Any CNMs who started out at a private practice?

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Specializes in L&D.

Currently beginning the extremely daunting practice of looking for a first job as a CNM. (For context, I have over 5 years of L&D experience, the majority of which was at a major metropolitan teaching hospital in NYC that did >6000 births a year, but I've also worked in critical access hospitals in rural areas). 

In the areas I'm looking at, there are very few opportunities for new grads. Have a potential interview with a private practice run by two OBs this week, but am starting to get nervous about starting out my midwifery career without being trained by senior midwives. I've worked with some incredible OBs as a nurse, so I'm open to it, but was wondering if anyone here has had experience as a new grad -- good, bad, or ugly -- working in an OB-run practice? Or really, any insight regarding first CNM jobs and the transition into that role. 

 

Thank you!

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Specializes in OB.

Hey!  I was in the NYC area for years and worked there as a postpartum nurse and then a new grad CNM.  I would be really careful about a private practice, but as you say, it's extremely daunting to find that first job and get a new grad opportunity!  I just feel like you want to start out in a practice that actually views midwifery care as the ideal model, rather than views you as a physician extender, if that makes sense.  So many private practices will just run you into the ground and have you work like an animal, but also want you to practice in a very medically oriented, interventive way and have no respect for the midwifery model of care.  

I got lucky enough to start at a public hospital with a decades-old midwifery service, where I was on a team of 16 midwives who nurtured and mentored me.  The downside there is the pay is crappy, but it was worth it for me.  Do you know the OBs you're interviewing with?  What hospital would you be delivering at? 

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Specializes in L&D.

Whoops, meant to clarify — I’m leaving NYC and relocating to CA, specifically LA. This makes things a little trickier since it’s inherently harder to vet providers and practices (whereas in NYC, I have much much more intel. As I’m sure you can relate, I’ve learned that you often don’t know how people really practice unless you practice with them!). I do have a friend who used to work with this group, so I’m trying to get more information from her. The delivery hospital  would be a smaller community hospital in south LA near Inglewood. 
 

I totally hear you and agree regarding needing to practice with folks who agree and believe in the midwifery model of care. Any tips on questions to ask to gauge this? Or what would be a reasonable schedule in this arrangement so that I don’t become a mule? This would be helpful in general, too, going forward. Especially since I’m moving into unknown territory! 
 

:) thanks for your insight!  

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Specializes in OB.
20 hours ago, sufu1933 said:

Whoops, meant to clarify — I’m leaving NYC and relocating to CA, specifically LA. This makes things a little trickier since it’s inherently harder to vet providers and practices (whereas in NYC, I have much much more intel. As I’m sure you can relate, I’ve learned that you often don’t know how people really practice unless you practice with them!). I do have a friend who used to work with this group, so I’m trying to get more information from her. The delivery hospital  would be a smaller community hospital in south LA near Inglewood. 
 

I totally hear you and agree regarding needing to practice with folks who agree and believe in the midwifery model of care. Any tips on questions to ask to gauge this? Or what would be a reasonable schedule in this arrangement so that I don’t become a mule? This would be helpful in general, too, going forward. Especially since I’m moving into unknown territory! 
 

? thanks for your insight!  

Ah, that is trickier!  I honestly have no intel into midwifery in the LA area, other than that there are a good amount of midwives, and Kaiser hospitals in particular utilize us frequently.  There is an AWESOME midwife named Ginger Breedlove, she's a former president of the ACNM and teaches at Shenendoah University.  She used to work for the corporation that owned my birth center.  She now has a business called Grow Midwives, which helps midwives navigate this very process--negotiating contracts and schedules, and making sure they don't get taken advantage of.  Might be worth getting in touch?

https://growmidwives.com

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