If you hear the term midwife and all you envision is an older female helping a woman have a baby at her home, then you are old-fashioned because midwife certification not only allows nurses a number of career options, but gives opportunities for women to create their own individual birthing plans. Midwife career choices include:

Healthcare team practice. Nursing care connected with hospitals. Nurses associated with childbirth facilities. Health departments.

Before you make a decision about midwifery, take into account the education prerequisites. The position of nurse midwife is a master role in nursing, so it necessitates study and training for certification over and above a registered nurse or a BSN. Because of the hard work involved, it is important to search for a program that fits your location, personality, schedule and learning style.

When training to be a midwife, there are a lot of the same prerequisites as other master degree level nursing occupations. However, beyond standard nursing techniques, the focus of nurse midwife training will be on women\’s care through labor as well as birth, along with prenatal and postnatal care. In addition, there will be lessons in pharmacology, and women\’s health across the lifespan.

On any given day, a midwife might perform a gynecologic examination, prescribe medicine, measure a uterus, take a look at a newborn, deliver a baby, as well as do an episiotomy.

One can find programs offered over the internet, and you can also find training programs which allow the entry of students which are with no degree in nursing, but rather have a bachelor\’s degree in something else. In these programs, there will be demanding prerequisites you\’ll need to have a solid foundation in usually science and math.

A lot of schools require up to 1 year of experience in a delivery and labor setting. The intermediate step of becoming a doula often is used by prospective students. A doula is a trained companion retained by the expecting mother to lead her through a birth and labor without medication. Although the doula is there at births, she wouldn\’t include herself in the medical element of birthing; she\’s just present for encouragement. A nurse looking into certified nurse midwife training might follow this track for a year to be sure.

There are sometimes things about being a midwife people don\’t think of, such as the hours involved; newborns arrive on their own timetable, which may be in the middle of the night, so high energy is needed. The program requires an intensive practicum, which needs to be concluded before students are able to graduate. The practicum is based experientially on attending at least 40 births together with all of those other visits before and following the births.

Another part of the practicum is training and exposure to peri- and post- menopausal and gynecological visits. This practicum allows you to rehearse these types of skills while under the direction of an expert for 24 months.

The American Midwifery Certification Board determines the guidelines for certification and requires recertification every 5 years, requiring evidence of continuing education credit. Certification tests are usually administered regularly in a computer based format at testing locations around the country. The exam is quite expensive to take, so being ready to pass it is key; it\’s a $500 exam.

Although there are several masters-level nursing programs, the certified nurse midwife program calls for the broadest skill set from the nursing student, since you\’re involved in the processes from birth to death and often asked to do very basic surgical procedures also. Although midwifery is normally profitable, it will be the emotional, psychological and spiritual rewards that will carry the midwife throughout her profession.

Get even more great information about certified Nurse Midwife training and learn how to search for schools so you can start training for this exciting career by visiting BecominganRN.net

Visit http://www.BecominganRN.net and start searching for schools that can help you train to become a certified nurse midwife.

Author Bio: Get even more great information about certified Nurse Midwife training and learn how to search for schools so you can start training for this exciting career by visiting BecominganRN.net

Category: Education
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