What is a midwife?
At St. Charles Center for Women’s Health the value of collaborative care has been identified as a cornerstone for providing the best care to the women in our communities. Since our doors have opened on both the Bend and Redmond campuses, we have offered group care with physicians, certified nurse-midwives, nurse practitioners and clinical psychologists.
Many people misunderstand what midwives do and how they are trained. All of the midwives at St. Charles Center for Women’s Health are certified nurse-midwives (CNMs) with a minimum of a master’s degree in nursing from accredited universities. We are also certified through the American College of Nurse-Midwives. CNMs are independent practitioners who provide the full spectrum of women’s health care including prenatal care, labor and delivery, postpartum care, well-woman care, contraception, common problems and menopause management. Like our physician partners, we order labs, write prescriptions and create care plans. We also assist in surgical cases such as Cesarean sections. We work closely with our partners and consult and refer as needed for complicated cases. Most CNMs deliver babies in hospitals. In 2013, 7.8% of babies born in U.S. hospitals were into the hands of CNMs, a number that has been on the rise since 1989 (Martin, et al 2015).
Midwifery is the art of being with women in childbirth, a term that dates back to 1303, and a profession that can be traced back to the beginning of time. The English term midwife is derived from mid, which means “with,” and wif, which means “wife,” that is, a woman” (Rooks, 1997). The first midwives in North America were traditionally trained natives. With European immigration came women who were professionally trained. Midwives arriving to the new world on the Mayflower cared for three women giving birth on the high seas (Ament 2007 p. 22).
Midwives are the experts in care for low-risk healthy women during the childbearing year. The primary roles of the midwife are to educate, support and attend women and their families. The history of nurse-midwifery in the United States began with Mary Breckenridge, a public health nurse in Kentucky, who founded the first CNM service to provide prenatal and preventive health care to the poor, rural coal mining families (Ament, 2007). The union of nursing and midwifery creates a unique profession that is both an art and a science.
Ament, L.H. (2006). Professional Issues In Midwifery: 1st Edition. Burlington, MA: Jones & Bartlett Learning.
Martin, J.A., Hamilton, B.E., Osterman, M.J.K., Curtin, S.C., Mathews, T.J. (2015). Births: Final Data for 2013. National Vital Statistics Reports; Vol 64, No 1. Hyattsville, MD: National Center for Health Statistics.
Rooks, J.P. (1997). Midwifery and Childbirth in America. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press.
