Best place to find laws for practicing midwife?

mom2michael, MSN, RN, NP · Jun 7, 2008

You can check http://www.midwife.org which the ACNM website. It has links to some pretty good information. The ultimate authority though will the the SBON and their Nurse Practice Acts. Most states have those on-line now.

I live in a state where licensed midwives (lay midwives, direct entry, etc...) are illegal. You can only be a CNM in my state.

However, with that being said, I live near a boarding state that does not see LNM as being illegal and up until recently also had a school for LNM. However, it had to shut its doors down because of lack of support in the OB world as well as many other factors I'm sure. Many LNM trained there and are still in practice, however they are fighting a huge uphill battle in this area to stay in business now because of the lack of support for LNM as well as probably a million other reasons (payment comes to mind first)

Your best bet is to do the research for the area you live in or would like to live in and go from there. That is how I came to the conclusion for ME it would only make sense to be a CNM.

AOX4RN, MSN, RN, NP · Jun 8, 2008

Is there a good website to find what each state requires as far as practicing midwife? I know some states do not recognize direct entry or lay midwives, etc. I found a local school that is accredited by MEAC and is authorized by my state to offer a BS of Midwifery degree.

The short answer is nurse-midwives are legal in all states, but their degree of autonomy is varied. The direct-entry midwife is legal in just over half. You can go to Midwives Alliance to review the legal status by state and some of the laws are also available for you to review to find out if you're in a legal state and what the educational requirements are to practice.

Beware of MEAC programs because none of them are accredited in such a way, with the possible exception of Miami-Dade College which is a community college, that you can transfer back to a nursing program if you decide to move on. They are perfectly adequate for those who never care to enter nursing or achieve CNM level of training, to meet the minimum requirements of practice. MEAC credits transfer to other MEAC programs. I learned that the hard way. Also some MEAC programs require you are a CPM first and/or have an Associate's degree in Midwifery (from a MEAC progam) before entering into a BSM program.

Incidentally, if you're primarily interested in serving the population of women who will only give birth outside of hospitals a CNM education is still a good idea. You can always turn off what you don't need to practice, but as a CPM you are limited to just that. Wish I could've convinced myself of that 5 years ago!

dinah77, ADN · Jun 8, 2008

I would recommend doing nursing school 1st.

Your career path seems similar to mine- I'm currently in an ADN program, hoping to get a job in L&D after graduation or in something else related, then on to CNM.

I think becoming an RN 1st will give you more opportunity overall, and will also open up more educational opportunities in the future.Currently the number of schools offering midwifery for nurses far outweighs schools offering direct path midwifery for non RNS.

I have spoken to other women in the birth community ( doulas, aspiring midwives, lay midwives) and there is some tension about lay midwives feeling CNMS are too medical, etc.

But to me it is because I take the care of my someday moms to be so seriously that I feel the need to be a CNM, and not a lay midwife. Even if I end up being a an independent home birth CNM ( god willing I end up in a state where it is legal :)) I feel it is better to know the ins and outs of "traditional" hospital culture in addidition to having midwifery training.

Anyhow just some of my thoughts, ramblings.

littlemamakt, ASN · Jun 12, 2008

http://mana.org/statechart.html

HTH

Kate

studentmom2007 · Jun 19, 2008

Thanks for all the tips! You all have been very helpful!