PMHNP and CNM?

[Egeria]

I'm a practicing PMHNP, I work mostly with adolescents and young adults who are pretty seriously mentally ill, many of whom are homeless or transient, and many of whom are pregnant or have young children. I became a lactation educator and childbirth educator two years ago because I dealt with many post-partum issues concerning my pysch patients-at least those who managed to keep their children-and I've found that I'm really interested in marrying psych and OB together in a more official, comprehensive manner. So I'm wondering if going for a post-masters CNM would be a viable decision. I'm also hoping there might be someone out there on these boards who is a PMHNP and CNM, that I could speak with, as well.

As background, I used to work in maternal/child health research on the public health side of things before becoming a nurse and I have always had a deep passion for maternal/child health in general. I loved my lactation and childbirth educator courses and found the things I was taught there to be very useful in working with my childbearing psych patients. But I'd like to join these two fields formally because even though my psych patients make up a very small percentage of the general population, they use up a lot of resources over the course of their lives. I'd like for psych and OB to be a team to provide both obstetric and psychiatric services to these young women and their babies, very early on, ante-partum/intra-partum and post-partum and I think being trained and having experience in OB would be a requirement on my part to do so.

Anyone out here feel the same way? Has anyone out here done something similar? I don't personally know any PMHNP/CNM, but maybe someone else does?

[A&Ox6, MSN, RN]

As a foster Care nurse, I think this is a great idea. In fact, o sometimes feel like my two main roles are psych and women's health

[pro-student]

It's a great idea, I've considered it myself especially since there seems to be essential 0 providers that feel comfortable caring for women with mental health issues. It also seems like a no woman's land where no one really wants the responsibility; psych providers are petrified of pregnant women and women's health providers generally don't have the skills/experience providing mental health care.

Be aware, however, that their is not an existing role or model (at least in the US) combining the two so you'd largely be forging your own path. It's certainly something that's very much needed here. I'd think that once you have some experience as a CNM and sufficient networking, you'd have no shortage of clients through referrals.

I hope that helps. Best of luck and let us know how it goes!

[sunshine-momMSN]

I would not. I'm a CNM going back for a PMHNP cert because of the job market for CNMs and my own experience with post partum depression. Midwifery is a fickle profession.

[PG2018]

I don't know about NPs, but physicians are offered dual residencies, I.e. med-peds, family-psychiatry, et al. Short of academics, they all seem to find one job/field/clinic and work in that capacity. Some keep the dual certification, some never go beyond board eligible, and some let one cert lapse. I think dual purpose providers make little economic sense and are double bombarded with CME requirements and testing.

If you're into pregnancy and lactation, I think you're where you need to be. Keep the niche. I hired doulas, hypnobirth folks, lactation consultants, ad nauseum for my wife. She even had an eval by a CNM. In the end, her obs delivered, the baby suckled great, and the doula mostly did house work (which was super). In hindsight, I wouldn't pursue all those and their input. That said, I'm an information guy but knew little about babies other than what I needed to do to make one. It was all surprisingly affordable.