So here's the background info...
My Bachelor's degrees are in Social Science Education and Spanish. I'm working on my Master's in Education right now. I plan to be finished in December. My goal is to become a midwife, and I plan to go through the ATM program in Texas when I get a chance (it's the quickest and cheapest route for me). However, once I finish my Master's it is necessary that I go back to work teaching for about 2 years, because my DH wants to go back to school (he's currently a project manager for a large industrial company in Texas, but he wants to finish his engineering degree so he can do the same job and make twice as much money...the company is doing some tuition reimbursement and will help us with relocating and keep him employed part-time while he's in school). Once he's finished, I'll be free to start midwifery training...so I'm looking at beginning in about 2.5 years...say January 2011.
Anyway, in the meantime I want to do a lot of self-study and stay connected to birth in any way that I can. While I'd love to be a doula, my schedule isn't exactly conducive to that. I am begging friends to let me attend births just as a supportive observer, and I have a few coming up. I'm reading everything I can get my hands on...books, journals, blogs, etc. I may begin offering a natural childbirth class at two local hospitals - they don't have one available (nobody wants to teach it), so I volunteered and the RN I talked to was very receptive and is checking into it.
But I think I'd like something a little more structured. I do very well with independent study (both my undergrad degrees were completed online and my Master's will be as well) as long as I have structure. I guess I'm looking for something like an outline with applicable references for each portion. I dunno... I don't mind slowly buying books (as I can always use them for my library later), but other than that I'm not looking to invest a huge amount of $$$ into training since I'll still have to complete and pay for the ATM program later.
Does anybody have any suggestions or any self-study methods that worked well for you?
My Bachelor's degrees are in Social Science Education and Spanish. I'm working on my Master's in Education right now. I plan to be finished in December. My goal is to become a midwife, and I plan to go through the ATM program in Texas when I get a chance (it's the quickest and cheapest route for me). However, once I finish my Master's it is necessary that I go back to work teaching for about 2 years, because my DH wants to go back to school (he's currently a project manager for a large industrial company in Texas, but he wants to finish his engineering degree so he can do the same job and make twice as much money...the company is doing some tuition reimbursement and will help us with relocating and keep him employed part-time while he's in school). Once he's finished, I'll be free to start midwifery training...so I'm looking at beginning in about 2.5 years...say January 2011.
Anyway, in the meantime I want to do a lot of self-study and stay connected to birth in any way that I can. While I'd love to be a doula, my schedule isn't exactly conducive to that. I am begging friends to let me attend births just as a supportive observer, and I have a few coming up. I'm reading everything I can get my hands on...books, journals, blogs, etc. I may begin offering a natural childbirth class at two local hospitals - they don't have one available (nobody wants to teach it), so I volunteered and the RN I talked to was very receptive and is checking into it.
But I think I'd like something a little more structured. I do very well with independent study (both my undergrad degrees were completed online and my Master's will be as well) as long as I have structure. I guess I'm looking for something like an outline with applicable references for each portion. I dunno... I don't mind slowly buying books (as I can always use them for my library later), but other than that I'm not looking to invest a huge amount of $$$ into training since I'll still have to complete and pay for the ATM program later.
Does anybody have any suggestions or any self-study methods that worked well for you?
