Any nurse-midwives out there?

[MidwifeWannaB]

I have been contemplating the prospect of going back to nursing school (dropped out 4 years ago in my second semester) and becoming a midwife. My daughter was born in a birth center owned and operated by 2 midwives, and they really inspired me.

Any thoughts or suggestions? This would be a ways down the road because I want more children and couldn't handle a full load of classes right now, nor could we afford it!

[withwoman]

Dear MidwifeWannaB,

As someone who decided after finishing college with a non-science, non-healthcare-related degree that I wanted to be a midwife, I can appreciate the thoughts about how long this whole process will take if one has to go to nursing school first. Although it is clearly true that one does not need to be a nurse in order to be a midwife, in this country nurse-midwives are legal in all 50 states while Certified Midwives and Certified Professional Midwives are not, so it is much easier to practice as a midwife if you complete your nursing education. There are many midwifery educational options that can get you to your ultimate goal, including programs that take in RN's without BSNs, get them through the BSN degree and then on to the midwifery degree, programs that take in non-nurses and give them both nursing and midwifery, and there are many distance education programs. The list describing all of these can be found at http://www.midwife.org/map.cfm. However, I should add that if you are more interested in an alternative route that is a bit outside of the mainstream and focuses on homebirth, you would want to contact the Midwives Alliance of North America. but my advice, given that you've already got some nursing school under your belt, is to finish that first and then go to midwifery school. Best of luck, and hang in there with the process....it is definitely worth it.