What state is best to practice midwifery?

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Hello All,

Im in the middle of the nurse midwifery (MSN, DNP) program at Frontier. I'm working on making contacts to set up my preceptorship, but am weighing out my options. My husband and I currently live in California, but are considering moving back to Wilmington, North Carolina, or Ft. Collins, Colorado. Of course there is no guarantee of where I will find a preceptor to take me on, but I was wondering if anyone could shed some light of what practicing is like between California, Colorado, and North Carolina. Colorado is the only state that allows independent practice, which is what makes it so tempting. I'm wondering what the market is like as far as finding a job as a CNM, as well as salary. I do have the same questions for both California and North Carolina. I have heard terrible things about practicing as a CNM in North Carolina because of laws and regulations, but know it might be difficult in California because of physician supervision requirements. By the time I graduate, I will have about 2 years of labor and delivery experience, and have 2 years of med-surg telemetry experience. I will have my MSN and DNP upon completion as well. Any insight on any of these states would be helpful! Thanks!

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Specializes in OB.

I just came across this PowerPoint from ACNM regarding state practice environments. Hopefully you can access it.

http://www.midwife.org/acnm/files/ccLibraryFiles/Filename/000000004315/Understanding-Practice-Environment.pdf

As you will learn, Colorado is NOT the only state that allows independent practice. Lots of good info here.

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Specializes in Nurse-Midwife.

LibraSun - I was just going to post the same resource!

Lots of useful information in this document regarding practice and salary for CNMs.

It's pretty complicated - some states have a broader scope of practice than what is allowed by individual work environments. Sometimes hospital and physician practices put additional restrictions on CNMs than what is legally allowed by license. I'm sure there are midwifery practices that are the right (and wrong) fit for any individual midwife in just about every state.

There is probably no "ideal" or "best" state for practicing midwifery - but there are a lot of circumstances where you would be happy working as a midwife.

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Thank you for the insight! I LOVE that document the ACNM created, I've been pouring over it since I first saw it :-)

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