Starting Life as a Midwife

Abstract

This chapter presents the principles of the midwifery curricula and the transition of midwifery students to qualified midwives working in Wallonia (the French-speaking part of Belgium) and Flanders (Dutch-speaking part of Belgium).

It highlights the legal, educational and practical regulations in respect of the profession including the 4-year curricula (in Wallonia) and 3-year curricula (in Flanders), current direct entry education and the fact that currently 99% female students are on programme. In total, more than 50% of the 262 graduated French midwives in 2014 have a non-Belgian secondary school diploma (according to 2014 data). In 2014, a total of 1697 were registered in the midwifery program in Flanders. A total of 364 (21.4%) Flemish and 220 (12.9%) Dutch students just finished their secondary level, and 493 (29%) had the Dutch nationality. Self-registration for ‘visa’ (license to practise midwifery in Belgium) and accreditation is automatically online whenever graduated from an official midwifery school in Belgium. Most of the Belgian midwives work as salaried midwives in hospital settings and midwives under 30 years old work on an almost full-time job equivalence.

There is currently a lack of evidence on new midwifery practitioners’ (NMPs) transition to practise in Wallonia and Flanders. It is recommended that research is conducted in order to further understand the different issues linked to this area of practise.