What's next after graduation?

‘The world is your oyster, my girl’-these are the wise old words my grandmother said to me when I told her that I'd passed my midwifery degree. Reflecting back on that time, I wish I had really listened to her and truly believed that. The reality is, in the months following graduation, I felt a little lost; like my stabilisers had been removed and I was riding cautiously and wearily towards the edge of a cliff. I know I was not alone in feeling like that and all of my friends were feeling the same.

‘Look out ‘cause here I come

And I'm marching on the beat I drum

I'm not scared to be seen

I make no apology, this is me’

The memories of my time as a newly qualified midwife replays often in my mind, with these lyrics as the soundtrack-despite being released over a decade since that time. I entered preceptorship without a real thought or plan about what was next for me but I knew that I wanted to make a difference to women and their families. I had worked so hard to become a midwife that when I could finally practice as a rotational midwife on the ward, I thought that I was set and sorted for the rest of my life, especially as I was a direct entry midwife. However, this couldn't have been further from the truth.