Second bachelor’s degree graduation ceremony for the Midwifery study programme at BTU Cottbus-Senftenberg

The Midwifery study programme was launched for the first time at BTU in the 2021/22 winter semester, and this year the second cohort successfully graduated. In their graduation speech, the students themselves described their time at university in the following vivid words: “Today is one of those rare moments in life when you look back and, at the same time, look forward with great anticipation. After three and a half intense, educational, challenging and often wonderful years, we stand here today – filled with pride and covered in goosebumps. A feeling we also know from the delivery room. And so, at the end of our studies, only one final question remains: How is a midwife actually born? Because that is precisely what has happened to us over the last few years: we became midwives – not simply through a certificate, but through a journey and a process… which sometimes felt like a pregnancy. Seven semesters – seven steps towards ourselves. Three trimesters – three stages in the birth of a vocation. The first trimester was marked by curiosity, uncertainty and a certain queasiness. We were confronted with entirely new theories, with ethics and guidelines, with cells, cartilage and muscles – of which we hadn’t even known existed before. We asked a lot of questions, sometimes doubted – and eventually learnt how to work scientifically with twenty tabs open. In the second trimester, a routine slowly emerged. We knew the delivery rooms, the people, many technical terms. We had attended our first birth, survived our first clinical placement and felt for the first time what it was like to be truly needed. We began to grow – inside and out. And our self-confidence and empathy grew even stronger alongside us. And then came the third trimester. The exam looming, nights spent planning with caffeine and flashcards, our private lives on hold. We were in labour – figuratively speaking. Sometimes as frustration with clinical practice, sometimes as pressure to perform, sometimes as panic over the oral exam. … Yet, just as in childbirth, it is our mindset and attitude alone that determine our ability to give birth, not our doubts. And we knew: every contraction takes us further; no contraction is in vain. A interplay of effectiveness and pain. But we took a deep breath. And carried on. And eventually it was there: the moment when we gathered our strength and brought ourselves into the light: the birth of the midwife. That is what we are celebrating today. Each and every one of us has given birth to something outside the delivery room in recent years: ourselves in a new role. As experts in pregnancy, birth and the postnatal period. As empathetic human beings. As a strong voice for other women.”

To make all this possible, our heartfelt thanks also go to the non-hospital midwifery practices and birth centres in Brandenburg, as well as to the clinical supervisors and midwives at the partner hospitals where the practical part of the course took place:
- Medical University of Lusatia-Carl
Thiem- Ernst von Bergmann Hospital
Potsdam- Dahme Spreewald Hospital (Achenbach site at Königs Wusterhausen Hospital and Spreewaldklinik site in Lübben)
– Helios Hospital Bad Saarow – Frankfurt/Oder

Hospital – Sana Clinics Lower Lusatia
– Lauchhammer Hospital
District – Lusatian Lake
District Hospital Hoyerswerda – Upper Lusatian Bergland Hospital Zittau 

The ceremony was accompanied by music from Ms Knobloch (a student on the Instrumental and Vocal Performance and Teaching study programme) and Mr Schülzke (a teaching and research fellow on the Primary School Music Teacher Training programme). The reception that followed provided graduates, their families, friends, clinical supervisors and the teaching staff of the Faculty of Health with a wonderful opportunity to socialise and celebrate their success together. 

BTU Cottbus-Senftenberg warmly congratulates the graduates of the Midwifery study programme and wishes them a successful start to their exciting professional careers.