hesitant - making a big change into nursing?

Hello.

I'm new here and a bit desperate for advice or opinions, so please throw absolutely anything you've got my way...


My background is... I'm 27 and at a crossroads in my life. I graduated from Columbia University undergrad in 2004 with a BA in political science. My undergrad academic credentials are heavy on poli sci (obviously), international relations, philosophy, and writing... College was a tumultuous time for me to say the least and I didn't apply myself as I should've. Finished with a 2.9 GPA overall, 3-something in my major.

Followed that up by pulling myself together and spending 2 years in the Peace Corps, then another 2 years working in international relations in Asia. I'm now back in the US, living with my parents in Utah, where they retired to from the midwest while I was overseas.

A logical next step for me would be law school. I've taken the LSAT and gotten an excellent score. I'm certain that I could get into a decent law school despite my less than stellar GPA.

What I'd rather do though, I think, is become a midwife. The birthing process and mothers and babies are just simply what I want to be around. I prefer the hands on humanness to being chained to a desk/computer, and I'm naturally a nurturing type.

I've been looking into second career in nursing programs. Apparently I will be shut-out of places like Cincinnati or UCSF that require a 3.0 GPA, but I guess I have a chance at others, like UMich:
http://www.nursing.umich.edu/academi...eer/index.html

There are so many prerequisites (some of which are courses that weren't even offered at my university) ... it's almost as if these programs aren't really designed for people pursuing an entirely new direction as I would be. Why don't they just include all of the necessary courses in the programs themselves?

I also balk a bit at the fact that there's no gold-standard set of pre-nursing courses as there is with pre-med -- every school seems to have a different set of prerequisites. So I guess the way to go about this is to pick ONE school, enroll in undergraduate prereq classes there, then bank everything on being accepted into their nursing program. Is that right? It just sounds sooo risky. I feel like I'd really be up a creek if this didn't work out.

On the other hand, it sounds so promising that I could potentially become a midwife in 3 years in a combined program.

My dream is to work in California, but I'm afraid of (1) liability being a problem with midwifery, (2) not earning enough to stay afloat, and (3) being shut-out for not being bilingual in Spanish...

Can I make this work? Is it likely that I could be catching babies in 3-4 years?
Or are my chances too slim? I'm single and don't have much money or extra time to gamble on this, so I only want to give it a go if I have a decent shot.


Thoughts?
Anything I'm failing to see?
Thanks!