At the moment, I am sorta revamping my plan for the next year. I was taking classes at the
midwifery college I was applying to (supplemental classes, not part of the core curriculum) while I put in my application and just found out a couple weeks ago that my application wasn't accepted. Came as a complete shock to me--with my transcripts being as good as they are, it never seriously entered my mind that I wouldn't get in.
I spoke with the admissions advisor to see if I could get an explanation, and it ends up that while my academic qualifications were some of the best they'd seen, the admissions committee didn't feel I'd been active enough in the natural childbirth/advocacy community to demonstrate my "committment" to becoming a direct-entry midwife, which is pretty understandable, considering I had made the transition from intending to become a nurse-midwife at the 11th hour and until shortly before I applied, hadn't even KNOWN there was a "community" out there in which to be active. But considering how passionately dedicated I am to the non-interventionist childbirth model--to the point where I turned my entire academic and career plan on its ear to change tracks the way I did, all because I knew that as a nurse-midwife I would be quite hampered by the medical establishment from doing the kind of work I wanted to do--and how evangelical I've been not just recently, but for years regarding the benefits of intervention-free childbirth in all my personal dealings, it really stings to have my "dedication to the cause" called into question, just because I hadn't yet acquired a subscription to
Midwifery Today.
That particular point of pride aside, my plan for the next year is to beef up my "street cred" in preparation for re-applying next year. I'm not thrilled about the idea of working as a doula, as I don't think I have the personality for it, but there are a couple other routes I can take. In the meantime, I'm also looking for some part-time employment to fill the gap, hopefully something that will allow me the sort of flexibility to be with the baby that I would have had at the midwifery college (there you are allowed to bring infants up to 4 months old to class with you, and after 4 months have them brought to the school by their caretakers for breaks to facilitate breastfeeding.)