Why are Midwives Hated by Many Other Health Professionals - How to Approach it

Maybe this is solely an experience based on my area (small town Ontario) but I did a co-op at a hospital as a high school student going into midwifery and so many docs/nurses despised me for that.

Firstly, when shadowing a labour and delivery nurse (who knew I was going into midwifery) she was talking to the other nurses about her pregnant daughter who chose midwives and how it was such a horrible decision. All the midwives were making nasty faces towards midwives and backing her up, while I was literally standing right there (and they all knew I was going into midwifery). She wasn’t saying this because her daughter had a bad experience with midwives or anything (she was like 12 weeks into her 1st pregnancy and had just decided to go with midwives and tell her mom) she was saying it because she as a nurse doesn’t like midwives. I was only 17 at the time and was kinda in pure shock so I stood there quietly.

I also encountered many doctors who blatantly told me not to become a midwife, one tried to convince me to become an orthopedic surgeon instead, while other nurses (the ones who would actually acknowledged my existence) said I should 100% become an OR nurse instead. They were all saying this after I had told them I already excitedly accepted my midwifery offer from the university (which was a less than 9% acceptance rate).

Even general people on the streets seem to either love, or not understand midwives. I literally had a guy say to me this summer « oh you’re going to be a midwife. So what do you do, boil the hot water? » and start laughing in my face. And let’s not forget the countless people who are shocked when I tell them this is a 4 year university program for me (that used to be a masters only program in Canada) and has an extremely low acceptance rate for students straight out of high school (which I am) who think midwifery is like a 2 month college course and the same as a doula. Which doulas are awesome by the way, absolutely no hate to them!

For the amount of emotional drainage this program is already causing me lol, and how hard midwives truly work, and how educated they are, I’m really struggling to move forward in this career when I receive so much hate from other people. Why are doctors and nurses so praised for their education, and I’m despised for it?

So my next question is, when I begin my first clinical placement, how do I respond to the doctors and nurses who don’t respect me or my career path? This is really debilitating. How do I respond to the average Joe on the street who tells me to boil the hot water?