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Career Description

Diagnose and coordinate all aspects of the birthing process, either independently or as part of a healthcare team. May provide well-woman gynecological care. Must have specialized, graduate nursing education.

What Job Titles Nurse Midwives Might Have

• Certified Nurse Midwife (CNM)
• Certified Nurse-Midwife
• Nurse Midwife
• Staff Nurse-Midwife

What Nurse Midwives Do

• Monitor fetal development by listening to fetal heartbeat, taking external uterine measurements, identifying fetal position, or estimating fetal size and weight.
• Initiate emergency interventions to stabilize patients.
• Provide prenatal, intrapartum, postpartum, or newborn care to patients.
• Explain procedures to patients, family members, staff members or others.
• Develop and implement individualized plans for health care management.
• Order and interpret diagnostic or laboratory tests.
• Document findings of physical examinations.
• Educate patients and family members regarding prenatal, intrapartum, postpartum, newborn, or interconceptional care.
• Document patients' health histories, symptoms, physical conditions, or other diagnostic information.
• Write information in medical records or provide narrative summaries to communicate patient information to other health care providers.
• Provide primary health care, including pregnancy and childbirth, to women.
• Consult with or refer patients to appropriate specialists when conditions exceed the scope of practice or expertise.
• Perform physical examinations by taking vital signs, checking neurological reflexes, examining breasts, or performing pelvic examinations.
• Prescribe medications as permitted by state regulations.
• Provide patients with direct family planning services such as inserting intrauterine devices, dispensing oral contraceptives, and fitting cervical barriers including cervical caps or diaphragms.
• Read current literature, talk with colleagues, or participate in professional organizations or conferences to keep abreast of developments in midwifery.
• Establish practice guidelines for specialty areas such as primary health care of women, care of the childbearing family, and newborn care.
• Conduct clinical research on topics such as maternal or infant health care, contraceptive methods, breastfeeding, and gynecological care.
• Plan, provide, or evaluate educational programs for nursing staff, health care teams, or the community.
• Manage newborn care during the first weeks of life.

What Nurse Midwives Should Be Good At

• Oral Comprehension - The ability to listen to and understand information and ideas presented through spoken words and sentences.
• Written Comprehension - The ability to read and understand information and ideas presented in writing.
• Oral Expression - The ability to communicate information and ideas in speaking so others will understand.
• Problem Sensitivity - The ability to tell when something is wrong or is likely to go wrong. It does not involve solving the problem, only recognizing there is a problem.
• Deductive Reasoning - The ability to apply general rules to specific problems to produce answers that make sense.
• Inductive Reasoning - The ability to combine pieces of information to form general rules or conclusions (includes finding a relationship among seemingly unrelated events).
• Written Expression - The ability to communicate information and ideas in writing so others will understand.
• Speech Clarity - The ability to speak clearly so others can understand you.
• Speech Recognition - The ability to identify and understand the speech of another person.
• Near Vision - The ability to see details at close range (within a few feet of the observer).
• Information Ordering - The ability to arrange things or actions in a certain order or pattern according to a specific rule or set of rules (e.g., patterns of numbers, letters, words, pictures, mathematical operations).

What Nurse Midwives Need to Learn

• Medicine and Dentistry - Knowledge of the information and techniques needed to diagnose and treat human injuries, diseases, and deformities. This includes symptoms, treatment alternatives, drug properties and interactions, and preventive health-care measures.
• Psychology - Knowledge of human behavior and performance; individual differences in ability, personality, and interests; learning and motivation; psychological research methods; and the assessment and treatment of behavioral and affective disorders.
• English Language - Knowledge of the structure and content of the English language including the meaning and spelling of words, rules of composition, and grammar.
• Customer and Personal Service - Knowledge of principles and processes for providing customer and personal services. This includes customer needs assessment, meeting quality standards for services, and evaluation of customer satisfaction.
• Biology - Knowledge of plant and animal organisms, their tissues, cells, functions, interdependencies, and interactions with each other and the environment.
• Therapy and Counseling - Knowledge of principles, methods, and procedures for diagnosis, treatment, and rehabilitation of physical and mental dysfunctions, and for career counseling and guidance.
• Sociology and Anthropology - Knowledge of group behavior and dynamics, societal trends and influences, human migrations, ethnicity, cultures and their history and origins.
• Education and Training - Knowledge of principles and methods for curriculum and training design, teaching and instruction for individuals and groups, and the measurement of training effects.