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Midwifery - Pre-Registration

MSc

Start dates: September 2025 / September 2026

Full time: 36 months

Location: Headington (Marston Road site)

School(s): Oxford School of Nursing and Midwifery

Overview
Course details
Careers
Entry requirements
How to apply
Tuition fees

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Overview

Are you passionate about making a difference in the world? Do you want to work in midwifery, a valued profession that is in demand both locally and globally? Join us at Oxford Brookes and do just that.

Having already completed an undergraduate degree in any subject (except nursing), you'll learn to apply your critical thinking skills to support women throughout the pregnancy journey, from early pregnancy to post-birth care.

You’ll learn how to support women to make informed decisions, and you’ll become familiar with the full range of midwifery care. You will experience community midwifery, home and midwife-led units and will be part of a multidisciplinary team caring for complex cases in hospitals.

By combining your academic expertise with a rewarding career in midwifery, you’ll make a significant impact on the lives of countless women and their families.

The recent influx of midwifery funding has created many opportunities to take on leadership roles, once you’ve embedded yourself into the profession. As a master’s level graduate, your options to make a positive impact are endless.

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Why Oxford Brookes University?

  • Small year group sizes

    Benefit from more personalised support from teaching staff and experience a stronger sense of community and collaboration among students.

  • Unbeatable partnerships

    Participate in the full range of midwifery care. From community midwifery and midwife-led units, to multidisciplinary teams caring for complex cases.

  • Bespoke teaching experience

    You’ll benefit from tailored MSc specific seminar and tutorial sessions to develop your critical thinking and research skills.

  • Influential teaching team

    The lecturing team is engaged in research, international project work or work in clinical practice, taking your education to the next level.

  • Finesse your research skills

    Take the opportunity to complete a bespoke module, where you’ll develop your primary research skills ready for your dissertation.

  • Accreditation(s)

    Nursing and Midwifery Council

    • Nursing and Midwifery Council

Course details

Course structure

Year 1 starts with an introduction to core universal midwifery care. You’ll dive into anatomy and physiology, learn about the changes and adaptations that occur during pregnancy, labour, birth and postnatal. You’ll also explore the public health role of the midwife and its impact on the pregnant women and birthing people you’ll be supporting.

Practical experience starts early in the skills labs. You’ll then put it into practice in clinical placements alongside registered midwives within 6 weeks of starting the course.

In Year 2, you’ll discover how to support women with additional complexity, from medical conditions to mental health issues and social complexities. You’ll also take a bespoke research proposal module to develop your research skills, in preparation for your dissertation.

In Year 3, you’ll have the opportunity to provide caseloading midwifery care to a small group of women in supervised student groups. Alongside this you’ll explore your personal midwifery philosophy. You’ll also investigate a topic of your choice through your dissertation using primary data collection.

Students in a lecture

Learning and teaching

At Oxford Brookes, no professional group works in isolation. We teach a wide range of pre-qualification and foundation courses. These include health and social care, all branches of nursing and occupational therapy.

On this course you will:

  • learn in a friendly and stimulating environment
  • share your learning with other healthcare students
  • develop your teamwork skills
  • gain understanding of the other roles which you will encounter in practice.

We have excellent teaching facilities, including:

  • dedicated clinical skills suites and simulation resources
  • a well-equipped movement laboratory
  • a family of computerised simulation manikins (including a simman, simbaby and birthing mother)
  • a wide range of anatomy models.

You can access an extensive range of learning resources through 'Brookes virtual'. This is an online repository of:

  • lectures
  • handouts
  • information and learning exercises.

Assessment

We use a wide range of assessments including:

  • case studies
  • reflection in and on practice
  • observed structured clinical examinations (OSCEs) held in our skills labs
  • a variety of written assessments, including some examinations.
  • poster presentations.

These assessments ensure that you are competent at both:

  • academic writing
  • practical and emergency skills.

Grading of practice is a central feature of practice assessment.

Study modules

Year 1

Compulsory modules

  • Public Health in Midwifery 1

    This module is your introduction to current public health issues and policy drivers which impact on midwifery practice. You'll explore the role of the midwife in relation to health promotion and focus on prevention and healthy living. Also you'll investigate and evaluate best practice in respect to particular public health concerns. You'll build your knowledge and skills in communication and screening tools to help you provide optimal physical and mental health during pregnancy and beyond.

  • Midwifery Practice 1: Core skills

    You'll focus on the fundamental knowledge, skills and attributes required for midwives when providing care for a childbearing woman and her family. On this module you'll develop your core knowledge and build your midwifery skills necessary for antenatal, intrapartum and postnatal care. Also you'll be familiarised with the Nursing Midwifery Council Code of Conduct. As a Midwifery student you'll be exposed to community settings which will be complemented by simulated learning and reflective discussion to promote and consolidate your evidence-based learning.

  • Midwifery Practice 2: The continuum of care

    On this module you’ll broaden your focus from Midwifery Practice 1 to consider care with particular reference to psychosocial aspects, transition to parenthood, and the impact of policy on care provision. You'll study different models of care in theory and practice, and be asked to explore and consider any barriers to implementing these in practice. You'll have the opportunity to follow women and families as they receive care over the antenatal, intrapartum and postnatal period, and you’ll reflect on the effects of the care observed on the woman and her family.

  • Introduction to research and evidence

    Build your enquiring mind, and explore the underpinning evidence base for your practice experiences. You'll study the importance of scholarly activity in midwifery, and you’ll develop the knowledge and skills to find and interrogate relevant evidence for yourself.

  • Anatomy and Physiology for Midwives

    This module will help equip you with knowledge and understanding of anatomy and physiology (A and P) in childbearing. You'll study details of adult, foetal and neonatal A and P, and the relationships and interplay between these will be addressed. You'll also focus on changes that occur throughout the puerperium: building a sound basis for understanding the rationale for maternity care. You'll develop your knowledge and understanding to address how physiological processes for childbearing women and their babies can be supported and enhanced.

Year 2

Compulsory modules

  • Dissertation

    In this module, you’ll create your penultimate piece of academic work for your degree. You’ll be offered the unique opportunity to select a topic of personal interest that is relevant to midwifery practice. Your investigation into your project will adopt methodology of choice, and you'll get the chance to demonstrate your abilities to consolidate and progress a systematic and coherent body of knowledge within your project write-up.

  • Women and babies with complex needs

    This double module will enable you to develop your transferrable and communication skills to provide care for a mother, foetus, or newborn if common or less common complications arise. You'll develop your knowledge of midwifery in terms of the impact of medical conditions experienced in maternal or neonatal health. You’ll build upon your existing knowledge of physiology to analyse chronic and acute conditions affecting the mother, foetus, or newborn. These concepts will behave as foundations in providing care throughout the antenatal, intrapartum, postpartum and neonatal periods.

  • Public Health in Midwifery 2

    You'll be evaluating how midwifery practice is shaped in the broader public health arena. You'll consider midwifery within the context of public health promotion. You'll incorporate relevant political and social drivers, championing respectful and non-discriminatory care. Your practice will develop your understanding of national and local guidelines and legislative and professional directives, which you'll learn how to apply across the  continuum of pregnancy, labour, post-natal care, and neonatal care. You’ll hone your skills in providing compassionate and dignified care to those who experience childbirth within a disadvantageous or vulnerable context, whether it  be physical, psychological, social, cultural or spiritual circumstances. By the end of this module you'll be able to identify the characteristics of effective team working, and will have the opportunity to propose an intervention embracing the principles of health promotion suited to the demographic group

  • Midwifery Practice 3: Childbirth Emergencies

    This double practice module will prepare you for and encourage you to make informed and professional judgements on issues surrounding the care of women and their families experiencing acute or life-threatening complications during childbirth. You'll build your inner resilience, exercise your critical thinking and problem-solving techniques in childbirth emergencies, ensuring that you behave responsibly and exert effective clinical judgement when forming action plans to manage childbirth emergencies. You'll be given the opportunity to participate in several rehearsed acute emergency situations in order to equip you with the confidence you’ll need to deal with emergency childbirth situations in whatever context or setting they may occur.

  • Midwifery Practice 4: The Midwife as a Clinician

    This module will ensure that you are ready to and competent to provide safe, effective, compassionate and informed care from a clinical context. You'll explore working in partnership with women within a social, psychological and biomedical perspective. You’ll use your skills to map out and determine best practice approaches to individualised evidence-based care plans. By the end of this module you'll feel well prepared, enlightened and empowered to serve women and childbirth in a clinical setting.

  • A Midwifery Research Proposal

    Your research process is essential to formulating sound, safe and effective care plans for those under your care. In this module you'lll learn how to appraise and critique your research that informs your clinical practice. You'll develop your methodology, theory and research skills, which will enhance your understanding of a range of design methods, interpretation of data, and form the basis of your effective practice. All this will culminate in an opportunity to construct a research proposal which will enable you to encompass all the knowledge you have accrued.

Year 3

Compulsory modules

  • Midwifery Practice 5: Implementing caseloading

    This module will enable you to enhance your team working skills within the realms of providing continuity of care to a small caseload of women in the maternity care setting. You’ll work in teams of 3-4 providing care to 6-7 women during the antenatal, intrapartum and postnatal period including the Newborn and Infant Physical Examination (NIPE) under supervised conditions. You'll get a chance to demonstrate your ability in professional team working skills, both in the practice and theory. As part of this module, there will be the opportunity to create a reflective personal action plan on the basis of peer, mentor and service user feedback. By the end of this module, you'll feel confident enough to manage maternity caseloads effectively as part of a team.

  • Midwifery practice 6: Towards autonomy

    In this final practice module you’ll prepare for practising as a qualified midwife. You'll learn the skills of accountability and autonomy enabling you to manage the role as a lead professional for the midwifery care and support of women and newborn infants throughout the whole continuum of care. You'll be encouraged to increasingly work independently, identifying your learning needs and training towards the achievement of your goals. You'll gain experience in managing care within community hospital labour and ward settings, working in partnership with women, and demonstrating achievement in Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) proficiencies. By the end of this module, you'll have gained the expertise and confidence to work independently and autonomously, identifying your own professional needs as a qualified midwife.

  • Philosophy for Midwifery Practice

    In this module, you’ll undergo the preparations required to develop your role and scope as a qualified midwife. You'll study both practice-led and theoretical ideas within a contemporary socio-political context and a woman-centred care approach. You’ll consider the factors which enhance the delivery of compassionate and woman-centred maternity care. Your study will encompass leadership, risk and quality, including patient safety concerns, alongside engaging with new technologies, and developing reflective strategies to maintain your own and others well-being in both your professional and personal life.

  • Dissertation

    In this module, you’ll create your penultimate piece of academic work for your degree. You’ll be offered the unique opportunity to select a topic of personal interest that is relevant to midwifery practice. Your investigation into your project will adopt methodology of choice, and you'll get the chance to demonstrate your abilities to consolidate and progress a systematic and coherent body of knowledge within your project write-up.

Work Placements

Compulsory modules

  • Work placements

    Placements cover the whole of Oxfordshire and enable students to practise midwifery in a variety of settings. All students will work in the Women's Centre based at the John Radcliffe Hospital, part of the Oxford University Hospitals Foundation NHS Trust. Half of your placements will be in the community, which may include a placement in one of three free-standing midwifery-led units. Please note that you will have to organise your own travel arrangements to clinical placements. You might be working in: hospital maternity wards and/or a delivery suites within the John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford; integrated midwifery-led units within the John Radcliffe Hospital and The Horton General Hospital, Banbury; health centres; free-standing midwifery-led units at Chipping Norton, Wantage and Wallingford; women's homes; children's centres.

Please note: As our courses are reviewed regularly as part of our quality assurance framework, the modules you can choose from may vary from those shown here. The structure of the course may also mean some modules are not available to you.

Research

Our academic staff have extensive experience of NHS, clinical practice and general management at senior level. They also have a significant record of research and publications on a range of topics, including water birth and breastfeeding.

We have a strong research profile, with experienced researchers working in:

  • maternal and women’s public health
  • cancer care
  • children and families
  • drugs and alcohol
  • physical rehabilitation and enablement
  • interprofessional education and collaborative practice.

We have excellent library resources, accessible both online and through a range of locally based facilities on university and NHS sites.

Midwifery researcher

Careers

Studying midwifery at MSc level at Oxford Brookes will prepare you for a multitude of rewarding opportunities beyond university. You’ll become an expert in applying your analytical academic thinking to all stages of pregnancy, birth and postnatal.

We'll support your independence and encourage you to learn higher levels of critical thinking. This will lead to opportunities in leadership and management and clinical specialisms, as well as the more academic side of midwifery.

Roles include:

  • consultant midwifery
  • specialisms such as infant feeding, bereavement, and public health
  • clinical educator
  • delivery suite coordinator
  • research midwifery.

Or perhaps you fancy deepening your knowledge and career further? At Oxford Brookes, we offer the option to complete a professional doctorate in midwifery or a PhD as a progression route, allowing you to enjoy a career in research and academia or extend your area of specialism further.

Student profiles

Luthfa Khalid

"After coming here, all the practical exposure that I’m getting during placement is really rewarding to see that you’re doing something that’s actually making a change, helping someone so when I go to sleep at night I feel content and worthy of what I’m doing on a daily basis"

Read more about Luthfa
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Entry requirements

International qualifications and equivalences

How to apply

Application process

International applicants will need to apply early to allow enough time for obtaining visas.

If you are offered a place you may be asked to pay a deposit of £3,000 to secure a place on the course. Applications are dealt with on a first come, first served basis, so please act early to avoid disappointment.

All Oxford Brookes University Health and Social Care Programmes conduct Value Based Recruitment (VBR).

We recognise that values and attitudes have the greatest impact on the quality of people's care and their experiences.

VBR is a way of helping our Programme recruitment teams to assess the values, motives and attitudes of those who wish to work with people in health and social care settings. When we refer to values we mean, for example, the values included in the NHS constitution.


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Tuition fees

Please see the fees note
Home (UK) full time
£9,250
Home (UK) full time
£9,535

Tuition fees

2024 / 25
Home (UK) full time
£9,250
2025 / 26
Home (UK) full time
£9,535
Fees quoted are for the first year only. If you are studying a course that lasts longer than one year, your fees will increase each year.

Please note, tuition fees for Home students may increase in subsequent years both for new and continuing students in line with an inflationary amount determined by government. Oxford Brookes University intends to maintain its fees for new and returning Home students at the maximum permitted level.

For further information please see our 2025-26 tuition fees FAQs.

Tuition fees for International students may increase in subsequent years both for new and continuing students. 

The following factors will be taken into account by the University when it is setting the annual fees: inflationary measures such as the retail price indices, projected increases in University costs, changes in the level of funding received from Government sources, admissions statistics and access considerations including the availability of student support.

How and when to pay

Tuition fee instalments for the semester are due by the Monday of week 1 of each semester. Students are not liable for full fees for that semester if they leave before week 4. If the leaving date is after week 4, full fees for the semester are payable.

  • For information on payment methods please see our Make a Payment page.
  • For information about refunds please visit our Refund policy page

Financial support and scholarships

All eligible midwifery students on courses from September 2020 (new and continuing) will receive a payment of at least £5,000 a year which they will not need to pay back. For more information please visit NHS Learning Support Fund (LSF).

Find out more from the Student Loans Company about accessing loans for new postgraduate pre-registration nursing, midwifery and allied health professional students.

For general sources of financial support, see our Fees and funding pages.

Additional costs

Please be aware that some courses will involve some additional costs that are not covered by your fees. Specific additional costs for this course are detailed below.

Placement costs:

These are costs that need to be paid for by midwifery students when travelling to and from clinical practice placements throughout Oxfordshire. As an example, a random sample of first year students spent approximately £30 - £700 travelling to placements during the first year of their programme. For students eligible for tuition fee and maintenance support from the Student Loans Company, these costs are recoverable through the Learning Support Fund. Midwifery students spend 50% of their programme in clinical placement.

Other costs:

  • Books and other learning resources: £50 - £300
  • Shoes for practice to be worn with clinical uniform: £30 - £60
  • Equipment (for example stethoscope and watch) and suitable non clinical clothing for community placements; £60 - £250

Programme changes:
On rare occasions we may need to make changes to our course programmes after they have been published on the website. For more information, please visit our changes to programmes page.