Interested on how to become a certified nurse midwife? This nursing career guide
provides you with all the information you need about what the nurse midwife does,
how to become one, salary of nurse midwives, job outlook, qualifications, and more.
Midwives have assisted women during the natural process of childbirth from the
beginning of time. Today, the Certified Nurse-Midwife is an advanced
practice registered nurse who has the education and skill to manage, not only the
normal birth process, but also the possible complications of pregnancy, labor, and
childbirth which had in the past cost the lives of many women and babies.
, • What is a Nurse Midwife?
• History of Midwife
• What does a Nurse-Midwife do?
• Nurse Midwife Salary
• Where do Certified Nurse Midwives Work?
• How to Become a Nurse Midwife?
• Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) degree
• Licensed as a Registered Nurse
• RN Work Experience
• MSN or DNP degree
• Certified Nurse Midwife State Licensure
• Nurse Midwife Pros and Cons
• Pros
• Cons
• Nurse Midwife Organizations & Resources
• Is This Career for You?
Certified Nurse Midwives (CNM) and Certified Midwives (CM) attend to women and their
babies during pregnancy, labor and childbirth, and during the first days after birth. In
addition, they provide women’s health care throughout the lifespan with special
emphasis on reproductive and gynecologic health.
Certified nurse midwives are a type of advanced practice registered nurses (APRN) who
have at least a master’s degree and specializes in women’s reproductive health and
childbirth. They are recognized in all the US states as independent practitioners with
the authority to prescribe medications. Certified Midwives (CM), recognized in a few
states, enter the graduate program with a non-nursing baccalaureate degree.
Both types have to pass the same certification examination of the American Midwifery
Certification Board (AMCB). As of February 2019, there were 12,218 CNMs and 102 CMs in
the US. The National Center of health statistics in the US reported that CNMs and CMs
attended 351,968 births, which represented 9.2% of the 3.8 million births during 2017.
Prior to the rise of medical science, the assistance women needed during labor and
childbirth was seen as women’s business, wherein men had no place. Records show
that midwifery was a recognized female profession over 3,000 years ago in ancient
Egypt. In the Greek civilization, midwives had a status equal to that of physicians.
Midwives tended women, from Royalty to the poorest classes, during childbirth until
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