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About Certified Midwives

Midwifery is an age-old profession, found around the world and across cultures, encompassing skilled and compassionate care for childbearing people and their families. Midwifery care today centers the needs of the individual, honors a holistic approach to health, promotes low intervention in otherwise normal and healthy processes, and facilitates appropriate intervention if complications arise. 

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Certified Midwives (CMs) are advanced practice midwives providing care during pregnancy, birth, and the postpartum period, as well as primary, sexual, and reproductive healthcare to individuals from adolescence through menopause. CMs share this scope of practice and expertise with Certified Nurse-Midwives (CNMs).

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Care from Certified Midwives can include:

  • Routine gynecological exams and preventative health care visits

  • Diagnostic tests, including bloodwork and imaging

  • Diagnosis and treatment of  STIs and other infections

  • Management of common GYN concerns, such as menstrual issues and PCOS/PMOS

  • Family planning care, including pre-conception care, contraception, and abortion

  • Procedures such as IUD and contraceptive implant insertions and removals, endometrial biopsies, and circumcisions

  • Gender affirming care

  • Menopause care, including menopause hormone therapy

  • Care for healthy newborns during the first 28 days of life

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Certified Midwives can be found attending births in all settings: home birth, birth centers, and hospitals. Certified Midwives are employed by private practices, community health centers, hospitals, and more. They may also work independently in private practice.

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American College of Nurse-Midwives (ACNM)  is the professional organization representing  Certified Midwives and Certified Nurse-Midwives. Learn more about ACNM here.

CM Education

Certified Midwives (CMs) are educated alongside Certified Nurse-Midwives (CNMs), earning graduate level degrees in programs accredited by the Accreditation Commission for Midwifery Education (ACME). 

 

CMs and CNMs master the same core competencies and have an identical scope of practice. See ACNM Standard Setting Documents Core Competencies for Basic Midwifery Practice  and Definition of Midwifery and Scope of Practice of Certified Nurse-Midwives and Certified Midwives.  (Also available in Resources.)

 

CMs and CNMs sit for the same board exam to achieve certification by the American Midwifery Certification Board (AMCB). 

 

The CM pathway attracts students who are passionate about midwifery and reproductive healthcare. CM students enrich and broaden the midwifery profession, coming to this work from a wide range of personal and professional backgrounds such as public health, social work, massage therapy, doulas, childbirth educators, and more. 

 

CM students have a bachelor’s degree in a field other than nursing and have completed prerequisite coursework in the sciences. All clinical skills necessary for the practice of midwifery by CMs and CNMs are a part of their midwifery education program. 

 

There are currently three programs educating Certified Midwives in the US:

 

History of the Certified Midwife 

The Certified Midwife credential was established in 1994, when ACNM developed a direct-entry pathway into midwifery. With this new pathway, individuals without a background in nursing could now pursue accredited education, national certification, and a scope of practice equivalent to that of Certified Nurse-Midwives. The first Certified Midwives were licensed in New York in 1997. 

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The CM credential emerged at the end of a century of profound changes in midwifery in the United States. In the early 20th century, the medical profession intentionally eradicated midwifery. The midwives of that time, who were predominantly black, immigrant, or indigenous, were disparaged as unsafe, and birth became increasingly medicalized. The CNM credential developed as public health nurses sought out training in midwifery. Today, CNMs are licensed in all 50 states and are the most common type of midwife in the US.

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ACNM was formed in 1955 to represent Certified Nurse-Midwives. Since the 1970s, ACNM has defined CNMs as educated in two distinct disciplines: nursing and midwifery. The CM credential developed out of a movement within ACNM for a direct entry pathway into midwifery that did not require nursing as a prerequisite. Since 1994, the CM credential has expanded as more states grant licensure and the number of midwives educated as CMs grows. For more on efforts to expand the CM workforce, see our Advocacy pages. 

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