A certified nurse-midwife is an advanced practice nurse with additional training around delivering babies and providing prenatal and postpartum care to women.
Nurse-midwives are very involved in labor and delivery, sometimes never leaving the mother during the entire labor process. They are trained to recognize signs and symptoms that deviate from normal conditions and will consult with a physician who may become involved in the delivery if needed.
Although qualified to administer drugs and to perform medical procedures, those interventions are not routine for nurse-midwives, and they are used only when the mother requests them.
Most nurse-midwives deliver babies in hospitals and in homes. They also provide both prenatal and postpartum care for both mothers and newborns. In addition, nurse-midwives provide family planning and birth control counseling, and normal gynecological services such as: physical and breast exams, pap smears, and preventive health screening. In most states, nurse-midwives may prescribe medications.
