My Thoughts on Starting my Antenatal Ward Rotation

From the postnatal ward and my favourite rotation as a student, to the antenatal ward and my least favourite rotation as a student. Let's just say, I'm not quite looking forward to my final new rotation of my preceptorship. 

Antenatal care has never been a favourite of mine, and antenatal high risk women just worry me. When the wards were merged for a couple of weeks, I pretty much purely had antenatal women, so I feel I have potentially already covered many of the aspects, but everything that could go wrong, pretty much did. In the space of a few hours on one shift, I had three emergencies, with a postpartum haemorrhage, an uncontrolled pre-eclamptic pregnant woman and a fetal tachycardia. 

Whilst I was there briefly, I also felt very alone. I can't say I know the midwives there much but I personally don't think that they are all that supportive. From that brief encounter, I found they stick to their own women and don't help each other, but that was just with a couple of staff members. Hopefully, it improves with others. 

A lot of my colleagues prefer the antenatal wards. I think it tends to be less demanding given that it's usually only one client per bed, no baby, so that is the more likely reason. Personally, I find antenatal women more demanding usually, but we will see. Apparently, it is a lot quieter on night shifts which I do look forward to. When I spoke to the lead midwife of the preceptorship programme, she said it's the only location at the moment that isn't available for band 6's to select after finishing their rotation which I found interesting, especially, as every time I do go there, there is usually two bank or agency midwives. 

I'm hoping my brief experience will be improved on, and of course, my big goal is to get my band 6 signed off! Fingers crossed. Before I start, I have a lovely week of annual leave, with my sister's birthday and annual leave thrown in the middle, so at least I will come back refreshed and rejuvenated.