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Maternity support workers help midwives provide care to women and their babies, before, during and after childbirth.
You could work: evenings / weekends / bank holidays; on a rota
There will be
5.4% more Maternity support worker jobs in 2027.
In your local area
As part of your day-to-day duties, you might:
You may need to wear a uniform.
You could work in an NHS or private hospital, in the community or at a client's home.
Your working environment may be physically and emotionally demanding.
You can get into this job through:
You could do a college course to get into this job. Relevant subjects include:
Most health and social care courses include work placements so this could be a good way of getting experience.
You'll usually need:
You could start on a healthcare support worker intermediate apprenticeship. This would give you the skills and knowledge to move on to an advanced apprenticeship as a senior healthcare support worker.
On the advanced apprenticeship you can follow the maternity support option.
This typically takes between 18 and 24 months to complete as a mix of workplace learning and study.
To get onto an apprenticeship, you'll find it useful to have:
You could start as a healthcare assistant and learn on the job. You could move into maternity work through further training and promotion.
You'll find it useful to get some paid or unpaid voluntary experience in a healthcare setting or a role working with children and families.
You could contact the voluntary services co-ordinator at your local NHS trust for further advice.
You can apply directly for jobs if you've got relevant skills and experience from work like child care or health-related roles.
Employers may ask for a qualification in a child care or health-related subject, and experience of working with people.
You'll need to:
When applying for jobs, you'll be expected to show an understanding of how NHS values apply in your work.
You can find out more about becoming a maternity support worker from Health Careers.
With experience you could become a senior support worker, or train as an assistant practitioner, nursing associate, midwife or nurse.