How often do midwives deliver babies?

AspiringNurseMW · Mar 22, 2015

That's depends more on the hospital and city than midwife vs OB. You can do however much "OB" things, by which 8 assume you mean prenatal care, as your job allows. I both worked at a birth center where only midwives did all the prenatal care and deliveries, and I had my daughter with my CNM providing the only care. As a midwife you can work within a practice or clinic, have your own practice and deliver at hospitals or home (depending on state mandates), birthing centers, or strictly a hospital employee.

So again, it will depend on your job and your workplace

AspiringNurseMW · Mar 22, 2015

For example, a hospital in NYC that delivers over 5000 babies per year or a more rural location that only has 500 births a year. Also as a hospital based midwife I think it's going to depend on how many practices have delivery privileges, if only the hospital employees deliver =higher amount of births attended, otherwise, the providers will be doing their best to attend the births of their clients

klone, MSN, RN · Mar 22, 2015

At my hospital, we have about 300 deliveries a month and the midwives deliver at least half of them.

queenanneslace, ADN, MSN, APRN, CNM · Mar 22, 2015

The answer completely depends on the practice and the volume of births at your site.

There are midwives who work in large group practices and who catch multiple babies per call shift - and manage multiple labor patients at once.

There are midwives who work in smaller group - but hospital-based - practices - who more often have only one patient in labor at a time.

There are midwives who work in OOH settings that have an even lower volume.

If you live/work in an area with a variety of types of practices - you can decide which practices you want to work in. In rural areas - or areas where there isn't a high volume of births in general - it won't be likely that you'd be catching a baby every shift. And you'll probably be on call more often.

Where do you envision working?

BrooklynHD · Mar 22, 2015

In a hospital. I don't plan on having my own practice

klone, MSN, RN · Mar 22, 2015

In a hospital. I don't plan on having my own practice

There are not a lot of hospitalist midwife opportunities. Most CNMs work as part of a practice with other midwives (and physicians sometimes), and take rotating shifts in the hospital.

lovinglife2015 · Mar 23, 2015

There are not a lot of hospitalist midwife opportunities. Most CNMs work as part of a practice with other midwives (and physicians sometimes), and take rotating shifts in the hospital.

Most birth centers hire midwives.

klone, MSN, RN · Mar 23, 2015

Most birth centers hire midwives.

Yes, that is true (actually I would say that all birth centers employ midwives). But most birth centers also do prenatal care in a clinic and require their midwives to have clinic time, as well as birth time.

Rebeccas23 · Mar 23, 2015

There are not a lot of hospitalist midwife opportunities.

I disagree to an extent. There are several collaborative positions available in hospitals in my area for CNMs. Really though, if you're wanting to do more births, a hospitalist-like position (CNM or OB) isn't going to be doing many. They're there if everyone else is gone or to assist in emergency c-sections. They rarely deliver patients, since most clients have an established patient-practitioner relationship by the time they deliver and their providers are called in to deliver them.

As for how many babies midwives deliver, like everyone else has said, it totally depends on the practice and the setting. I work with home birth CNMs who do just a few a month (by their own choosing) and others who are hospital-based who are always on the move between rooms. Labor and delivery in it's own right is rather "feast or famine," but rather than looking at the numbers you should consider the TYPE of care you want to provide. That's the inherent difference between provider types (and the fact that midwives usually show up BEFORE the baby is crowning :) ).

klone, MSN, RN · Mar 23, 2015

I disagree to an extent. There are several collaborative positions available in hospitals in my area for CNMs. Really though, if you're wanting to do more births, a hospitalist-like position (CNM or OB) isn't going to be doing many. They're there if everyone else is gone or to assist in emergency c-sections. They rarely deliver patients, since most clients have an established patient-practitioner relationship by the time they deliver and their providers are called in to deliver them. .

I think this is highly facility dependent. Wherever I've worked, there have been large midwifery practices that see 100+ deliveries a month. When the patient comes in in labor, they get the midwife on call (or the midwife who is working that 12-hour shift). The midwives don't typically "special" their patients. At my current facility, a midwife will typically see 2-3 births per 12-hour shift. And we *do* have 1 or 2 "hospitalist" midwives who do not do clinic time, but are fulltime inpatient, but I think that's pretty uncommon.

**LibraSunCNM, BSN, MSN, CNM** · Mar 23, 2015

I'm aware that midwives as a primary caretaker is like 7% which has me concerned I won't be doing much on the OB side of things.

I'm sort of confused by this sentence, are you referring to the statistic that midwives attend approximately 7% of the births in the U.S.? If so, that stat is a few years old and I'm pretty sure has increased. Still, other posters are correct in pointing out that it depends largely on your geographical area and practice setting. If you're in the NYC area, there are many practices that employ midwives, both hospitals themselves as well as private practices, which are quite busy. This includes all of the city hospitals (HHC facilities). However if you go to, say, Alabama, there are literally like 5 CNMs in the whole state who have hospital privileges. I work at a small facility that does about 1000 deliveries per year and I deliver about one baby a week, on average.

I would do more research about the midwifery model of care vs. the medical model of care, and figure out which model attracts you more, as well as the educational pathways for both. I wouldn't let random numbers dissuade you from midwifery if that's where your interest lies.