Running head: ELDER STUDENT PROJECT 1

Interview with Elder Student- Part 3

Atoosa Benji

Midwifery College of Utah

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Blyss young just became a licensed midwife. She attended the Nizhoni Institute of

Midwifery in San Diego, California. I interviewed Blyss via FaceTime on March 13, 2017.

Blyss has been on the journey to become a midwife for what she calls a very long time. She

started her journey as a doula and educator. She went on to open The Sanctuary, an out-of-

hospital birthing center in Los Angeles with her business partner and who later became her

preceptor. The Sanctuary closed in 2014. I have known Blyss for about five years through the

doula community and I often send my clients to her for placenta encapsulation. I look to her as a

trusted mentor and guide.

I asked Blyss when she was done with being a student and she replied, we are never

done, we are always students!. She spoke to me about how as she entered her Third Phase as a

Primary Midwife, she felt not ready and unprepared to be the one making the choices. Although

she was anxious to get through her numbers, she felt unready to be an active midwife in the role

of primary. It felt nerve-wrecking to know you are in the balance between life and death, but

you know your preceptor is there. Maybe having had more births under my belt, would have

been better for me, she said. She expressed to me how she wished that moving between phases

was based on when your preceptor felt you were ready and not merely by completing numbers.

I really didnt get all of my skills until I was primary. They throw you in to catch.

Catching is not the hard part- managing the care is, she explained.

Blyss worked with two different preceptors- Dr. Stuart Fischbein, an obstetrician

specializing in home-birth and Alex Evangeulidi, LM, CPM. She spoke to me at length about

the experience of having two preceptors and the pros and cons of having more than one

preceptor. Sometimes I was confused, because for the same situation, you have two ways of

doing it. There were times when I thought I was doing things right and I was told to do it
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another way. Blyss feels grateful to have precepted with Dr. Fischbein because she saw so

many skills in use. She said excitedly, Those skills are powerful. As a midwife, they are not

skills I would want to use, but I am grateful to have learned skills for emergency situations where

other students rarely see these skills in practice.

I asked Blyss if she felt prepared to pass the NARM exam. She said she felt that she was

taught the information well, but felt she was never asked to exhibit the knowledge to actually

pass the NARM. I also asked her what her scariest moment was as a Primary Midwife. She told

me she doesnt bring fear into the delivery room. I really, really feel it is important not be

fearful. If there is something that needs to be managed, it needs to be managed, not feared, she

said. She told me that if a midwife delivers 600 babies, statistically one may not make it and

that is just part of our job.

As always, I ask midwives what their advice would be to me, a student midwife. Blyss

smiled and replied, Take it all in and try not to be judgmental about what you are seeing. Be

open-minded about your preceptors judgement. Pause and debrief later. You may say to

yourself, I would not do it that way. Its OK, see what the outcome is when it is done a

different way. Be a sponge now, you can always practice differently when you are a midwife.

She also told me to try to always say yes to trying a skill, even if I am terrified. She said that

even when I feel unsure I should ask to be guided through. Atoosa, dont let the fear takeover

and get in the way of your learning, she reminded me.

I learned so much from my interview with Blyss. I think a healthy dose of fear keeps me

astute, I pray it doesnt paralyze me from taking action and coming out of my comfort zone.
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References

Young, B. (2017, March 13). FaceTime Interview.

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