Placements: Frequently Asked Questions
Midwifery students spend 6 of the MEP’s nine terms in placements, working alongside midwives and other health professionals.
The first two placements (Fundamentals of Midwifery I & II) are each 12 weeks long and are usually in one midwifery practice group. They may be in the Winter/Summer, Winter/Fall or Summer/Fall starting in the second year of the full time program. Students are required to have been in two different midwifery practices by the time they graduate, but the practices can be in the same region.
The third term of placement (Fundamentals of Midwifery III) is in the Winter term of the 3rd year of the full time program and is composed of three (3) one month placements with interprofessional health providers (for example with nurses or physicians) or in other midwifery settings, including out of province and international.
The final senior year placement is three terms long, starting in the spring term of the 3rd year of the full time program. The three terms each have 12 week placements in the same midwifery practice group.
Students work alongside midwives and other health professionals in clinics, homes, hospitals, community health centres and birth centres.
You are placed in practice settings within the area into which you were admitted. At TMU this is the Greater Toronto Area or the Greater Ontario Area. Our placement allocation process for the midwifery placements allows students to submit their preferred choices from a list of available placement regions. Learn more about the placement regions within each area on the MEP website under the Clinical Learning and Teaching tab. Note that students must be placed in two different practices for Fundamentals placements and the senior year.
Students are sent a survey the April prior to FUN III, where they can prioritize both location and types of interprofessional and other FUN III placements.
Yes, students continue their academic learning while in midwifery placements and have one 3 hour tutorial per week during the terms they are in midwifery placements. Each of these terms has academic readings, assignments and exams. Students share clinical learning from placement experiences and discuss structured case scenarios in tutorial. FUN III also has a tutorial component that focuses on professional issues and includes a major paper assignment.
Student midwives work in a midwifery clinic and follow a preceptor or team of preceptors for an assigned caseload of pregnant people. They do prenatal assessments and postpartum follow ups in clinics, in clients’ homes and at the hospital. They are on call for births and urgent concerns. An average week would include one or two days of clinic, a day or two days spent at births and a day of home or hospital visits and may also include practice meetings.
The program is designed to meet the clinical requirements to register with the College of Midwives of Ontario. See the Program Overview section of the MEP website. Each of the terms has minimum and maximum birth numbers. See the Clinical Learning and Teaching part of our website for more information about birth numbers. Although in general students attend an average of 2 births per week the workload will vary week to week.
Yes, births do not happen on a schedule so a normal part of midwifery work is to be on call. In order to attend enough births to meet the expectations of each course and to progress through the program, students are on call most of the time.
Students are expected to be able to arrive at a birth or an urgent call within 30-40 minutes. It is recommended that students live within 30-40 minutes of the practice’s affiliated hospital and practice office. In some regions, the practices may provide advice about the best places for students to live if they are relocating for the placement and/or if the catchment area is large.
Students are required to have a driver’s license and to have 24-hour access to a car.
Students are on call most of the time in placement, but all students have four (4) days per month off call as personal days. Students also have one Academic Study Day per week which is to prepare for tutorials, work on assignments and study for exams. If birth numbers are short students may need to stay on “soft call” to attend a birth on the academic study day. Students have time off prior to exams. If students are awake for 24 hours they have 12 hours off for sleep.
No, students are not able to work while in placement. All placements are full time and students have to be available on call to attend births.
See the readiness checklist on the TMU website under Clinical Learning and Teaching.
See our placement allocation FAQs on the TMU Midwifery website under Clinical Teaching and Learning.