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HWN Suggests

Nurse Midwives Are Trained, Lifesaving Professionals. Why Are We Holding Them Back?

At a time when maternal mortality rates are decreasing worldwide, they more than doubled between 2000 and 2014 in the U.S. and particularly affected women of color. A simple solution to the skyrocketing costs and scarce access to maternal care is at our fingertips: nurses. Jessica Henman got her master’s and license as a certified nurse midwife in 2010, but when she went to practice in the St. Louis area, she hit a wall. She needed to establish a legal “collaborative agreement” with a doctor who would review her charts, approve prescriptions, and be held liable for her work. But because Missouri doctors are limited in the number of advanced practice nurses they can collaborate with (three),…

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Featured

 During coronavirus hospital surge, a midwife recommends home birth

During a pandemic, a home birth starts looking better every second. Midwives with their specialized skills in low-risk normal birth can be of great service.

 Midwifery Is Having A Net Positive Impact On Maternal Health

Midwifery is growing in the United States. It is already an enormous presence in Europe. Furthermore a recent study found that the more a state’s health care laws allow the integration of midwifery, the better the well-being (measured by healthy and monitored pregnancy, presence of birth complications, health post-partum) of mother and baby tend to be.

 Midwives Explain What a Home Birth Really Means

The midwife is there to safeguard the health and safety of the birthing person and the baby. While many midwives vary in credentials in the U.S.—there are licensed midwives, certified professional midwives, certified nurse midwives, and traditional midwives, for example—practices are similar.

 She Helped Deliver Hundreds of Babies. Then She Was Arrested.

A home birth attendant beloved by Mennonite women is facing felony charges. In a rare move, the women are speaking publicly in her defense.

 Ten Questions You Always Wanted to Ask a Midwife

She describes the job of a midwife as being a mix of social worker, nursing, and being a psychologist. I spoke to Homann to find out how disgusting childbirth really is, what a placenta smoothie tastes like, and why some fathers should never be allowed in the birthing room.

 The App That’s Like A Virtual Midwife For Pregnant Women

In 2014, the Bonzun app was launched to target pregnant woman. It acts as a personal pregnancy coach with symptom checker, so women get the required help and know when to seek emergency care.

 The culture war between midwives and doctors, explained

The US falls behind other affluent countries in midwife use. A deeper look at history may explain why.

 The demand for midwives is surging. Here’s why I made the switch to home birth

The pandemic uprooted my pregnancy plan. So I made the decision to have my baby outside the hospital system.

 The U.S. Needs More Midwives for Better Maternity Care

For better birth outcomes, the U.S. should rethink maternity care.

 What Is a Midwife, and Do You Want One?

Midwives provide a wide range of family-planning services, but not every expectant mom is a candidate to give birth with their assistance.

Articles of Interest

Birth Centers: Alternatives to Hospitals

Birth centers offer a low-tech, comfortable place for childbirth that's safer than having your baby at home if problems arise. If you choose an accredited birth center, you'll be cared for by licensed professionals, usually a midwife and a nurse, with a backup hospital nearby and a doctor on call in case of an emergency.

Call the Midwife

Though still a relative novelty in the U.S., midwife-led maternity care is the norm in other developed countries, including most of Europe.

How forceps permanently changed the way humans are born

Women managed their understandable fear by drawing on the support of their community. They gave birth at home under the care of other women – family members, friends and neighbors who were also mothers. Families may have called upon a midwife, though back then there were no specific qualifications that distinguished the midwife’s professional skills beyond having attended a lot of births. For most of human existence, the most important form of expertise in childbirth was lived experience.

In Praise of Midwives: Having a Baby Is Not an Illness

The memories of a midwife being with me during my greatest joy, as well as deepest sorrow, have haunted me for twenty years. It is time to tell this story.

People Who Want Home Births Have to Jump Through All Kinds of Hoops

While giving birth at home is legal in all 50 states, midwifery regulations in some states limit families’ access to skilled birth attendants.

Poor women who use midwives have healthier babies

We found that women who were eligible for government assistance and were seen by a midwife for prenatal care had significantly lower likelihood of preterm birth, small and low birth weight babies.

The Role of a Certified Nurse Midwife

CNMs play an essential role in women's healthcare serving women from adolescence onward, thru pregnancy and childbirth, and beyond menopause.

Resources

International Midwife Assistance

Our mission is to raise the standard of maternal/infant care in developing nations and areas experiencing crises in maternal/infant care. We place midwives and other healthcare professionals in hospitals, clinics and homes to provide care.

Ask your Midwife

Elizabeth Stein works closely with her patients to educate, encourage, and empower them to make choices that enhance their overall health, pregnancy experience and strengthen their family. She combines modern medical knowledge and technology with the caring inherent in midwifery.

Citizens for Midwifery

Citizens for Midwifery, the only national consumer-based group promoting the Midwives Model of Care! CfM works to provide information and resources that promote the local midwife, as well as midwives and midwifery care across the country!

Discover Midwifes

To improve women’s health and maternity care in the United States by re-introducing midwives and midwifery care as important options that should be the norm for women’s health care services.

Midwifery Today

Articles and information about midwifery.

Midwives Alliance North America

The mission of MANA is to provide a nurturing forum for support and cooperation among midwives. Through our collective strength, we can ensure midwifery care for all mothers and their babies throughout North America.

North American Registry of Midwives

The North American Registry of Midwives is an international certification agency whose mission is to establish and administer certification for the credential "Certified Professional Midwife". CPM certification validates entry-level knowledge, skills, and experience vital to responsible midwifery practice.

Oregon Midwifery

Oregon Midwifery is a free educational site for birth resources in Oregon as well as other parts of the US

American Association of Birth Centers

The American Association of Birth Centers is for anyone who is interested in pregnancy, birth, labor and delivery, and other women''s healthcare and reproductive issues.

American College of Nurse-Midwives

The mission of ACNM is to promote the health and well-being of women and infants within their families and communities through the development and support of the profession of midwifery as practiced by certified nurse-midwives, and certified midwives.

Online Birth Center

Description of midwifery, news, information, articles and resources.

Brooklyn Birthing Center

Providing evidence-based care with a compassionate touch.

Sunrise Midwifery

Sunrise Birthing Center is a warm, caring, homelike setting where you are given care that respects you as a person and responds to your individual needs.

The Birth Center

The Birth Center: Holistic Women's Health Care, in Delaware, is continuing a 22-year tradition of providing maternity and gynecological care as Delaware's only freestanding birth center. Located in Wilmington.

Wild Harmony Wellness

Midwives are the guardians of normal. Most healthy women do not need medications or technology to conceive, birth or nourish their babies. With information, support and attentive guidance, a woman will use her inherent wisdom to care for herself and her baby peacefully and powerfully.