[d'andrea]

i am looking into nursing specialties and i am very interested in becomming a nurse midwife. i want to know if there is a lot of opportunities for this field, and the starting pay. how much education is required, and if you enjoy being a nurse-midwife.
thank you,
d'andrea

[fergus51]

see www.midwife.org

[d'andrea]

this site did answer some of my questions except how much they get paid comming out of school. how hard is it to get into the program? is it very expensive, and if there are jobs(lots of jobs)in this feild? any info that you can give me pertaining to this will be appriaciated.

[Zhakrin]

from what I know and my stat maybe limited to Canada, but the waiting list for our midwife degree programs are about 3 or 4 years. Very competive to get into the program, yet I have never seen a nurse midwife in practice. Maybe because I am not in L&D but that my 2cents.

Good luck and don't give up.

[d'andrea]

thank you for your response. i have seen a nurse midwife. my child was delivered by one, thats how i got interested in the field. maybe i will go and ask her for information.

[fergus51]

They are MUCH more common in the States. Most are Masters programs. School prices vary, click on the educational link from the webpage I listed. They are anywhere from a few thousand a year to nearly twenty thousand a year depending on the school and whether or not you will get a Masters or a certificate upon completion. You can also link to midwifejobs.com from that page which has job offers including salaries. Most I have seen are 60 000$ and up.

[RHinesRN]

Hi,
My wife just passed her boards for CNM. She went through a graduate program (2 years) and got her MSN (1st year) then completed her training to sit for the for CNM boards. Her official program title was MSN, Certified Nurse Midwife Track. The program was very competitive, she worked PRN during her school but at time had to take months off because of clinicals that were out of the area. She had a couple of clinicals were she live with a family member or friends OOT for about 6-8 weeks. She went to a private university in VA, approx cost 40K. She is starting a job around May, and will be working with a state university practice paying approx 55k. From her research starting salaries were starting in the 60K range for ob/gyn practices.
Depending on the state, you have to meet certain regs to be able to practice. In all most all states you have to have a collaborating physician in order to hold a license and practice. Different states have varied definitions of what collaboration is. From what I know the bottom line is you have to have a collaborating physician to refer hi-risk patients to. From our experience over the last 6 months there are opening for CNMs out there but they are looking for experienced people. My wife was lucky to have it work out for a job with an exiting, university affiliated (great malpractice insurance), and hospital delivery based practice. As for lay-midwives, research your state ... in some states it is illegal to practice as a lay-midwife.

Hope this helps

[d'andrea]

thank you this helps a lot. what school did your wife attend. i live in california and i will look into what the requirments are.
d'andrea

[RHinesRN]

She went to Shenandoah University in Winchester, VA. A private Methodist university. The only other option around here is George Town University ... cost was pretty close but travel would have been a problem. Good Luck!

[rnoflabor2000]

D'andrea -
there are actually on line courses leading to a CNM. Last one I looked into was SUNY of NY. One of our RN's attended those classes online. She did have to go out of state to get her clinical time though. Anyway, I think you can go to www.suny.edu Try it.