English Midwife

[Tanvi Tusti]

Hi, I'm a midwife in the UK in the process of relocating to the US as my husband is American. I am also an RN and have a job lined up in ICU in San Fransisco.

For those of you that dont know, a midwife here in the UK is an independent practitioner who cares for women with normal pregnancies in the antenatal, intrapartum and postnatal periods. Women with uncomplicated pregnancies are usually midwifery led, they do not see a doctor throughout their pregnancy and are cared for solely by midwives, who also deliver thier babies. In fact between 75-80% of all births in the UK are attended and delivered by midwives either in hospital or at home. The emphasis being very much on demedicalising the process of birth.

Women and their babies are cared for by midwives from conception until 28 days after the birth. I love being a midwife here, I enjoy the autonomy and rewards that come with the job.

I know the system over there is very different but would like to know what exactly is the role of a midwife or ob-gyn nurse. I have considered working in that role in the US, but get the impression I would be doing a very different job. Please enlighten me!!:monkeydance:

[rbytsdy]

Thr traveling midwife sounds like a great idea, I guess it means that she goes wherever there is demand, is that right?

Yep! That's pretty much how it works. Here is a list of midwives that travel (just to give you an idea that we do have such midwives in the US!): http://birthwithlove.com/Search/Midwives_Will_Travel.aspx

I'm not sure what the process for licensing, etc is in Oregon but you could likely have your own midwifery service doing homebirths. In most states, you can get hospital privileges as a CNM (but not a direct entry midwife). Again - I'm still in school so I'm not even that familiar with regular RN licensing but we have many foreign nurses in this country). I know that the home birth CNMs in my state usually limit their travel to 1 hour from the hospital they can deliver at (I'm sure they are well aware of the nearest hospital in case of an emergency though). Direct entry midwives in my state only do homebirths but will accompany women to the hospital (should a transfer be necessary) and function as a doula. Some hospitals are known to be midwife friendly and some won't allow midwives (it really just depends on the hospital).

Mothering.com has a number of midwives that hang out there (the website seems to be down today but hopefully they will fix it soon). They have boards like this with a midwife forum. I know they have a midwife forum here but I don't know how active it is. Mothering magazine is the crunchy natural family living magazine in the US.

As I'm sure you've gathered, being an OB RN is very different from being a midwife who wants to support natural, not medical births. There are certainly opportunities for both here; it really just depends on which direction you want to pursue.