Do you enjoy taking care of others? Do you have a passion for babies? Do you want to pursue a career within the healthcare industry? If this sounds like you, you might want to learn more about becoming a nurse-midwife.

A nurse midwife is a specialized type of nurse who has taken additional courses beyond those that are required to earn a bachelor’s degree in nursing. Through this specialized training, the nurse-midwife becomes skilled in delivering babies and in providing women with prenatal and postnatal care. As such, nurse-midwives are very involved with providing care to the woman while she is pregnant as well as with the labor and delivery.

In order to provide the best possible care to their patients, nurse-midwives are also trained in recognizing the signs and symptoms associated with pregnancy and delivery complications. If signs of problems do occur, the nurse-midwife is responsible for consulting with a physician and possibly involving a physician with the delivery if needed.

Nurse-midwives are qualified to administer drugs and to perform certain types of medical procedures, but they do not routinely use these drugs or procedures. They will, however, administer medications and perform certain medical procedures at the mother’s request.

In order to become a nurse-midwife, it is generally necessary to first become a registered nurse and then to become certified in this specialty area. In order to become certified, nurse must first graduate from a nurse-midwifery program that is accredited through the American College of Nurse-Midwives. Then, the nurse must pass a national certification examination.

Some of the courses a nurse will need to take in order to become a certified nurse-midwife include:
· Anatomy
· Antepartum, Intrapartum/Postpartum
· Biochemistry
· Breastfeeding
· Epidemiology
· Family Planning
· Genetics and Embryology
· Health research
· Integration
· Laboratory Medicine
· Neonatology
· OB complications
· Pathophysiology of Gynecology and Obstetrics
· Pharmacology principles
· Primary Care of Women
· Professional Issues

According to a number of different sources, employment opportunities for nurse-midwives should be quite good over the next several years. The American College of Nurse-Midwives (ACNM), for example, estimates that that one in ten babies will soon be delivered by nurse-midwives in the United States. Worldwide, however, approximately 2/3 of all births are delivered with a midwife.

Nurse-midwives can also expect to earn a very attractive income. The Career Center University of Missouri, for example, reports that beginning certified nurse-midwives can earn anywhere between $35,000 and $40,000 per year and that the average income for certified nurse-midwives is anywhere from $41,500 to $52,000. The actual amount a certified nurse-midwife can expect to earn, however, is dependent upon years of experience, geographic location and the type of institution where the nurse-midwife is employed.