Winter Placements

I'm finished 2 out of 3 of my winter placements.  The last of my third year is coming up in the next 6 weeks, and then we go through the summer into our senior year.  Senior year.  Me?   Senior midwifery student?  Do I actually know enough to be able to call myself that?  I sure hope so.

I'm looking forward to being back in midwifery placements.  Now that I'm feeling better about the move that we're facing, I'm letting myself look forward to what I'm looking forward to: easy access to babysitters and daycare, an elementary school that's walking distance from our house, a CLINIC that's walking distance from our house!~  And the opportunity to start giving good midwifery care again, after a full year away from it, having been in so many different kinds of settings.

Our soon-to-be new house in Guelph.  We move in April 15!


This semester has, though, been a very nice chance to breathe.  In January, as I mentioned before, I spent the month doing research for the policy committee at the College of Midwives.  I almost wish that this placement was a required placement, and I think you (you! midwifery student!) should do a placement there too.  It was very good learning, and very good writing practice.  I learned more in this placement than I did in most of my other midwifery courses, and helped the College with some really important admin work at the same time!

This month, I've been doing "Virtual Placement".  This means that the first two weeks of the month, we're studying pharmacology modules, and the second month, we are in a pseudo Midwifery video game world where we pick our own adventure to see the outcomes from various challenging scenarios.  It's pretty neat.  It's kind of weird.  Mostly I like that I pulled 4 twelve hour days in my first week, finished it all, and now have this week free of placement duties!

Next month I'll be placed at a naturopathic clinic, where I'll also get to work with a registered massage therapist and an osteopath.  I'm looking forward to seeing how these different modalities work and gleaning some tips that I can take into my midwifery placement.


And admist all of this, I've been spending a LOT of my time on completely non-school related things (such as writing this blog post).  Most importantly, I've been helping my partner Jamie (a professional West African drumming performer and teacher)  build up his website, and organize a Drum Dance, and Yoga retreat that's sure to blow even our own minds.   People, you have NO IDEA how much work it takes to organize a retreat!  I think I've put 20 hours a week into this thing since the New Year!  But its really paying off now, we're a month away from the date of the retreat and its looking super.  Mostly, I'm just excited that with all the work I've put into organizing this retreat, I'm going to be able to sit back and enjoy the fun while Jamie and our other instructors work their magic.  Self care, people!  For me, comes at the cost of 20 hours a week for three months in exchange for one weekend!  :D
So there's my little plug about that.  I highly recommend checking it out (I'm not biased or anything) and registering before March 1st to get a $50 discount.