Understanding midwifery care
The certified nurse midwife (CNM) is a licensed and board certified practitioner. CNMs have an education in nursing and midwifery. Certified nurse midwives have obtained a master's degree as well as a nursing degree. CNMs are independent practitioners, but frequently collaborate with other members of the healthcare team, including obstetricians.
There are other types of midwives besides CNMs — a few examples are certified midwives (CMs), licensed midwives (LMs), and "lay" midwives. Elaine is a CNM.
Midwives are similar to nurse practitioners, like a women's health nurse practitioner (WHNP), but we also have training in labor and delivery care, which WHNPs typically do not.
In New York City, midwives are independent practitioners in women's and reproductive healthcare. In addition to pregnancy care, midwives are fully trained in the full scope of women's as well as trans and nonbinary individuals' healthcare from adolescence to post-menopause.
Midwives also perform routine annual reproductive exams, treat infections, discuss and prescribe contraceptive options, provide testing for sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and much more.
In 2011, midwives attended 24,232 births in the state of New York! (Source: NY Dept of Health)
The practice setting and philosophy of midwives is often misperceived. Many people tend to think of a midwife as someone who only attends births in the home. Although this is true of some midwives, it is not inclusive of the practice of all midwives. Midwives practice in many settings including, but not limited to hospitals, birthing centers and homes.
Elaine provides mostly gynecology services, but when she does attend births, she does so exclusively at Mount Sinai West Hospital in the Labor & Delivery unit.
Midwives believe in individualized, patient (and family) centered care. Midwives recognize that childbirth is usually a normal life process and have trust in the woman's body to achieve natural delivery. They provide personalized care and often spend more time during appointments, focus on education and prevention and allow ample time for questions and answers while supporting their patients' desires to be active participants in their own healthcare.
Midwives are well trained in the healthy and "normal" and are able to recognize deviations from both.
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