In America, you can become either a nurse midwife or a traditional (direct-entry, professional) midwife. To become a nurse midwife, you must have your bachelor's degree in nursing and be highly recommended for the nurse midwife program. So, four years of nursing school and either one or two extra years of cnm school. However, a lot of schools won't consider you unless you've worked as an RN for X amount of years and have experience in certain areas.

Traditional midwifery depends on the state you live in. There are so many different variations that I'm just going to tell you what I need to do in Kansas to finish (there are a couple of other Americans here, hopefully they'll come around and explain for themselves). In Kansas, all I need to do is apprentice with a midwife to be able to call myself a mw. No set time, the state has specifically stated that mw are not to be regulated as medical professionals, which is actually good in this country. I am taking the Midwife-to-Be course which is a long-distance correspondence course. There are 30 units and if you really buckle down and get after it, you could probably do a unit a month. Not me, no way. I decided to go ahead and take the course as a way to intro myself into the world while waiting for a preceptor, and also to be able to show others that I am serious about this path (lots of preceptors take on apprentices who decide not long into it that they don't want to do this).

So, in Kansas, we're free to learn in the most traditional way, the way midwives had been trained for decades before they were outlawed. Again, each state has it's own process. And, if I chose, I could get certified through NARM, but it's not necessary. If I decided to move, it may or may not be an issue, so I am probably going to pursue that. Besides, it's comforting to clients to know that I do have that certification.

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Sasha, Doula, Mama, Wife, Student Midwife

Three little wild boys and one soldier husband