March 16, 2004 - The Birth of a Dream (which I didn't even know at the time)

I was reading my notebook from my Abnormal Psychology class (way back in college - oh how I miss those days!), and I was so happy to find the "writing" that I was looking for!

I knew I had written it down in one of my journals, about the beginning of my future career path. Turns out that I wrote about it not in a journal, but on the inside cover of a notebook.

This is directly taken from my notebook, but some names are omitted for personal safety reasons:

"On March 16th, I stopped by the Women's Health Fair at the ______ Union Colonnade. I stopped by a booth that was displaying "Midwifery." I was interested (since I want to be an OB), so I went over there. I found that I was really interested in this as a career. To become a certified midwife in ___, you don't even need a nursing degree (but you can become a nurse midwife) or a bachelor's degree. You get hands-on work early on (in med school, rotations start in the 3rd year; midwifery - 1st year). It seems so interesting. You get to be with the mother-to-be for a long time, talking to them during labor and delivery, going with them to their prenatal visits, etc........."

Yes! I am so glad I found this. And that sentence that states I was "really interested in this as a career?" That "really" that was underlined was really underlined in my notebook - twice!! Just thought that was neat. I do want to correct something, though. A midwife (whether CM, LM, CPM, CNM) is the provider who DOES the prenatal visits, not goes with their patient to them. Oops. I guess I heard wrong.

This was the beginning, the moment when I was introduced to midwifery (and the doula profession). The thoughts of these careers stuck with me for a long time! After that, for the rest of my college years, the idea of becoming a midwife was at the back of my mind. It was actually that summer where I decided not to pursue medicine as a career and therefore got off the pre-med track. I am very glad I made that decision. I am glad there are doctors, but I don't think it was the right profession for me.

I don't think I knew exactly what I wanted to do during college, but I want to say I had narrowed it down to something in the health field or psychology/social work related. Then somehow my mind turned to nursing. Then I returned back to the possibility of a career as a nurse-midwife. Then towards the end of nursing school up till now, the desire to be a CNM has grown increasingly. And that leads me to where I am now, just waiting to hear back.......;)