Wow! It has been 9 months since I first set out in this adventure of becoming an independent midwife! And there is still “set up” work to be done even though I officially launched in the summer.
I now have all my equipment, maternity notes ready, I am up to date with training and I have been earning some money as a second midwife to my wonderful midwife colleagues @bethanyroseindependentmidwife , @the_holistic_midwife @caslakekatrina
I am so chuffed to have attended two homebirths already, done a couple of NIPE checks and quite a few antenatal appointments. Soon I will be doing some pregnancy massages and also hopefully some shifts on the NHS as bank to keep the money coming.
In regards to what I have bought in the last 4 months, I focused a month in buying equipment (full time mum!), a few weeks on sorting the maternity notes, lots more work into the website and creating content (slow!!) and other admin bits and pieces like getting an NHS email up and ready. See pictures below for expenditure and what kept me busy in the first 5 months (3 months at least were exclusively dedicated to building this website!)
If you are thinking of setting up you may find it useful to see how much I ended up spending in equipment. Depending on what you already have and how much you order I figure you would spend between £500 and £1300 (includes silly things like batteries and other non medical extras).
There are still some expenses coming up such as a birth pool, TENS machine, Goody bag, Entonox and antenatal education materials but I will purchase as more money comes in. In total I calculate I will be spending close to £5000 which is the budget I allocated myself to set up.
It is still exciting to be living the dream I always had. Becoming self employed is always slow at the beginning but I have the immeasurable support of my partner and the love of my little one that makes everything worth it as I can spend lots of time with him.
Surprisingly I really enjoy keeping my accounting books up to date and anything money related! Who would have thought. lol
And you, how much did you think it would take to set up an independent midwife business?
