What school did not prepare me for was how much salary I should expect to get, and how to negotiate it, so I'm here to share my experience with you because salary seems to be a bit of a elusive topic. Nobody wants to talk about how much they make, so it's hard to pin it down.
I have had people offering me and my classmates a range of salaries from over 75K to over 100,000K (over many areas and states). One outlier, a private OB hiring a CNM for the first time, offered me 65K. He had googled it and was sincerely surprised that when I told him it was far too low. After doing some googling myself, I realized that there sites out there that really underrates our pays.
Google "salary cnm" and you are usually led to payscale.com, which uses a special scientific method (sarcasm intended) to rate it unrealistically low.
Go to midwifejobs.com, the official ACNM site, and it's on the FAQ, but they won't commit to giving a range ("widely varies").
So far, I found this site to be most realistic representation of what I am personally seeing.
As far as benefits and hours go, private companies seem to be able to give less, but make you work more. In one private practice, I was to work 5 days a week 8 hours a day, but on 2 of those days, I am also on call 24 hours. In addition, I had to be on call every third weekend. I was quite shocked at how they expect me to physically function that way - that is, if you are up 24 hours, how do go in for another 8 hours of seeing patients?
Then I realized that mostly, the providers sleep in the call rooms until it's time to catch a baby.
In some big hospitals and birth centers, the standard that I have seen are 40 hours - 2x8hours clinics, and 2x12hours. I like that because besides working under more humane conditions, I am able to provide labor support and spend more time with my laboring women when I'm on. Many hospital do have calls.
Bigger places come with bigger benefits, usually, not not necessarily - average 4 wks vacation, 1 wk paid CME, personal days, better healthcare, and Liability Insurance.
I know nothing about women who start their own practices, but that's probably a whole different experience.
So.... I hope that gives some of you a better idea. If anybody can share their experiences, I would love to hear.
Not sure if there are any practicing midwives on the board, I think most are student midwives. But you may have better luck calling around to offices and asking to shadow a midwife for a day. Maybe you can contact the local university near you that offers Nurse midwifery program. To be a midwife you need a 4 years Nursing degree, then an MSN about 2 more years, followed by 3 years of your CNM. Then you can sit for state testing to become certified. So actually about the same amount of years for an MD give or take a couple. They are 2 very different models of care though and you have to remember that while in medical school you will be learning about all types of pt's not just pregnant women. Same goes for Nursing school but its less in depth I'm sure!
Not sure if there are any practicing midwives on the board, I think most are student midwives. But you may have better luck calling around to offices and asking to shadow a midwife for a day. Maybe you can contact the local university near you that offers Nurse midwifery program. To be a midwife you need a 4 years Nursing degree, then an MSN about 2 more years, followed by 3 years of your CNM. Then you can sit for state testing to become certified. So actually about the same amount of years for an MD give or take a couple. They are 2 very different models of care though and you have to remember that while in medical school you will be learning about all types of pt's not just pregnant women. Same goes for Nursing school but its less in depth I'm sure!
Loveanurse-
A 4 year BSN, 2 year MSN, then 3 years as a CNM before being licensed? That doesn't sound right at all-the 3 years of being a cnm before getting licensed, I mean. I've never, ever heard that. Where did you get that info?
The schools that I have researched and contacted are nowhere near what you have mentioned LovaANurse. ECU, Georgetown, Johns Hopkins and Frontier all only require that the graduate applicant have a BSN. With that BSN and an impressive resume and some experiance, you qualify to apply for their Graduate Nurse Midwifery Program. ECU & Frontier are 2 year programs, Johns Hopkins a 2.5 year program dual masters (CNM & CNS) and Georgetown is a 16 month dual masters (CNM/WHCNP) program. So essentially, you can obtain your BSN and your Nurse Midwifery education in 6-7.5 years (given no breaks in between).
Thanks to all the previous posters. I graduate with my BSN in a few short months, and plan to immediately apply to Nurse Midwifery school. I am hoping my Doula experiance will be a bonus credential to balance my lack of RN experiance. All I can do is try right?! All your information and personal experiances has helped expand my kowledge and know what to expect when I become a CNM
Specializes in Nurse Leader specializing in Labor & Delivery.
The bridge program at Frontier is only one year (four semesters). The master's program is 2-3 years, depending on if you go fulltime or parttime. That is for a Master's degree that allows you to sit for the CNM board exam. There isn't a master's program AND THEN a CNM program. The CNM program *is* the Master's program.
I will be starting a master's program in the fall, and I currently hold an ADN. I plan to get my CNM in 3-4 years (including the bridge coursework). If you already hold a BSN, you should expect the coursework to be a CNM to take 2-3 years or so. If you already have an MSN and want to get a post-M certificate to be a CNM, it should take 1-2 years.
I wasn't being snippy at all. I seriously don't want to confuse anyone with my misinformation. Thank you for clearing things up because I obviously had misrerad info from the website.:)
Specializes in Nurse Leader specializing in Labor & Delivery.
I wasn't being snippy at all. I seriously don't want to confuse anyone with my misinformation. Thank you for clearing things up because I obviously had misrerad info from the website.:)
Then I truly apologize for misreading the tone of your previous post.
The schools that I have researched and contacted are nowhere near what you have mentioned LovaANurse. ECU, Georgetown, Johns Hopkins and Frontier all only require that the graduate applicant have a BSN. With that BSN and an impressive resume and some experiance, you qualify to apply for their Graduate Nurse Midwifery Program. ECU & Frontier are 2 year programs, Johns Hopkins a 2.5 year program dual masters (CNM & CNS) and Georgetown is a 16 month dual masters (CNM/WHCNP) program. So essentially, you can obtain your BSN and your Nurse Midwifery education in 6-7.5 years (given no breaks in between).
Thanks to all the previous posters. I graduate with my BSN in a few short months, and plan to immediately apply to Nurse Midwifery school. I am hoping my Doula experiance will be a bonus credential to balance my lack of RN experiance. All I can do is try right?! All your information and personal experiances has helped expand my kowledge and know what to expect when I become a CNM
Hi dorkalicious, just wondering what school you are applying to? I have been researching online programs, and I am curious which programs accept students with no actual RN experience? I am likewise, finishing up my BSN, and looking at all my options. My hopes of getting an L&D job for experience are slim to none, and I will be lucky to find a job in the market here in California...
From my research I hve found that there are the following online Midwifery Schools (correct me if I am wrong!):
Frontier School of Midwifery
University of Cincinnati
Philadelphia University
Eastern Carolina University
They all require 1-2 years (depends on school) of nursing experiance. I graduate in December (yaaay!!), applications are submitted in May/June, classes start up in the Fall/Spring. So technically I would have a year under my belt. HOWEVER, I've mapped out my future just right (or so I hope!), I am a Birth Doula: for Frontier, they will consider other experiances such as Doulas and Lactation Consultants in lieu of nursing experiance. So thats where I am keeping my fingers crossed for acceptance into Midwifery school soon after graduation.
Hope the information helps! And if anybody else has any input/advice, please feel free to comment!!
All your information and personal experiances has helped expand my kowledge and know what to expect when I become a CNM 
LoveANurse09
394 Posts
Not sure if there are any practicing midwives on the board, I think most are student midwives. But you may have better luck calling around to offices and asking to shadow a midwife for a day. Maybe you can contact the local university near you that offers Nurse midwifery program. To be a midwife you need a 4 years Nursing degree, then an MSN about 2 more years, followed by 3 years of your CNM. Then you can sit for state testing to become certified. So actually about the same amount of years for an MD give or take a couple. They are 2 very different models of care though and you have to remember that while in medical school you will be learning about all types of pt's not just pregnant women. Same goes for Nursing school but its less in depth I'm sure!