the hospital and the hospital require nursing. So I could do nursing through Tas Uni then work as a nurse then do the grad dip mid but this all seems very hard and I'm worried that I will get depressed studying something that I'm not interested in. I am in half a mind to go ahead and apply for SA and do it externally but I could end up a midwife with no work. As lots of you have already said I'm also worried about the highly medicalised/hospitalised model of care in Australia and would like to make a difference but am worried that I'll just be sucked into the system and unable to change it.

Does anyone know of a combined nursing and midwifery degree that can be studied externally? At least this way I would get to include some of the midwifery right from the start of the degree and it would be shorter than doing nursing first. I am really worried with the post-grad diploma of midwifery that I won't get enough experience before work.

Am doing uni applications at the mo.....

Thanks

Nina