Midwifery University Interview Questions

Interested in studying midwifery?

Much like nursing in general, the external perception of midwifery is full of misconceptions about the exact nature of the job and the reality of everyday life on the ward. University interviews for midwifery courses aim to separate those who like the idea of working with cute babies, from those who have seriously considered midwifery as a career.

There are as many problems and heartbreaks as there are successes and joys in the role, and your interviewers will be trying to assess whether you have the skills and understanding to do well as a midwife.

Subject specific midwifery university interview questions

It is important that you understand that midwifery is about caring for the pregnant mother, much more than it is caring for her newborn baby. You will be asked questions that confirm that you understand the true nature of midwifery, such as:

• Can you define the role of the midwife?
• Why have you chosen midwifery rather than paediatric nursing?
• What do you know about the Nursing and Midwifery Council?
• Describe a typical day for a midwife?
• What are the current issues affecting midwifery?
• What experience do you have of midwifery?
• How have you researched midwifery and what resources did you use?
• What will be the best and worst parts of being a midwife?

Personal midwifery university interview questions

Dealing with childbirth on a daily basis will be emotionally and personally challenging. Not every story has a happy ending, and not every child will have a good start in life. Your midwifery university interview will try to establish if you have the personal strengths to cope with this, by asking questions like:

• What are the skills needed to be a good midwife?
• Describe how you have demonstrated these skills in the past?
• How would you deal with a stillbirth?
• Do you feel you can distance yourself enough from highly emotive situations?
• How would you balance clinical requirements with empathy and care?
• What are you like as a team worker?
• When is it right to ask for help from a colleague or manager?
• What might stop you from becoming a good midwife and what are you doing to address this?
• How do you think you will deal with the emotional rollercoaster of midwifery?

Ethical midwifery university interview questions

The area of midwifery is fraught with ethical dilemmas, and it is important that you are able to deal with these as they occur in your everyday work. You will be asked about your thoughts on some of these issues such as:

• Do you think it is selfish not to breast feed?
• Can you be too young or too old to be a mother?
• Should a woman’s right to choose outweigh what’s best for the baby?
• Should behaviour during pregnancy, such as drug use or smoking, affect the care given by a midwife?
• What would you do if you felt a mother’s birth choices put her baby at risk?
• A mother is aggressive and abusive to you. How would this affect your treatment of her?
• A woman has been in painful labour for so long, she starts to exhibit very negative feelings towards her baby. How would you react?
• No family is perfect, but at what point should you step in to protect the newborn?