I had a student midwife during my labour. The midwife went to ask me and I didn't even let her finish as I had absolutely no problem with this (plus being in the health care industry I felt I would be a hipocrit if i said no when I had been a student once too!). She was absolutely fantastic. I let her do the first internal - which meant I had two done then - but said no for the second as I couldn't stay in the one position for long enough. She had no problems with this what so ever. She also had children and knew the perfect spots to push to help with the pain. Because she was a student with no workload she spent a lot of time with my DH and I and we developed a great relationship. She was supposed to finish at 3.30pm but stayed until my daughter was born at 5.31pm. She then came and visited us the next day. I would happily have another student when I do it again. Students tend to be very respectful of what you want and don't want so if you say no to something then that is fine. Plus, I also find that because they are learning, things get done by the book. I think it is great that you actually get to build a rapport with your student midwife before the day, that would've been even better. Good luck with your decision, ultimately you have to be comfortable.