Direct-entry midwife

A pregnant woman receives a visit from a midwife in her home.

A direct-entry midwife is a midwifery practitioner who enters the profession without prior nursing education. These midwives may be trained through midwifery schools, formal academic programs, apprenticeships, or self-study, depending on national standards and regulations.

Direct-entry midwifery in the United States

In the United States, direct-entry midwifery refers to several professional pathways that do not require prior licensure as a registered nurse. These include:

Certified Midwives (CMs), who hold a graduate degree in midwifery and are certified by the American Midwifery Certification Board (AMCB). While CMs complete the same midwifery education and pass the same national certification exam as Certified Nurse Midwives (CNMs), they do not hold a nursing license. CM practice is legally recognized in a limited number of U.S. states.

Certified Professional Midwives (CPMs), who are credentialed by the North American Registry of Midwives (NARM) and are typically educated through accredited midwifery education programs or supervised apprenticeships. CPMs primarily attend births in homes or freestanding birth centers.

Lay midwives, who may be trained through informal apprenticeships or self-education and are not certified by a national credentialing body. Their legal status varies widely by state.

Traditional birth attendants (TBAs), Traditional Birth Attendants may rely on community-based or culturally specific knowledge and often operate outside the formal healthcare system. While TBAs are more commonly referenced in global health contexts, the term is sometimes used in the U.S. to describe unlicensed midwives practicing in traditional or marginalized settings.

International use of Direct-entry Midwives

In many countries, direct-entry midwifery is the standard pathway to becoming a midwife, rather than a branch of nursing. This model is common across Europe, Australia, New Zealand, and several low- and middle-income countries.

In the United Kingdom, midwifery is a distinct profession regulated by the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC), but it is not a nursing specialty. Most midwives qualify through direct-entry university degree programs, which typically span three years and include both academic and clinical components. Although there is an option for registered nurses to complete a shortened midwifery training program, this is not the norm.

Other countries where direct-entry midwifery is standard include:

The Netherlands, where midwives are autonomous primary care providers for pregnancy and birth, trained through a four-year bachelor's degree program specific to midwifery.

Australia and New Zealand, where midwifery is a regulated, direct-entry profession with university-based education pathways.

In low-resource settings, traditional birth attendants (TBAs) often serve as the primary providers of maternity care in rural or underserved areas. TBAs are typically not formally trained or regulated but may have extensive community-based experience. Global health initiatives have sometimes supported short-term training for TBAs to improve maternal outcomes, although their integration into formal health systems remains debated.

Standards of education for direct-entry midwives

The quality and scope of education for direct-entry midwives varies significantly worldwide, depending on national regulation, credentialing bodies, and institutional oversight. To establish a global benchmark, the International Confederation of Midwives (ICM) developed the Global Standards for Midwifery Education, which apply to both direct-entry and post-nursing midwifery programs.

According to ICM, a qualified midwife is “a person who has successfully completed a midwifery education programme that is based on the ICM Essential Competencies for Midwifery Practice and is duly recognized in the country where it is located.” The standards require midwifery education to include:

- A minimum of 36 months (approximately 4,600 hours) of instruction

- Both academic education and clinical practice under supervision

- Training in autonomous care for the full scope of maternal and newborn health, including antenatal, intrapartum, postpartum, and newborn care

- Access to interprofessional collaboration, referral pathways, and regulatory oversight

These standards are used to guide midwifery education programs globally, including direct-entry models in countries such as the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Australia, and New Zealand. Midwives educated to ICM standards are expected to function as primary care providers for women and newborns across the reproductive continuum.

In the United States, some credentialing pathways for direct-entry midwives—such as the Certified Midwife (CM)—align with international standards through graduate-level, accredited midwifery programs. Others, such as the Certified Professional Midwife (CPM) credential, include alternative and apprenticeship-based pathways that may fall short of the educational duration and institutional requirements set forth by ICM. Lay midwives and TBA do not meet ICM standards.

Legality of direct-entry midwifery in the United States

While direct-entry midwifery is popular and legal in many cultures around the world, it struggles to gain legality in several states in the U.S. Nurse-midwives can practice legally in all 50 states. However, Certified Professional Midwives are regulated and licensed in 23 states.

17 states do not regulate Certified Professional Midwives or provide an avenue for licensure. Penalties for practicing as a midwife without a CNM credential range from a misdemeanor to a Class C Felony. These states include Connecticut, the District of Columbia, Georgia, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Massachusetts, Mississippi, Nebraska, Nevada, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia.

North Dakota, for instance, is one of many states that have no official laws regulating or prohibiting the practice of midwives without a CNM credential. States can unintentionally encourage issues with midwifery by not providing standards or licensure opportunities to ensure the competency of midwives.

Also, practicing midwifery without having a CNM credential in these states is basically equivalent to practicing medicine without a license and has severe penalties.

Some states, while they regulate the profession, make it very difficult for midwives to obtain licenses to perform. Hawaii is one of these states. While Certified Professional Midwifery is legal in Hawaii, licensure has been deemed too expensive and is unavailable to most, according to the Midwives Alliance of North America. Delaware is another state that, while it regulates the profession, sets up obstacles that make it difficult for CPMs to practice in the state. Theoretically, Delaware CPMs are able to obtain a permit to practice, but one has not been issued since 2007.

The decline of midwifery in the United States

The decline of midwifery in the United States can be contributed to a number of complex factors: the rise of the American Medical Association and the growth of hospitals in the country in the late 1800s and early 1900s shifted births from the home to the hospital. The fall can also be attributed to the movement toward universities teaching gynecology and surgery as well as advancements in technology such as anesthesia and forceps. All of this led physicians to see midwives as competition instead of partners. They were also worried about what people would think about doctors if it appeared that anyone so uneducated could perform the work of a medical professional.

During this time period, organized medicine launched a campaign to convince the public that hospital births were the best option, while painting midwives as unintelligent, untrustworthy and criminal. However, it was not just physicians who joined in the campaign against midwifery – by the late nineteenth century, wealthy, pregnant women joined in because they thought childbirth was less painful and safer if performed by physicians.

The case for legalizing certified professional midwifery

Statistics show that American women want alternatives to hospital births. 20 percent of women indicated in a study in 2006 that if they have the option to have a non-hospital delivery with readily available medical backup, they would take it. The State of the World's Midwifery report supports the profession, urging governments to recognize it as vital to maternal and newborn health services. It also urges governments to consider establishing a scope of practice, specified credentials for entering the profession and educational standards. Those who argue for the legalization of direct-entry midwifery also cite its health benefits, both to the mother and the fetus. Women who give birth in hospitals experience higher risks and adverse effects than women who give birth with a midwife. Studies also show that the use of midwives in childbirth can decrease maternal and newborn mortality as well as stillbirths, perineal trauma, instrumental births, intrapartum analgesia and anesthesia, severe blood loss, preterm births, newborn infants with low birth weigh, hypothermia and neonatal intensive care units.

There are also indications that midwife-assisted childbirth is safer than birth in a hospital because there's a lower chance of intervention.

The case against legalizing certified professional midwifery

Those debating against the legalization of certified professional midwives usually question the competence, regulation and scope of midwives. Questions regarding whether CPMs should be legally recognized as birth attendants, what their job should allow them to do, and who is responsible for their regulation surface. Health care professional also cite recent studies that have shown that hospital births have lower rates of perinatal death, neonatal death, 5-minute Apgar scores < 4, and neonatal seizures when compared to planned out-of-hospital births, including those with a midwife. Also of note, while hospital births are associated with higher rates of intervention such as forceps, labor induction, labor augmentation, and cesarean delivery, the data is skewed, as midwives do not have the necessary training to use the aforementioned techniques when deemed medically necessary.

Common routes for licensure

Many CPMs also support regulation and licensure because they believe limitations on a legalized profession would outweigh having to operate under the threat of prosecution in states where the profession is illegal. For instance, to qualify for licensure in California, a midwife must complete a three-year postsecondary midwifery education program and pass a licensing examination. In Minnesota, licensed midwives are required to screen potential clients, and only accept those who are expected to have a “normal” delivery. In 1994, the North American Registry of Midwives (NARM) formed, as it recognized a need for direct-entry midwives to obtain national certification. State regulation of direct-entry midwifery was varied, and the professional associated realized the professional needed certification standards. As of 1994, direct-entry midwives can receive certification through NARM and be designed as certified professional midwives (CPMs). Now, for states that regulate the profession, most of them require midwifery candidates to take the NARM exam and complete NARM certification before receiving a license from the state, however certification and licensure is only recognized in states that legalize and recognize midwifery.” In order to be recognized as a CPM by NARM, a midwife must meet three criteria: meet all education requirements and pass a certification exam; meet minimum experience requirements; document proficiency in all midwifery skills (Stover, 2011, p. 325). This can take anywhere between three and five years. This certification also must be renewed every three years.