This is the first in a two part series on midwifery essay writing. Part Two, which is on how to actually write your essay, can be found here.
This post is on getting your motivation together to start your midwifery essay writing.

Me writing an essay. You may find the pen in the mouth technique helpful to stop you drinking all the wine too.
On one of the Facebook groups I'm part of students were discussing using midwifery essay writing companies.
I got fantastically cross when I heard this, as these companies target tired, vulnerable students struggling to keep up with their courses and can charge up to £500 per essay! Aside from the cost, it's actually a professional offence to use such companies. Even if you're pre-registration you can be (at least in theory) be hauled up in front of a Fitness to Practice Hearing. Gulp.
It's also really sad to use these companies in my opinion. Essay writing can be brilliant fun and a great way to consolidate your learning.. I want to pass this enthusiasm on to you.
I've also been frustrated and knackered as a busy and sleep deprived student midwife, and wanted to throw my laptop out of the window while I was writing my dissertation. And possibly follow it with myself. But even if you're in the depths of despair during your midwifery essay writing, chin up, this will help.
Getting Your Motivation Together
Try These Midwifery Essay Writing Motivational Tips:
- Know that we've all been slow to start our midwifery essay writing! It's not just you and it doesn't make you a failure or a sloth!
- Treat yourself to a nice coffee or other drink you like during a long research or reading session. Try and do the research bit (at least) somewhere quiet. Try in the library, at your desk at home if you won't get interrupted, while the kids are at school, etc.
- Time yourself ten minutes work to begin with, and if it's too awful, promise yourself you'll stop after that. Almost always you will find it's not that bad and you'll want to keep going.
- Most students take around 10-15 hours to write a 3000 word midwifery essay start to finish, with researching and proofreading included. Assign this time by putting it into your diary. If you haven't planned when you're going to write, you're not taking yourself seriously enough, and it won't happen. Give yourself the time to do your midwifery essay writing and prioritise, you deserve it.
- If you can't get your motivation together, be honest with your student colleagues who are writing the same essay. It just makes you feel rubbish if you say to someone 'it's going fantastically' when really you haven't opened a book. The odds are they'll give you some support or you can support each other.
- Make a start! However small that first step is, get it done! Write when you're going to start reading in your diary. Have a look at the Wikipedia page of your topic. Do a Google Scholar search. Whatever it is, the first step will be the hardest. To quote author and motivational speaker Alastair Humphreys: 'Start Small… but Do Start'. That midwifery essay is not going to write itself, but it won't be nearly as bad as you think once you get going!
- If it's too scary to begin your essay, read Part Two of this essay series! Hopefully it will take the fear away as you'll have a plan 🙂 If this doesn't work, try this controversial technique: start to read about your subject and make some notes with some music in the background or the telly on. You should be comforted by the familiar noise and eventually be able to turn
it off when you're immersed in your subject. I know one lady who wrote all her midwifery essays with the TV on in the background and she got a 1st class degree, so this can be a really helpful technique for some!
I hope that was helpful and I'd love to hear your motivational techniques if they're not on this list. Basically, as Nike would say:
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I am currently writing an essay for an interview for a midwifery placement at a university, this article was really helpful and comforting. It help me reassure myself that I am not the only one who struggles to start an essay but with organisation, motivation and hard work I can do it and hopefully have a great end result. Thanks Ellie! Love this website, it is unbelievably helpful!
Thanks Cydney, good luck with your essay! It can be really tough, I’m so glad this resource helped 🙂
Thank you so much for your motivation to becoming a midwife.. It’s help me when I get tired at study 😀
Thanks Dayana, glad it’s helping! It’s an incredibly challenging course 🙂
Hello! U.S student midwife here. It’s good to know I am not the only one struggling with this, although I didn’t think I was to begin with, it’s just extra assurance that this is a hard career to attain and that the education is no joke and should be taken more seriously (especially in the USA). It’s definitely a calling and not for everyone, that’s for certain, but something that I am pulled to like a moth to the flame! Thank you for the tips, definitely going to try them as a have a 7,000 word essay due soon and feel like I’m being quite redundant, something I need to work on as well! There is a lot of knowledge in my head, I just need to find a way to get it out and in a way that doesn’t sound like I’m beating a dead horse! Thanks again!
Hi there 🙂 Thanks – good to know it’s helping. It is absolutely challenging, and a massive achievement. Good luck with your essay! xx
10-15 hours!! It usually takes me about 50 hours to do a 3000 word essay from start to finish. Reading this to get motivated to start putting words together for the 1000 word essay I’ve already spent about 10 hours on in research and planning. Wish me luck.
Good luck Michelle! We all work at different rates, if the way you work is successful and helping you learn, don’t let me change a thing 🙂