Midwifery

Considering becoming a midwife? Our midwifery degree provides specialist vocational training and learner support for you to become a fully qualified midwife.

You will become skilled in midwifery, learning how to provide compassionate care to birthing parents, newborns and their families during this significant period in their lives.

What’s more, our midwifery courses are ranked 1st in the North West for students satisfied with assessment and 2nd in the North West for students satisfied with teaching (Guardian University Guide 2023 Results). With Nursing and Midwifery Council accreditation, you’ll be ready for employment straight after graduation.

Course Overview
You’ll spend 50% of your time in practice, equating to 2,300 hours of practice learning over three years. You will work with highly skilled professionals to train as a midwife, supporting birthing parents and their families to access healthcare while boosting your skills and confidence.

Throughout this degree, you will experience midwifery care in all settings, working with continuity of care teams, on consultant-led units, birth centres, and within the community. Alongside this, you will experience bespoke placements in neonatal units, theatres, and medical and surgical wards.

NHS placements are available with North Cumbria Integrated Care (Carlisle, Whitehaven and Penrith), University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay (Lancaster, Barrow and Kendal), Blackpool Teaching Hospitals, and Lancashire Teaching Hospitals (Preston and Chorley), as well as in the surrounding community areas. Places are limited for Blackpool and Lancashire Teaching Hospitals, and priority will be given to students who live close to these areas.

In addition, elective placement weeks are built into each year of the midwifery degree where you can take the opportunity to experience midwifery practice elsewhere in the country. The placements aim to ensure you experience all care settings. You will also have the opportunity to take an elective placement abroad.

Theory is delivered by expert teaching staff and is based on the latest evidence and research, using modern teaching methods and technology.

On this course you'll...
• Study and train to be a midwife, boosting your academic and clinical skills with practical sessions in our state-of-the-art clinical simulation facilities.



• Be closely supported by passionate lecturers who bring invaluable experience to teaching and provide excellent pastoral support alongside your midwife training.



• Benefit from exciting, diverse placements providing you with experience of a variety of healthcare systems across inner-city and rural areas, widening your midwifery experience and learning.



• Apply midwifery theory to real-life midwifery care in practice, so that you are confident and competent in supporting birthing parents and their families through pregnancy, birth and postnatal period.



• Become eligible to register as a midwife with the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC). You'll be recognised as a safe and competent midwife ready for employment.



What you'll learn
This programme will fully prepare you for your future as a midwife, in line with the NMC standards of proficiency for midwives. You will study the important values highlighted in the NHS Constitution (2015), such as treating people with respect, dignity and compassion, and getting the basics right every time by putting birthing parents and their families first.

Modules are designed to become progressively challenging at each level using learning and achievement from earlier levels as a foundation. Continuity of care and carer is linked to improved health outcomes for the birth parent and baby. Midwives are the first point of contact for the birth parent and the lead health professional in maternity services playing a crucial role in coordinating and navigating maternity care, requiring essential leadership skills.

With campuses in the Lake District, Carlisle, Lancaster, Ambleside, Barrow, and London, you’ll be surrounded by natural beauty, supportive communities, and real opportunities.

With strong links to law firms, schools, NHS Trusts, creative agencies, and employers nationwide, we connect your learning directly to your future career.

Ranked the No. 1 university in the Northwest and in the Top 5 in the UK for Graduates into employment or further study within 15 months (97.5% of Graduates – Graduate Outcomes Survey, HESA 2026), Cumbria is a university focused on your future from day one.