Course summary

The role of the midwife in promoting normal, physiological birth is the main focus of this course and Bangor University is the only university in Wales with UNICEF Baby Friendly Initiative (BFI) accreditation. You’ll explore how the midwife strives to optimise maternal and new-born health and the childbirth experience for all women and their families and we offer clinical placements in a variety of settings that include community locations, maternity units and midwife-led units. The School of Health Sciences offers a full-time three-year Bachelor of Midwifery (Hons) degree programme leading to registration as a midwife with the UK Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC). This programme currently commences annually in September and is full time over 45 weeks each year with 7 weeks of set annual leave. After an initial block of theory, clinical placement experiences, which make up approximately half of your learning, will introduce you to the role of the midwife, both in the community and hospital setting, where opportunities arise for you to attend home births as well as births in free standing midwifery led units and local maternity units. You’ll experience multi-disciplinary team working, in addition to academic staff working in partnership with local health providers, including Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board, which ensures your learning is of the highest quality. Local geography will afford you the possibility of placement experiences in rural and remote settings. Our staff have a wide range of clinical experience at the forefront of their professional fields and in leading healthcare and medically-related research programmes which are transforming the quality and delivery of healthcare in Wales and internationally. Additionally, we anticipate that elective placements still be available to you within the revised programme and in the past our students have used this opportunity to observe care provision across the UK and internationally. Elements of the course will be available through the medium of Welsh and you’ll be supported to access the Coleg Cymraeg Cenedlaethol incentives. There will also be opportunities to experience bilingual practice in some parts of the region. For more information on the School's bilingual provision click here. This course is currently validated against the Nursing and Midwifery Standards for Pre-registration Education, 2009. The programme will be revised and validated against the new NMC Future Midwife Standards (2019), including the NMC Standards of Proficiency for Registered Midwives, for September 2022 entrants. The Midwifery Programme at Bangor University is currently the only one in Wales with UNICEF Baby Friendly Initiative (BFI) accreditation. BFI University Accreditation will ensure you’ll qualify with a firm foundation of evidence based knowledge in relation to breastfeeding. By ensuring that future midwives qualify with excellent knowledge and skills to support women to breastfeed, along with skills for life-long learning, the midwifery programme at Bangor University can make an important contribution to improving public health in Wales and beyond. Bangor University has an active Student Midwife Society (BUSMS) who have successfully raised money for local causes and have also organised, managed and hosted an ‘All Wales Student Midwives’ conference. Early applications for Midwifery are strongly encouraged as the course usually fills all its places well before the end of the admissions cycle and Bangor can't guarantee to consider any applications submitted after the initial UCAS closing date in January each year.