Hi midwives and midwives in the making, I hope you're having a good week. Whether you're on days, nights, split shifts or just a crazy any hour schedule  midwifery can get pretty exhausting, but I hope you're getting enough rest and spending some time on just you.

This is a Midwife Motivation Monday, just for you midwives and midwives in the making, to help you remember how exciting the career is 🙂

Having a special coffee out, spending quality time planning your next holiday, or just having an extra hour in bed can  help you keep passionate about your much needed profession, and give really excellent care to your women. We can't achieve brilliant self care all of the time, that comes with the territory - but we can aim for it and look after ourselves!

Today I want to talk about Midwifery Career Moves.

Midwife Diaries keeps growing (Did you know there are 108 subscribers now?! Crazy! *waves!* It's so nice to have you here, I hope you enjoy the posts!).

If you follow the blog, you'll know I'm currently spending as much time as possible on here and doing professional services for midwives. I get a lot of emails, and many midwives want to try something new in their career. It seems a lot of us are ambitious, and want to keep learning, but are not quite sure where to start and get the energy.

I've found midwifery career moves are often suggested by very experienced midwives. If you ask experienced practitioners how they stay passionate, they say something like:

Having goals and embracing new skills is essential for keeping passionate about midwifery.

I don't think anyone could ever say midwifery is boring. But we do come across the same challenges if we stay in the same old areas: failure to progress on labour ward, breastfeeding help on postnatal, pre-eclampsia in antenatal. This can be exhausting.

If you are working towards a new skill or qualification which makes you proud or excited, it directly combats the 'daily grind'. Do you have a plan for your next Midwifery Career Move?

Where do you want to be in 5 years time? Here are some ideas to get you started:

• Volunteer or tour abroad to see what midwives get up to in developing areas in rural China, Africa, or India. Seeing the differences can give you perspective and make your passion come back with a bang.
• Think about a different career path; do you want to be a specialist midwife? In diabetes, vulnerable women, teenage mothers? Having clear goals can power you through.
• Do you want a masters, or more academic qualifications, to work towards being a manager, or to get more insight into the importance of midwifery?
• Do you want to be a lactation consultant, or health visitor, to complement your career?
• Do you fancy working in Australia, or New Zealand? (My old hospital is hiring!) Working in a different country (especially a hot and sunny one!) can give you the thrill you need to keep passionate about midwifery.
• Do you want to write for midwives, which I do and love?

I love getting comments, it really makes my day so please let me know what career moves have given you passion in midwifery. And if you know someone who wants a change in their path, why not share this post with them on facebook?

I hope your coming week is fantastic, you have some lovely births, magnificent multips, powerful primips and generally enjoy splashing about in our wonderful, challenging career.