Live the dream or Crush the dream

[alltheway2013]

Hello all! I am really hoping to gain some advice and truths. I have been searching high and low on ways to become a CNM with my stats. A little background is this..my true passion is midwifery and women's health. I can see myself delivering babies and working in a clinic doing it all; women's exams, sex education, contraception and conception counseling, etc., with all age ranges. I get very excited and giddy inside when I think about my future doing these things lol. One day opening my own birthing center to do this in the far far future.

I currently work med surg, just hit my year mark as a RN and am currently in a BSN program and should graduate in April. What I worry about is my terrible GPA of 2.89 over all. I have been in school for 10 years in which I obtained first my BS in Psyc and then ADN. So with all the hours I have accumulated making all As in my BSN will not bring up my GPA that much so that is issue number one. I know some programs you don't have to have a BSN I just don't know if its worth spending the money to apply and not doing the BSN?

The second thing I worry about is the use of midwives. I live outside Houston Texas and there are a handful of midwives. What is the projected growth? I spoke with a midwife who owned a birthing center in my area but closed down 2 years ago due to finances. Do I take the chance and hope by the time I am done I will have job prospects?

If you read this far thank you so much :) I know I could just apply and take my chances but I like to hear what you all have to say. I am thinking in the mean time on trying to get a L&D position and becoming a doula. Of course I have so many thoughts of I should have done this or done that and started by career path a lot sooner but that life right. Got married and had my awesome children so I don't regret it. Thanks!

[byrd262, BSN, RN]

I personally know 2 midwives in Houston who work in a hospital. UT is always hiring, they usually have a table at the annual ACNM meetings where they recruit.

[LibraSunCNM, BSN, MSN, CNM]

"The second thing I worry about is the use of midwives. I live outside Houston Texas and there are a handful of midwives. What is the projected growth? I spoke with a midwife who owned a birthing center in my area but closed down 2 years ago due to finances. Do I take the chance and hope by the time I am done I will have job prospects?"

The projected growth in Houston? Not sure specifically. More generally, in the U.S.? The job outlook is good, in my opinion. It can be tough to find that first job as a new grad midwife, just as in nursing, but otherwise there are a lot of opportunities out there, in a very diverse variety of settings. The demand for midwifery care is on the rise.

[Teleflurry, DNP]

I hope this message receives you well. I don't see any reason you cannot pursue a career in midwifery. Just check the college rules for whatever program you want to see if they consider the overall GPA or just the nursing course GPA. I have seen many students admitted based on career experience pertinent to their program, merit, and (less likely) volunteer experience.

Have you considered the population you serve and the community you live in? If you live in an affluent area where midwives and doulas are sought out, your chances of course will be greater in finding stable work. If you live in an area with a high population of indigent, poor socioeconomic status or immigrant status - they will not be seeking out midwives. Perhaps you can create a program in your area to help the less fortunate women in your area that need education, contraception, prenatal care, etc. You could be that one person that changes the lives of many disadvantaged women who really don't have access to any other option, or be apart of an initiative that already does so.

For a semester during my current doctorate education I attended a church where they help a weekly fair for the homeless - and one table had a nurse practitioner from a community health center program. Patients would come to him with their problems and he would render care as well as have his team help them sign up for insurance options (medicare, Medicaid, obamacare, veterans coverage, etc). It was very noble . I read your post and thought, gee we could have really used a nurse midwife skilled to address the needs of the MANY women at the fair who had gynecological issues (moreso even due to the amount of "working women" - if you catch my drift).

Whatever you do just take a look at your community and try to find a happy medium between the needs of the people and your personal desires for nursing. I'm a married woman with children too, so I get the "struggle" if your rooted in your town and cannot really go anywhere. Got to get it where you can fit it! I hope you see your dreams of being a midwife come into fruitation.

[TSM2017]

Maybe set up a time to speak to some of the local midwives in your area. I live in Seattle, Washington area and we have a very large midwife population. The types of patients that seek out care from the midwives are vast. I believe that we have a large group of immigrant clients b/c they are used to low interventions in their countries so they seek care from midwives for this reason among others. There is no telling on a given day who your patient will be. Good luck

[cayenne06, MSN, CNM]

Have you considered the population you serve and the community you live in? If you live in an affluent area where midwives and doulas are sought out, your chances of course will be greater in finding stable work. If you live in an area with a high population of indigent, poor socioeconomic status or immigrant status - they will not be seeking out midwives.

I just want to say that this has not been my experience. Yes, if you are talking about home birth/birth center midwifery, it IS easier to make a living in areas of higher SES. But most CNMs work in clinics and hospitals, and are actually sought out to provide care to underserved populations. I am a CNM student, and the practice I precept at provides care at the women's correctional facility and at two federally designated community health centers, as well as at 2 "fancier" clinics in higher SES areas.

I used to be a home birth midwife, and while I LOVE that model of care, a major factor in my decision to become a CNM was that I wanted to reach a population of women that a) cannot afford home birth (while I was lucky to get insurance/medicaid reimbursement in my home birth practice, that is the exception not the rule) and who have medical/social risk factors that make hospital birth a more appropriate choice.