I've decided to just do it!

Some of you may have recognized the text on my lap in this post. For those of you that are familiar, well, it's Varney's Midwifery. One of the textbooks to read for midwives to be. I spoke a little while ago about how I used to hope to travel to areas less fortunate than Canada to help out women and children who have MUCH less than I do. I talked about how excited my friend and I would be when we discussed how we could to this, but how, in the end, it just seemed totally impossible and well, HARD!

At about the same time, my friend mentioned a midwifery training that allowed students to travel to the Dominican Republic to get some of their clinical experience and I though, that is EXACTLY what I am looking for. I looked into the training some and spoke it over with my husband and he told me that he thought it would be a good idea. Before I had time to come up will a million and one excuses NOT to take this training (some of them very relevant in this case) Mike sneaked off and registered me for the classes (online) and purchased the first textbook for me. So it looks like it has been decided and I am slowly going to work on my goal of becoming a midwife.

Now, this certainly will not be easy and honestly I am not sure that I'll ever be able to certify as a midwife in Canada with this training. It is my understanding, in the end that I will be able to take my NARM examination BUT to do so I have to attended a whole bunch of births in attendance of a NARM certified midwife and that will be next to impossible with the regulations in Canada. While in the beginning I will be able to use the births I attend as a doula as part of my clinical experience eventually I will need to find a mentor and apprentice with a midwife and considering that there are virtually no midwives in Cape Breton that could prove difficult. Even elsewhere in Canada it will be next to impossible to train with a midwife that is NARM recognized because the only recognized midwifery training in Canada is provided at the university level. Midwives will not want to work with (and even if they did...they wouldn't be allowed to) work with midwives getting training any other way. There is the option of traveling to America and other areas from time to time to get clinical experience but that is about it.

I'll keep you updated but for now, at least I am taking the first little baby steps.....