One of the UK’s youngest midwives earns First Class Honours
Ainsley Rooke is one of the UK’s youngest fully-qualified midwives and scored First Class Honours in her BSc course at the University of Huddersfield.
Wed, 12 Nov 2014 14:22:00 GMT
Ainsley also receives a University’s Chancellor’s Prize for her ultra high mark of 86.47%
AT just 21, Ainsley Rooke (pictured right with the University's Pro Vice-Chancellor Professor Tim Thornton) is one of the UK’s youngest fully-qualified midwives, newly-based in a large teaching hospital. She scored First Class Honours in her BSc course at the University of Huddersfield, where she has also been awarded a Chancellor’s Prize as one of the elite students of her year.
But alongside her up-to-date knowledge and skills, she is also passionately committed to a philosophy of midwifery that seeks a return to the “normalisation” of the birth process.
It is question of moving away from what she terms the “medicalisation” of giving birth. It means, for example, advocating an upright posture for women and using traditional methods for such processes as listening to the unborn baby’s heartbeat.
“In the 1980s, midwifery was medicalised, but we are now reverting to the times when there were more normal vaginal births, which is the optimal outcome for all women,” she explained.
Second highest mark
Ainsley is from Howden and remembers that when she was a small child she already listed midwife as a future career choice. After obtaining BTEC in health and social care at Selby College, she was told that she was too young to be accepted straight on to a midwifery course, but her highly-supportive father urged her to follow her dream – and she gained a place at the University of Huddersfield, as the youngest student of her cohort.
During her studies she has spent half her time on placements at in hospitals in Huddersfield and Halifax and her academic work showed such improvement that she averaged an exceptionally high 86.47% marks for her final two years. This earns her a Chancellor’s Prize – awarded to the students who earn average marks over 80% in their final two years – and the distinction of sharing the second highest mark of all those graduating at the November Awards Ceremonies.
Now graduated, Ainsley has begun to work full time at Bradford Royal Infirmary and despite the demands and responsibilities of the job, she is relishing the role. “I think that being a midwife is the most empowering, rewarding and satisfying job that you can do,” she said.
“Our lecturers always told us to have a thick skin and broad shoulders. That sums it up perfectly!”
