Journey to midwifery

First things first, I'd better introduce myself. I'm Heidi, a newly qualified midwife, and I was completely shocked but flattered even to be nominated for the British Journal of Midwifery Student Midwife of the Year 2016 award in February—let alone to win it!

I am a 43-year-old mother of two. When I was at school, I had no idea what I wanted to do and—as careers in finance were very popular in those days—I left school at 16 with eight GCSEs and went straight into banking. I was married at 23 and then, when I was 28 years old, my husband and I decided to give up our jobs, rent out our house and travel the world for a year. That year turned into 19 months of travelling around Africa, South East Asia, Australia, New Zealand, South and Central America and Galápagos, before heading home via New York. During our travels we embarked on a sky dive, a gorge swing and abseiling; I flew a two-seater plane, got a diving qualification, volunteered in an orphanage, was a midwife to leatherback turtles in Costa Rica and worked in Australia for 6 months—to say it was a life-changing experience is an understatement!