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Midwifery (Post Experience/ 2nd Registration)

BSc (Hons)

UCAS code: B721

Start dates: September 2026

Full time: 24 months

Location: Headington (Marston Road site)

School(s): Oxford School of Nursing and Midwifery

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Overview

Ready to make the switch from nursing to midwifery? Combine your knowledge of healthcare and your passion for women’s health as you explore this new career path at Oxford Brookes.

As a Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) registered adult nurse, you’ll build on your existing skills to make a real difference in the lives of mothers and their children, providing care and support throughout pregnancy and beyond.

After applying through NHS Jobs, your course fees will be fully funded by NHS England. You’ll also keep earning your band 5 salary while you learn on this fast-paced 2-year learning journey.

You’ll explore a series of modules with additional bespoke seminars factoring in your current nursing knowledge. Outside the classroom, you’ll grow quickly through putting theory into practice. You’ll experience community midwifery, midwife-led units and multidisciplinary teams caring for complex cases.

With the recent influx of funding for the midwifery profession and your fresh enthusiasm and desire to make a positive impact, you’ll play a part in the future of the midwifery profession.

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Why Oxford Brookes University?

  • Small year group sizes

    Benefit from personalised support from teaching staff and experience a sense of community and collaboration among students, including short course-specific tutorials.

  • Unbeatable partnerships 

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

  • Exciting practical experiences

    Experience community midwifery, midwife-led intrapartum care including home births, midwife-led unit births and care for women with additional complexity.

  • Influential teaching team

    All our lecturers are engaged in research, international project work or work in clinical practice, taking your education to the next level.

  • Earn while you learn

    With course fees fully funded by NHS England, you’ll also earn a band 5 salary while you learn on this fast-paced 2-year learning journey.

  • Additional language modules

    Our university-wide language programme is available to full-time undergraduate and postgraduate students on many of our courses, and can be taken as a credit on some courses.

  • Accreditation(s)

    Approved by the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC)

    • Nursing and Midwifery Council

Course details

Course structure

Throughout the course you’ll explore a series of modules that build on your current nursing knowledge.

You will kickstart Year 1 with an introduction to core universal midwifery care. You’ll dive into anatomy and physiology, learning about the incredible changes and adaptations that occur during pregnancy, labour, birth and postnatal. You will also discover how to provide quality midwifery care as part of the multidisciplinary team for women with additional complexity.

Practical, hands-on experience starts early within the first 3 weeks, with exciting opportunities to learn by doing alongside registered midwives while you study. This will really boost your growth.

You’ll then bring everything you’ve learnt together in Year 2. In supervised student groups, you’ll have the opportunity to provide caseloading midwifery care to a small group of women. Alongside this, you’ll explore your personal midwifery philosophy and further develop your autonomy. You’ll then investigate a topic of your choice through your dissertation.

Midwifery

Learning and teaching

Experience in the clinical setting is a key part of the course. We support this with teaching methods such as:

  • lectures
  • seminars
  • workshops
  • skills suite work
  • discussion
  • debate
  • exploration of case studies
  • group and individual tutorial sessions. 

In health and social care, no professional group works in isolation, so you will share your learning with other health care students from Oxford Brookes. This is vital to developing your teamwork skills and your understanding of the other roles you will encounter in practice.

We offer a very friendly and supportive environment in which to learn.

IT plays an increasingly important role in health care courses. You will have access to an extensive range of learning resources through Moodle, our electronic learning platform. 

Our courses adopt a student-centred approach to teaching and learning, and we consistently receive very high satisfaction ratings for the quality of our teaching and for student support in student surveys.

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.
  • multimedia presentations.

These assessments ensure that you are competent at:

  • academic writing
  • practical and emergency skills.

Study modules

Teaching for this course takes place face to face, and you can expect around 24 hours of contact time per week during semester time. While on placement, you should expect to complete approximately 30 hours per week, under the supervision of a clinical midwife. In addition to this, you should also anticipate a workload of 1,200 hours per year. Teaching usually takes place Monday to Friday, between 9.00am and 6.00pm.

Contact hours involve activities such as lectures, seminars, practicals, assessments, and academic advising sessions. These hours differ by year of study and typically increase significantly during placements or other types of work-based learning.

Year 1 - Junior Year

Compulsory modules

  • Public Health in Midwifery 2: Human Rights and Contexts of Care

    In this module you will deepen your knowledge and skills related to Public Health. In particular, you will explore how to provide effective care to those with additional complexity due to public health issues. This complexity may be due to physical, psychological, social, cultural or spiritual circumstances, and may be one or a number of these. You will learn to apply your knowledge to care for women across the continuum of pregnancy, labour, post-natal care and neonatal care.

    Via use of specific case studies, and working together in small groups, you will explore the optimal care required to support your specific case - including multidisciplinary and multiagency working. By the end of this module, you will have the opportunity to propose an intervention embracing the principles of health promotion suited to the demographic group.

  • Anatomy and Physiology for Midwives

    This module will equip you with the required knowledge and understanding of anatomy and physiology (A and P) in childbearing. Reproduction, fetal development, maternal responses to the growing fetus, labour, birth and postnatal physiology are perhaps some of the most awe inspiring and magical elements of A and P - and you will learn all about these on this module. You will explore how this knowledge can then be used to support effective midwifery care.

    Importantly, the learning from this module will lay a sound foundation of knowledge which you will take with you into future years of the programme, and into your future role as a qualified midwife.

  • Midwifery Practice 3: Childbirth Emergencies

    This double practice module will prepare you to care for women and their families when experiencing acute or life-threatening complications during childbirth.

    You will exercise your critical thinking and problem-solving techniques when faced with childbirth emergencies, developing your own contribution as a member of the multidisciplinary team. You will participate in several rehearsed acute emergency situations which will equip you with the confidence needed to deal with emergency childbirth situations in whatever setting they may occur. This will ensure that maternal and neonatal wellbeing are at the centre of the care you provide.

    As with the other practice modules, half of your learning on this module will take place in placement working with your Practice Supervisors to provide care to women and their families.

  • Childbearing and Neonatal Complexities

    This double module will enable you to investigate the most common, as well as some of the less common, complications affecting the mother, fetus or newborn. You’ll build upon your existing knowledge of anatomy and physiology to analyse chronic and acute conditions affecting the mother, fetus or newborn. This new knowledge will give you the foundation to provide holistic care throughout the antenatal, intrapartum, postpartum and neonatal periods.

  • Midwifery Practice 4: The Midwife as Clinician

    In this module, you will consider the role of the midwife as a clinical decision-maker in care. You’ll explore effective communication with the woman and the wider multidisciplinary team in more complex situations, learning how we work together to provide safe, compassionate and effective care.

    You will use your developing knowledge and skills to determine best practice approaches to individualised, evidence-based care plans - including when women decline elements of their care. In addition, you will explore pharmacology and medications management, and how to safely and currently prepare and administer these in the clinical context. By the end of this module, you'll feel well prepared to care for women and childbirth in a clinical setting as part of the multidisciplinary team.

    As with the other practice modules, half of your learning on this module will take place in placement working with your Practice Supervisors to provide care to women and their families.

Year 2 - Senior Year

Compulsory modules

  • Philosophy for Midwifery Practice

    In this module, you will explore your own personal philosophy for midwifery practice. As you head into the final year of the course, you will look towards the future, and what sort of midwife you would like to be. To support you with this, the module will provide you with learning opportunities to explore the wide range of midwifery practice - locally, nationally and internationally. Your study will encompass leadership, and risk and quality, including patient safety concerns. You will consider change management via group work, and individually will reflect critically on your journey to this point, as well as your future vision for your practice as a midwife.

  • Midwifery Practice 5: Implementing Caseloading

    You will have a unique opportunity to provide, in small groups, continuity of carer for a small group of women under appropriate supervision. The focus will be on providing safe, effective and compassionate care. You'll work in teams of around 3 or 4 students, providing care to 6 to 8 women during the antenatal, intrapartum and postnatal period. You'll explore the theoretical basis both for continuity of carer models of care, and effective teamwork, and reflect critically on these. You'll create a portfolio of your experiences for submission, including peer, Practice Supervisor and service user feedback, carefully considering the NMC Code of Conduct and how to anonymise the care you provided within this appropriately.

    Half of your learning on this module will take place in placement working with your Practice Supervisors to provide care to women and their families. During your final year, you may begin to work under indirect supervision as is appropriate for your stage of learning.

  • Midwifery Practice 6: Towards Autonomy

    In this final practice module, you will consolidate all of your learning on the course thus far, and prepare for life as a newly qualified midwife. You’ll consider the skills of accountability and autonomy, preparing you to be the lead professional caring for women and newborn infants throughout the whole continuum of care. You’ll be encouraged to increasingly work under indirect supervision, identifying your learning needs towards the achievement of your goals.

    By the end of this module, you will have completed all of the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) requirements for entry onto the NMC register. Alongside this, you’ll also have met other core requirements such as completion of theoretical and practical based learning of Newborn and Infant Physical Examination (NIPE), and evidence of UNICEF Baby Friendly Initiative infant feeding support.

    You will also complete all practice requirements across the national practice assessment document (MORA) and the Brookes Practice Portfolio.

  • Dissertation

    This module provides you with a unique opportunity to select a topic, theme or issue of personal interest that is relevant to midwifery practice and critically investigate this in depth. Via 1 of 3 overarching approaches (literature review, research proposal or analytical essay), you will explore your topic by implementing a suitable methodology and method. You will explore your findings in the wider context of maternity care, including considering future practice and research recommendations. You will demonstrate your ability to consolidate and progress a systematic and coherent body of knowledge within your project write-up.

Work placements

Compulsory modules

  • Work placements

    We currently work with 3 placement providers: Oxfordshire University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (OUH), Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (GH) and Royal Berkshire NHS Foundation Trust (RBH).

    You will experience high quality, safe, effective and compassionate care across the range of care settings. Each year you will have core placements in community, on the antenatal and/or postnatal wards and in an intrapartum placement. You may also experience placements in triage units, high dependency, newborn intensive care, infant feeding clinics and working alongside senior leaders such as consultant midwives and managers. You’ll have the opportunity to work in a range of intrapartum care settings which may include obstetric units, alongside and freestanding midwifery units, and home birth. 

    In all placement areas, and across all partners, you will be allocated a Practice Supervisor/s and a Practice Assessor - as is required by the Nursing and Midwifery Council.

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.

Careers

Studying midwifery with us will prepare you for rewarding opportunities beyond university. You’ll become an expert in analytical thinking, effective communication, and problem solving, all skills that are essential for a rewarding role in midwifery care.

Once you’ve graduated, you will be entered onto the Nursing and Midwifery Council as a registered midwife. This means you’ll be ready to apply for band 5 midwifery positions and begin your preceptorship year.

Further specialisms include:

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

Perhaps you fancy deepening your knowledge and career further? At Oxford Brookes, we offer the option for you to complete a Professional Doctorate in Midwifery as a progression route, allowing you to enjoy a career in clinical academic research or extend your area of specialism further.

Entry requirements

International qualifications and equivalences

How to apply

Application process

Applicants need to apply via the NHS.jobs website for this course when the job advert is released, usually between January and May each year. This is because the course is run in partnership with either the Oxford University Hospitals NHS Trust or the Gloucestershire NHS Trust. One of these trusts will be your main employer, and you will be seconded for your 2-year midwifery course, allowing you to receive a band 5 salary for the duration of the midwifery programme.


Apply via the NHS

Tuition fees

Please see the fees note
Home (UK) full time
£9,535
International full time
£17,750
Home (UK) full time
£9,790
International full time
£18,250

Questions about fees?

Contact Student Finance on:

financefees@brookes.ac.uk

Tuition fees

2025 / 26
Home (UK) full time
£9,535
International full time
£17,750
2026 / 27
Home (UK) full time
£9,790
International full time
£18,250

Questions about fees?

Contact Student Finance on:

+44 (0)1865 534400

financefees@brookes.ac.uk

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 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 students seconded via an NHS Trust for the shortened course in Midwifery are funded at mid-point Band 5 salary.

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

Information from Discover Uni

Full-time study

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.