Life as a CNM?

Published Jul 25, 2014

13 Posts

Hi all!

I will be graduating nursing school soon and have always wanted to become a labor and delivery nurse and continue to become a certified nurse midwife after years of experience as an L&D nurse. I do travel A LOT! I guess you can say I visit 3-4 countries a year (backpacking) and some of those countries I visit are often for medical mission trips. I've had a love to become a CNM with my experience through traveling to certain countries where there are high death rates for mothers and newborns during labor and I really want to change that in the future when I become a CNM. I know CNMs are very needed for international volunteer work (especially countries like Cambodia, Africa, India, etc.) and wanted to know if being a CNM at a hospital or birthing center allows you to have time to do things like that? With all the deliveries you guys have do, do you have time for personal life and family life? Are you able to take vacations or travel often as a CNM? I guess I'm just curious because I know the lives of OB/GYNS are very busy as they drive to hospitals weekly to catch babies and often staying the night at the hospital in case of an emergency, on top of that being on-call all the time, does this go the same with CNMs? I woud also like to know how it's like being a CNM for the military such as the Airforce if any of you had experience with that.

I would like to get some input on your guys experience as a CNM.

Thank you :)