nurse midwife assistant?

RiskManager · Jun 4, 2015

Are you referring to working as a doula?

**LibraSunCNM, BSN, MSN, CNM** · Jun 4, 2015

Birth assistants work in freestanding birth centers or in homebirth, and literally assist the midwife in setting up supplies for the delivery, and with cleanup afterwards. They may very well be nurses, although many are not. Generally all birth assistants are NRP-certified in case the baby needs resuscitation while the midwife is busy with the mom. You would need to find midwives in your area who work in these settings, and ask them specifically what they require in a birth assistant, and if they have openings. There is no insurance (I assume you mean malpractice?) needed, no official regulation other than what the midwife requires, and they do not work with midwives in the hospital.

notnursezelda · Jun 4, 2015

Are you referring to working as a doula?

lol yes and no... i still want to utilize my nursing training and be active in that role, whilst still providing that support for my patients. From my understanding a doula is able to provide support, but not in a medical aspect. So thats why I was thinking of midwife assistant, but I just wanted to know if nurses could occupy that role? (since mostly its been individuals outside of medical training like nursing)

I haven't heard of it before but it would make sense, even if CNM's are working in the office or home births, would *regular* nurses still assist in the process like they do in hospitals, etc

biggolp · Jun 4, 2015

I worked as a midwife's assistant at a FSBC.

I am not a nurse (yet) but got to do some clinical work (taking vitals on mom and picking up FHT, pp vitals on mom and baby, charting, etc.). The job description is very different than the doula'ing I do which plays no clinical role and is only there to support the birthing woman.

Although I got to do some doula'ing (as an assistant) when there was time, my primary job was to ASSIST the MIDWIFE. I had to set up the birth room, take and chart vitals, check O2 and suction prior to birth, anticipate midwife's needs during birth - new gloves? more lube? hold lidocaine, get more chux, etc. Postpartum, I had to announce 1 minute and 5 minutes for APGARS, took vitals, assisted with breastfeeding, and cleaned up.

Some of the assistant were nurses and might have been able to start IVs (if necessary), but the clinical work and the patient education in OOH births is usually done by the midwife herself (so it is not necessary for the assistant to have medical training).

As someone else pointed out, I am NRP certified so that I can be the other person to help in case baby needed resucitation.

notnursezelda · Jun 5, 2015

Ii guess that makes sense, and thank you so much for the information, biggolp! thats really interesting, were those other nurses able to go into that right after they graduated or did they have some type of necessary experience first?

I guess my main concern was that I never heard of a "nurse midwife assitant" as an official title or job description, so I wasn't sure if it was possible to go into that or what the case would be if I did try to pursue it afterwards

queenanneslace, ADN, MSN, APRN, CNM · Jun 5, 2015

I was a 'midwife assistant' for a midwife with a birth center practice prior to becoming a nurse. I was also an apprentice in the practice - so I wasn't getting paid - much. And I was on call 24/7/365.

There are RNs that assist midwives CPMs and CNMs who practice OOH - usually in birth centers. These RNs get paid call pay (a trivial amount) and then paid for hours worked assisting during deliveries. Usually a couple, three hours.

Now that I am an RN, the idea of working for a midwife in an OOH setting has limited appeal. In some states there are some dicey issues with working in an OOH setting with non-nurse-midwives, or just in an OOH setting. There are not consistent hours, and the pay is not even close to what I can make in a hospital. If I did work both in a hospital and OOH - the hospital may not like it.

That said, I LOVE the midwifery model of care and woman-centered OOH births. Love it. The reason I would seek out employment as an RN in an OOH setting would be because I need to see some good births! I learned some great things about supporting physiologic birth and how to be 'with women' during their labors.

If you are trying to work as a midwife assistant, getting lots of medical/nursing skills will behoove you. Midwives don't need doulas (well, not all the time) - they need someone who can do vital signs, assess labor progress, assess a newborn, perform apgars, assist with resuscitation, and understand how to use and maintain the medical equipment at deliveries.

There is no licensing or specific training for a midwife assistant, so you're kind of on your own figuring out what to do to make yourself marketable. Or you could ask some area midwives what they look for in an assistant.

biggolp · Jun 5, 2015

The reason I would seek out employment as an RN in an OOH setting would be because I need to see some good births!

Yes!

After doula'ing at some bad hospital births, I have called a homebirth midwife friend of mine and offered to volunteer doula at a birth where she felt her client may be able to use a doula but could not afford one, just so that I can see a normal birth...

biggolp · Jun 5, 2015

were those other nurses able to go into that right after they graduated or did they have some type of necessary experience first?

Since the job description of the midwife assistant does not require being a nurse, nurse experience is certainly not necessary.

The midwife would train the assistant in what she would need to do regardless if the assistant could do things that were within the scope of nursing or not.

I do know that one of the nurses did the follow-up pp visit (48 hours pp) and was able to do the hearing test and heel prick screenings (as well as check bleeding, fundus, stitches, breastfeeding, etc.)