This week was odd. We spent most of it mentally preparing for placement. It seemed to go by very quickly – but that does not make it any less stressful.

Clinical-Based Learning

This weeks’ CBL was really useful! We did loads of reading about abdominal palpations, and learned how to correctly palp a pregnant belly and identify where and how the fetus is lying. We had a variety of different dummy’s, my favourite being one made of plushy foam. It was the easiest to feel the position through, and closer represented the thinness of a human uterus, although the texture was incorrect. The one pictured below was almost impossible to feel anything through – it’s more of a birthing model.

Biology:

This week in our biology prac, we looked at BRAINS. Big brains, small brains, dissected brains, old brains, dried brains, pickled brains… so many brains. It was interesting, and it’s much easier to learn from real samples than from a powerpoint. I’m still unsure how I feel about the cadavers in the practicals. I am also unsure how relevant it is for us to understand neurobiology to the cellular level. Certainly, we need a basic understanding of how cells work together and what they need to survive, but we are going into detail about every system that we’ve studied so far, and it’s a little bit overwhelming. We’ve finished our first quiz this week and I think we were all a little bit shocked at the depth of the questions, and we’ve got our first examination in about two weeks.

I was surprised to learn that there are many graphic videos of surgeries and procedures available online. I’ve been watching many, but the most helpful for biology have been very simple dissection videos. As a warning, this may be a little bit disturbing, and is intended for educational purposes only.

Inquiry-Based Learning:

It was a heavy subject this week; we discussed how to support parents through a stillbirth. We read a couple articles together, and discussed some of the ways to display legitimate and genuine empathy while someone is going through one of the most difficult times in their life. It was a very honest conversation, and the midwife leading the session told us some of the most emotional stories from her career. The message is that as midwives, we do not have the luxury of falling into clinical jargon or referring the family to a psychologist. We are volunteering to be “with woman,” and that means that we need to be with her for as long as she needs us.

We also watched this video and discussed some of the repercussions of the carers’ reactions to the affected family. Just to warn you; it’s a tearjerker.

Lecures:

I have to be honest; the lectures this week were dry. The reading was engaging though, and important skills that we will need to apply to everyday practice. Most of what we discussed was related to critical thinking, professional relationships, and communication literacies. We will be using these skills next week, when we begin our first placements in hospitals!