I had a student midwife at DD's birth as well as the senior one I knew well from being in hospital so much with DS, she was probalby the only competent midwife in the whole place, so I was happy to have her.

I didn't want the midwives there through my labour, but they came in once an hour and then when I needed to push. After not dilating for some time and stuck at 5cm, the senior midwife decided I needed a ARM which I was fine with. The student midwife was to do this - it was her first. That was the only 'issue' I had LOL was that she nicked me with the hook, but I think it upset her more than me. She also could feel DD's head and said to the senior midwife 'she's posterior' and when the senior midwife stuck her hand up to feel, DD turned that instant (oooh what a relief) and she said 'you're wrong', but as soon as her hand went out, DD went posterior again and clunked in there in that position. So it was a bit of a laugh.

The senior midwife was hard on her, but the student stayed back to see DD born, when I pushed the buzzer a few hours later because I needed to push, they were great getting me on the bed with the bar to lean over and it was all over in 20 minutes.

The student midwife was way better and more competent than an experienced midwife I'd had in my first birth, so I would definately be okay with a student again. Also it's really nice to see them get so excited about a birth as the older midwives had done it so many times.