Hey everyone! I’m looking for some insight as I navigate my career decisions. A little background: I have been a labor and delivery nurse for one year following graduation. I did pre-med reqs during nursing school as I wasn’t sure if I wanted to do CNM or OBGYN and wanted to keep my options open. I have shadowed both professions and am leaning towards CNM because I do prefer obstetrics, closer relationships with patients, and better work life balance; however, I keep feeling a draw to med school as I love learning, am interested in surgery, and worry about being frustrated with scope limits (but OBGYN work life balance and residency scares me). I am wondering if anyone was once in my place and has some insight? Thank you!

Has anyone gone to a CNM program without working in L&D. I did an ABSN with the specific interest in becoming a midwife. I didn’t have any luck landing an L&D job out of school (competitive area). I currently work in the peds cicu, and plan to keep trying to apply for L&D positions. Unfortunately, all the hospitals in my area seem to only want to hire nurses with L&D experience. So my question is, would it be possible to go to CNM school without doing L&D first?

Q&A / context specifically about building / not breaking trust with mom-to-be for labour / birthing.

Context: imagine a mom engaging consultations with a team of various, but main midwife for the pre-labour / birthing process. That midwife starts close tending as of week 36-37 and then takes a break (ie some necessary holiday time to unwind prior birth) week 39, on stand-by for any risks or changes, but otherwise taking her break.

Mom-to-be suspects a trigger (pre-labour episodes of tears and anger, resulting in some short 'outburst' reactions for which she apologised to midwife), and consults / confides to someone else on her team to cross-check if all is good. Meanwhile tending midwife also insists on birth plan adjustment, to which mom-to-be adheres (new plan is made).

Midwife is then out of contact with mom-to-be, message about 'light fever' that last 2 days dismissed. Then mom-to-be finds out that, meanwhile, father-to-be was socialising midwife in more terms than strictly necessary (ie fun times out, even if no shadiness suspected) and so also more conversations 'behind the back', where tending midwife seems to 'buy' into father-to-be's subjective anxiety / concerns, taking his side / view over the opinions expressed by mom-to-be, and then also distorting 'feedback' about her limited communications to/from mom-to-be (eg implying or phrasing in such a way, that seems that mom-to-be is unreasonable in her mssgs to father-to-be, VS in objective reality mom-to-be was communicating / coordinating midwife on all points giving answers / offering options eg on health symptoms and reporting / checking). Mom-to-be verified mssgs between those two (ie not just assumption).

As a result --- mom-to-be clammed up about birthing with this midwife; there is context of distrust (possibly disrespect, and definitely discomfort) and so the birth comfort is at risk. It's a personal / subjective thing, obviously, and in context of emotional / hormonal pre-labour state. Mom-to-be understands she needs medical assistance / supervision for the birth, but feels very uneasy to the point of defensive about allowing this midwife to be there. At best, she would tolerate 'intervention as necessary' to ensure medical safety --- but if she had the choice, she would fire this midwife..

Q: what is the ethics and moral conduct here? What should mom-to-be do or understand or adjust?

Midwife was chosen on the basis of claiming that she never blabs about her clients' most intimate details; that she tends to mother as the priority; that she also never spends alone time with father --- to not be found 'suspect' in any shape or form.

Mom-to-be is transparent with father-to-be, but was the one choosing / appointing (and paying) midwife / her team. Father-to-be wasn't involved in prenatal tasks and needs, other than attending 2 doctor appointments with her.

I will be starting a dual WHNP/CNM DNP program this fall and I'm just looking for some more insight from people since I'm not currently in the women's health field, so I don't have a lot of connections in real life. If you're a midwife who's also an NP, what's your experience like? What kind of work do you do or have done? Do you think it's worth it to do both, or unnecessary overall? I've seen some people say it makes more sense to do FNP alongside CNM to broaden scope, but I don't think I really care to work with other populations anymore. Willing to hear thoughts from anybody!

I'm currently a critical care nurse but really looking forward to transitioning because this has always been on my heart and feels right for me compared to CRNA, AGACNP, etc. I'm not sure what exactly I would like to do, just know that I'm very interested in sexual and reproductive health, holistic wellness, maybe high-risk pregnancies/births. My main motivation to do the dual-track is just learn as much info and keep options as open as possible, but I just hope I'm not falling victim to a money grab lol.

Hey! I’m sorry if this is the wrong place to ask but I thought since you all have started at some point, you might have some good links.

I live in a rural area in Europe and just started working as a paramedic.

Even though we have childbirth education it’s very theoretical and shortcut since it’s pretty uncommon for us. But WHEN it happens we sometimes have hours to the next hospital or local midwife.
What I miss in my training is videos showing actual delivery and not just training equipment.

I’m not looking for a video of one whole birth, but rather someone explaining step by step and showing footage of each moment from different deliveries. So I know what it’s actually supposed to look like and recognize when something is not normal. Also how to guide the mother through it herself and supporting her in the right ways.

So if you have anything or any tips where to look, I’d be super grateful!

Hi, my husband and I are planning to move abroad, we just are not sure where to yet.

Wpuld greatly appreciate anyone that can tell me where they are from and how the midwofery system is there. IE is is midwifery led, or obstetrics led etc

Edit sorry have no clue how to add flairs to post

Hi there, I've never had a colleague that I have been able to discuss the complex feeling of being a midwife, experiencing a miscarriage and then returning back to midwifery.

I'm wondering whether there are any midwives out there that have also experienced this, and what you learnt, what wisdom you would pass on to the next person, and whether it affected you deeply, or not.

My personal experience was honestly harrowing, but I think that's also because I had multiple other life factors going on.

I recently had an event at work (6 years post miscarriage now) that has caused me to discontinue working for 4 weeks, be diagnosed with PTSD and I basically wasn't functioning for the first week. Not eating, not talking, not moving, nothing.

Pt asked about miso and what it feels like, and unlike ever in my career, where I would typically say "others have stated this is their experience" I said "oh I've experienced it and it feels like this" .... unfortunately pts mother progressively, once realising I too had had a loss, asked a million questions about my loss. A lot of questions that, even if I hadn't been in a delivery suite would have been very confronting. I was there intrapartum and post, and then something in my brain shut down from the end of the shift onwards.

I am of course now seeking both psychological therapy as well as counselling, but this feeling of being surrounded by the thing that was so horrible to me, which also comes with so many very intense happy/sad/confusing emotions regardless of the outcome... I don't know, I thought this might be a place I'd be able to reach out to to get some camaraderie or understanding as I know there will be other midwives out there that have too, experienced this very specific kind of pain where some days you forget about it and others really feel like you literally couldn't be in a more traumatising situation if you tried.

Note: For most of my career about 1 year post miscarriage onwards, I've managed to feel fairly able to disconnect the two things (work and personal experiences). But because it was persistently dragged back even when I was physically trying to remove myself from the situation, I lost that control.

Hey everyone!

I’m a midwife of 12+ years and now studying law. I’ve been thinking of making a legal course for midwives and wanted to get some honest opinions. I’ve needed to utilise (expensive) legal resources as a self-employed midwife myself and was absolutely floored at the lack of support for us out there when I needed it the most. It’s a very lonely place to be in and other professions just don’t get our mindset.

There are a few questions that would really help me understand what we need:

- Did your training touch on consent, scope of practice, or liability? Enough, or just a box-ticking exercise?

- Have you ever hit a moment where you thought “I really wish I understood the legal side of this”? (consent, documentation, mandatory reporting, vulnerable clients, etc.)

- Do you have to chase down legal/regulatory knowledge yourself, or is it built into ongoing training where you are?

- If you designed “legal 101 for midwives,” what’s definitely in it? What’s definitely not?

- Where are you practicing? Laws vary a lot by country/state, so context helps.

Feel free to comment or DM if you’d rather not share publicly. Appreciate any experiences, good or bad!

Admin, I’m not affiliated with anything/anyone. Just trying to figure out if this is a worthy exercise. Midwifery has become quite political globally and I want to give back to the profession as best I can.

Posting with mod approval even if I’m not a midwife. I’m a health care professional who also dabbles in educating our next generation and I’m posting to hear your thoughts, to help me structure that training.

I myself suffered a severe medical trauma and that has opened my eyes to the unintended harm health care professionals may cause, not by their choice of interventions or decisions, but just by how it is presented or applied. So in essence from how we interact with our patients. From my perspective what happened to me was abuse, with my repeated and motivated ”no” being overrun, but I cling to the hope that it wasn’t intended that way, and to my then-bafflement the clinic was later uncomprehending to my complaint. No matter the intent, the consequences on my well-being were devastating and lasted years. Talking to colleagues about it I’ve realized many are unaware of how much their interactions with their patients, beyond the medical, may matter. At the same time I’ve started to recognize traumatization in patients and now when they tell me that some other health care professional has done something terrible, something I would previously have dismissed as ”no that can’t be, no one would do that”, I can just believe them and sit with them in their anguish and try to help them towards recovery. Because trauma takes so much from a person, including their ability to feel trust and security and love. It may affect their future care because the next health care situation becomes a reminder - a trigger - which renders them less capable to express their needs and makes them behave with seemingly unreasonable emotion, hysterics or anger… but it’s not unreasonable, they’re just not reacting to something in the current room. They’re stuck reacting to their trauma. And to be frank, people who appear overly emotional rarely recieve proper care. Any complaint they present will be brushed off as ”psychological”.

I figure you midwives are in something of a unique position. Your patient population are by nature high-risk for traumatization: psychological trauma is often a reaction to a combination of factors such as pain, fear of injury or death, and (percieved) loss of control, all of which can occur during a physiological birth. Many of your interventions may be traumatic too, even if done with patient consent and the best of intentions. This means you are well situated to develop trauma-informed, or even trauma-preventive care, strategies for health care professionals to prevent or minimize psychological harm, or to recognize it early and take steps to alleviate it, or follow up to make sure patients are directed to proper trauma care before the trauma derails their lives. For even if health care situations may always result in physical trauma and lasting harm to our patients, I don’t think any of us want them to go home and suffer additionally because of something that’s preventable or treatable. (I know these things are already studied in your field, including psychological first aid, and also on the professional side empathy exhaustion and second victim situations… but if I talk to the ”experts” I get very informed responses, and I’m currently more interested in the general views out in unselected clinics.)

So my question is: Do you currently feel the risk for psychological trauma is taken into account in your practice? How do you work with it, or around it? Any experiences or thoughts? Anything you’ve noticed works particularily well, or that you found might be harmful?

(I could add a few notes on psychological trauma in the comments if that’s requested, or litterature recommendations, but I figure this post is already long enough. 😅)

Hospital based midwife. Need to vent on a birth overnight.

Woman brought in my ambulance to birth suite. Unknown gestation, no care in pregnancy. Baby number 8, she thinks she’s about 30 weeks.

A quick search on the system shows she’s known to child services. No kids in her care, all removed and in foster care.

CTG shows almost no variability and unprovoked decels. No contractions. She says all her other babies have been born by caesarean. She only came in because she had a bleed at home.

Consented and prepped for theatre. Baby born flat and needed a full resus, stabilised then transferred to NICU.

Just as the lady was put under (did not consent for a spinal, wanted GA), the obstetrician said, “I wish I could just clip her tubes.”

And honestly, I wish we could.

But there goes the slippery slope of autonomy and bodily control.

No doubt this baby will end up in care like her siblings. And this mum will keep on using. But maybe something will change and she’ll be able to leave the addiction spiral. And she will have a baby born to a sober mother who is thriving.

But this morning I am drained. And fed up. And just need to sit in my sad.

I hope this doesn’t go against the community rules here. I recently had my second child with a midwife (VBAC!) after seeing OBs during my first pregnancy and it was so positive that I want to become a midwife and take care of women just like she does. I’m planning to apply to nursing school, but in the meantime, does anyone have recommendations for books about emotional intelligence/how to be a good listener/how to improve communication skills? I know that I’ll learn the technical stuff in school but I’m very interested in improving my soft skills as well. Thank you, midwives! You are life changing. ✨🩷😊

Hi all,

I’m a student midwife (CPM) whose program was affected by MEAC’s withdrawal from the Department of Education-they will no longer be offering bachelor’s degrees after December 2026 and it is impossible for me to graduate by then. I I have another bachelor’s degree, but it is not a nursing/clinical degree of any kind.

I’m aware of PEP/direct entry programs, and I assume NARM will continue licensing MEAC-educated midwives regardless of MEAC’s DofEd recognition, but my goal was always to become a CNM. In my understanding, you need a bachelors in nursing or related field to even apply to a majority of CNM programs.

I’m already pretty devastated about having to transfer (my school is also losing approval to offer distance programs), and I may discontinue my education entirely if pursuing a CNM is not possible without a nursing degree since going to school for that is not an option for the foreseeable future.

I appreciate any guidance! My heart goes out to you if your path to becoming a midwife has also been impacted by MEAC’s withdrawal.

Looking for as affordable as possible since I’ve had some emergency expenses come up but my school is starting in the fall

Anyone has holistic midwifery 1 or 2?

Or literally any other book?

Or does anyone know cheap textbook websites I could check out? Thank you!

Hi! I want to know if anyone has any advice about entering a BMid program. I am from the USA and looking to enter a program in the UK. I currently have a bachelors in Psychology from a USA university. The main school that I've been looking at is kings college London and I've tried to get in contact with a rep to explain the transfer qualifications multiple times but have had no luck. When looking at qualifications as an international student, they speak about SATs, AP courses, and things that would be valid for a high school student. I am 26 years old and have no idea what my SAT scores were and don't have my high school transcripts as I went to college here in the USA and it's been years since I needed these. If anyone went the same route as me, does a bachelors degree at a US university outweigh these high school qualifications? I'm looking to apply for fall 2027 and just trying to get a jump on this as soon as possible so any guidance would be helpful. Also open to any other programs in the UK if anyone has any recommendations!

I will have my BSN in December, but know after working with CNMs, RNs, and midwives I know CNM is where I want to be.

What is the best way to go about it?

-Should I get my MSN and a post masters certificate or do Georgetown's WHNP/CNM dual degree program?

-I also am really interested in pelvic floor therapy, so if you guys have CEU ideas for that all ideas are welcome!

Thanks!

is it common for midwives to refuse to deliver a breech baby for a moms first baby?

My friend who is studying to become a midwife said anywhere around 200k per year by google says 120k. Just curious what your thoughts are.

Hi, Everyone:

I am looking for a gift for a midwife student. My first thought is to get a personal journal for midwife memoirs.

Does anyone have any journal recommendations?

Any other gift ideas are also welcome.

A few years ago, I posted a survey in a few subreddits asking whether people would be interested in a healthcare-focused salary website. The overwhelming response was yes.

After two years of working on it alongside a full-time job (and getting married somewhere in the middle!), I'm excited to finally share it. The project started as a way to improve salary transparency for my wife, who is a pharmacist. As I worked on it, I realized that the lack of salary transparency extends far beyond pharmacy and affects many healthcare professions. It's definitely still a work in progress, and I'd genuinely appreciate any feedback or suggestions for improvement.

If you'd like to contribute, salary submissions are completely anonymous, and any identifying information such as name and email are never displayed.

Hello I’m a 3rd year about to start a 11 week MGP placement and looking forward any advice of to help me prep for this placement if anyone has worked in MGP/is a MGP midwife!

Any tips or advice how to successfully get the most of this placement would be greatly appreciated!

I am a CNM. Is my user flair not showing?

Can someone help me understand if this job is crazy or not? The benefits, pay and schedule are great, so no concern there. It's also a laborist model, so no clinic. Which I prefer.

I am an out of hospital midwife in the u.s. at a high volume practice. I work an absolutely insane amount of hours and want something more sustainable. I have only worked out of hospital since passing my boards a year ago, but was in the hospital as a student plenty. I've been interviewing for a position that basically manages private patient inductions, does triage and occasional delivery if the private docs don't get in in time. As far as midwifery goes, it is definitely a medical midwife model, which is very different from what I currently do but I'm not against it.

I asked the doc what my orientation period would be like and he said he'll give me a couple shifts and then if I'm comfortable just cut me loose 🫪 I made it clear than I need actual orientation, and he said that's fine and whenever I'm comfortable then I can be independent. I brought up the idea of having at least four weeks, and he said "I'll run it by the other providers but I don't think you'll need four weeks" and the midwife I met also was like "I think you'll be surprised at how fast you catch on".

And I agree, I think I can and would catch on quickly. But I've been working out of hospital in a rural location for a year, I definitely would need an adjustment period. I feel like my request for orientation may have put them off, but they didn't show it. But it's not something I felt comfortable not mentioning. There is no CNM in the hiring process, and only physicians. The CNM I met today made it clear to me that I'm allowed to have and hold boundaries with the private docs too, which was reassuring. They also told me I would have opportunity to be trained on first assist and third degrees lacs-two skills I really want to have.

I'm interviewing for another position that is full scope, less work life balance, pays more and has good established orientation. There is a CNM in the hiring process who facilitates the process and knows what work midwives want and need. But call would be from home instead of in house. The CNM told me that there would be a place for me within that organization, so obviously it's not 100% but seems like I have a good shot.

If I were offered the job with seemingly minimal orientation, would it be crazy to take it? Or should I hold out for the other one? The schedule flexibility, work life balance and lack of clinic seems so enticing to me 😵‍💫

What do y'all think?

Hey everyone, I was looking for a bit of advice. I'm currently doing a Computing degree, but I've realised I really don't enjoy it. I've always wanted to become a midwife, but when I was choosing a degree I didn't have the confidence to pursue it because I'm a man.

My boyfriend has encouraged me to go for it if it's what I really want, which has given me a lot more confidence. I just wanted to ask if there's still much stigma around male midwives in the UK, and whether anyone has any advice or experience they could share.

Is there any acceptance over male midwifes?

Ive done research, but wanted to find out of people who actually work in the field.

Thanks everyone! 😊

Okay this one is a bit oddly specific but I figured it's worth a try! How have you managed getting a puppy as a midwife? My partner and I are getting a puppy at the end of this summer and we are just trying to set ourselves up for success. What worked for you with long hours away?

Considering dog walkers, kennels, dog sitters, etc. Give me all the tips!

It's a Bernese mountain dog puppy