Midwifery personal statement example

Why do you want to study this course or subject?

Working behind a pharmacy counter for eight years, I handed out a lot of folic acid, pregnancy multivitamins and, later, the prescriptions that came after a birth. Women would lean in and ask me things they clearly felt unable to ask anyone else: whether their iron tablets were making them feel worse, whether it was normal to still be in pain, whether they should ring their midwife or wait. I could answer the medicines questions, and I could tell when someone needed more than I was qualified to give. That gap is what turned a vague interest into a decision. I wanted to be the person with the knowledge and the time to sit down and answer properly.

What draws me to midwifery specifically, rather than nursing, is that it combines close clinical judgement with continuity of relationship. A midwife is watching for pre-eclampsia, interpreting a growth chart and recognising a deterioration, while also being the person a woman trusts enough to disclose that she is frightened of her partner or has not eaten properly all week. Reading Sheila Kitzinger and more recently the Better Births report, I have come to understand how much outcomes depend on whether women feel safe enough to speak and whether they are believed when they do. I also understand this is not a gentle job. There are night shifts, emergencies and losses. Having worked in a busy dispensary through winter pressures, I know I am steadier under load than I am when under-occupied, and I would rather train for work that matters than take an easier route because I am nearly thirty.

How have your qualifications and studies helped you to prepare?

I am studying for an Access to Higher Education Diploma in Health Sciences at my local college, taught two evenings a week and one full day, alongside part-time work. The human biology units have been the most useful preparation: cardiovascular and renal physiology gave me a foundation for understanding how pregnancy changes blood volume and kidney function, and the endocrine unit made sense of the hormonal control of labour and lactation in a way that a leaflet never did. My chemistry units have been harder, and I have had to rebuild skills I last used at A-level, working through problems repeatedly until the calculations became reliable rather than lucky. That mattered to me because drug calculations are not an area where being roughly right is acceptable.

My research assignment looked at continuity of carer models and why they are difficult to staff. I read NICE antenatal care guidance and two systematic reviews, and I learned to distinguish between a finding that is genuinely well supported and one repeated so often that it sounds settled. My tutor pushed me to stop summarising sources and start weighing them, which changed how I write.

Returning to study as an adult has taught me to be organised rather than heroic. I plan my week on a Sunday, revise on the bus, and ask for help early. I also do a share of the reading aloud with a classmate who is dyslexic, and explaining anatomy to someone else has exposed the parts I only half understood.

What else have you done to prepare outside of education, and why are these experiences useful?

In the pharmacy I began as a counter assistant and qualified as a dispensing assistant, later taking responsibility for the prescription queue and for training new starters. Accuracy checking taught me habits I expect to carry into practice: reading the whole label, never assuming a familiar name, documenting what I did and flagging what I was unsure about. I dealt with people who were angry because a stock shortage meant their medicine was not ready, and learned that the useful response is a clear explanation and a realistic plan rather than an apology repeated three times. I have also had confidential conversations about emergency contraception and postnatal low mood, and referred people on to the pharmacist or their GP when a question went beyond me.

For the past two years I have volunteered as a driver for a charity taking patients to hospital appointments, often older people attending oncology or renal clinics. Some want to talk the whole way and some want silence, and I have got better at reading which. Waiting three hours in a corridor for a patient has also given me an unglamorous view of how hospitals actually run.

On Saturdays I help at a community breakfast club, mostly cooking and washing up, but also welcoming families who are new to the area and do not yet know where to register with a GP. I signpost where I can and keep the leaflets stocked.

Outside this I swim twice a week and grow vegetables on a small allotment plot with my sister, which is where I do my thinking after a long shift. I know a midwifery course will be demanding, and I am coming to it with clear eyes and real readiness to work.

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