5 signs the wheels are falling off (AND what to do about it!)
When we are working as a hospital-based Midwife, we are called to the profession for a variety of reasons.
The babies, the women, the community, the clinical element, who knows?
We are taught in the hospital ALL about birth and work under a set of policies/rules/OB preferences.
We are largely governed by individual practice preferences, which often contradict the evidence around birth, intervention and birthing complications. (A BIG grind!).
As a Midwife, the role of advocacy takes incredible amounts of resilience and in my own experience-some days you have it, some days you don’t. The emotional toll on our minds and bodies is one that’s not usually talked about where we’re ‘training’, the focus is on getting your births, ticking off competencies and surviving any given shift.
The road to feeling energetically depleted is long (in hindsight) but can smack you in the face in the acute phase, when you’re least expecting it and has ongoing effects.
Let’s chat about the 5 BIG signs that the wheels are falling off and some strategies to overcome and work through these, *cough* without quitting your ‘dream job’ and moving to interstate *cough*.
Burnout is a psychological syndrome characterized by physical, emotional, and mental fatigue, which appears as a result of exposure to a series of stressors in a chronic manner (Suleiman-Martos et atal., 2020). *systematic review and meta-analysis:14 articles/5946 midwives*
Burnout has ongoing effects on motivation, job satisfaction, sick leave and quality of care given (Suleiman-Martos et atal., 2020).
The lack of staff and resources, low salary, a poor professional recognition and organization, and a negative work environment, are considered factors related to burnout. This is related to high rates of dropout from the profession of up to 58.9% (Suleiman-Martos et atal., 2020).
The results show a prevalence for personal-burnout of 50%; for work-related burnout of 40%; and for client-related burnout of 10%, (Suleiman-Martos et atal., 2020).
‘Risky population’ the young, less experienced, and single midwives, presented higher levels of burnout, probably related to poor practical skills and lack of emotional support. Family and having children are considered positive related factors; although the relationship of the latter case is not clear (Suleiman-Martos et atal., 2020).
The benefits of the caseload model are clear. The fact that this model reduces burnout levels is due to a continuity of care and autonomy. (Across most of reading-UK study).
PTSD is defined as exposure to an event involving perceived threat to the self or somebody else's life (Sheen, Spiby & Slade, 2014).
Midwives may experience aspects of their work as traumatic and, as a consequence, experience posttraumatic stress symptomatology at clinical levels (Sheen, Spiby & Slade, 2014).
Of the 1037 midwives who completed the survey almost half (42.8%, n=443) indicated that they had considered leaving the profession within the preceding six months. Furthermore, 63 (6.1%) midwives indicated it was unlikely or very unlikely they would be in the profession in one years’ time. This increased to over a quarter of the whole sample (27.1%, n = 281) when asked their intentions in five years’ time (Harvie, Sidebotham & Fenwick, 2019) *WHELM project*
The two most common reasons for wanting to leave were; ‘dissatisfaction with the organisation of midwifery care’ (65.7%, n = 291) and ‘dissatisfaction with my role as a midwife’ (50.8%, n = 225). (Harvie, Sidebotham & Fenwick, 2019)
5 SIGNS THE WHEELS ARE FALLING OFF:
Sign #1: (ongoing) Mild anxiety on way to work
Sign #2: Quick to reach FULL frustration
Sign #3: Lacking in emotional connection
Sign #4: Not taking care of yourself
Sign #5: You lose faith in birth and women
(And what to do about it!) In a nutshell to combat these:
Give yourself the space, can I hear a ‘mental health day’ *with NO guilt*
Invest in body work-walk, run, class, stretch, massage
Connect with a trusted person who cares for you
Come back to YOURSELF and WHY you bother being a Midwife in the first place
I hope this episode helps and if you enjoyed this chat and the ‘Your Midwife Mentor podcast’ generally, please share with your Midwife friends who you think would benefit and subscribe to be the first to know when an episode is here!
Links and Resources:
Download ‘The Midwives post-shift debrief:ultimate energy saver on-the-go!’ HERE
Suleiman-Martos N, Albendín-García L, Gómez-Urquiza JL, Vargas-Román K, Ramirez-Baena L, Ortega-Campos E, De La Fuente-Solana EI.(2020). Prevalence and Predictors of Burnout in Midwives: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health.https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17020641
Kayleigh Sheen, Helen Spiby & Pauline Slade (2014). Exposure to traumatic perinatal experiences and posttraumatic stress symptoms in midwives: Prevalence and association with burnout.
Karina Harvie, Mary Sidebotham & Jennifer Fenwick(2019). Australian midwives’ intentions to leave the profession and the reasons why.