My First Midwifery Placement

It has been announced! My first midwifery placement will be at Bloom Community Midwives from February to April, 2009. I am thrilled with the placement and my preceptor, Chloe. In fact, Chloe was a 4th year midwifery student at Cook St. Community Midwives in Victoria when I worked there 2 years ago, so we already know each other!

Bloom Community Midwives is on Davies St. in downtown Vancouver, 2 blocks away from Saint Paul's Hospital and 6 blocks from where Matthew works in Yaletown. I am pleased as punch that we don't have to make our first "midwifery placement relocation" move just yet and that Bloom is about 15 minutes from our house. From what I have heard Bloom is a very socially aware and environmentally active practice which is soooo fabulous - here is the website if you want to check it out! http://www.bloommidwives.com/ I am really looking forward to not only honing my midwifery skills but also to see how a practice runs and how it fits into the community that surrounds it.

Finally having a placement to look forward too has really been a reality check for me - I am a MIDWIFERY student! Up until this point it hasn't felt like midwifery school was real. Last year felt like any other undergrad year - microbiology, anatomy, anthropology...but now it finally feels like my dream is becoming a reality. Starting in February I will be catching babies!!!

For the mean time, it's back to the books. This semester I am in pharmacology, a research methods course called Critical Appraisal of the Literature, Midwifery Ethics, and Birth and Its Meaning. In my spare time, which I thought I would have a lot more of, Matthew and I are taking Spanish class in preparation for Mexico at Christmas, I am taking a silver smithing course to take Kaya Island Designs' jewellery making to the next level and Matthew and I are a part of a wonderful small group at our church. It's a busy semester and already flying by, which just means that in no time it will be February!

To say good bye, I will leave you with a new favorite quote from the book I am currently reading, Expecting Adam, by Martha Beck.

"you'll never be hurt as much by being open as you have been hurt by remaining closed"