Midwifery Care
What is a Certified Nurse Midwife?
Certified Nurse-Midwives (CNMs) are unique, nurturing health care professionals specializing in safe, alternative approaches to your birthing experience beginning with preconception care and family planning service and including prenatal and postpartum care. CNMs also provide an array of primary healthcare services to women including annual gynecological exam and menopausal management.
CNMs are trained in both nursing and midwifery and are certified by the American College of Nurse-Midwives (ACNM). To be certified, a CNM must be formally educated in midwifery through an accredited program affiliated with an institution of higher learning, demonstrate clinical competence, and pass a rigorous national certifying exam.
Midwives offer a different approach for women who want a more individualized, less routine approach to childbirth than many traditional obstetricians provide. They see every pregnancy as a unique event and encourage you to consider your options for labor and delivery and to personalize your own birth plan. Midwives focus on developing a trusting relationship with their patients helping them to lean about physical and emotional changes during pregnancy. They will consider you an active participant in all aspects of your care. Midwifery care is hands-on care before, during and the birth of your baby.
How does a CNM handle complications?
CNMs are trained to identify problems that may develop or occur during pregnancy, labor, birth, and the postpartum period. A physician is always available for consult and to assist as needed.
Will my health insurance cover a nurse midwife's services?
Many US insurance plans cover CNM services. You will need to contact your insurance carrier for more information.
Choosing care with a nurse midwife will offer:
- One-on-one personalized care, attentive to the physical, psychological, and social well-being of the mother through the childbearing cycle
- Your childbirth to be as natural as possible with little medical intervention
- An alternative approach to birth encouraging freedom of movement, use of warm water immersion, and other techniques for comfort
- Support by Board Certified OB/GYN physicians
- Immediately available emergency care if needed
