INTERNATIONAL DAY OF THE MIDWIFE
International Day of the Midwife is celebrated every year on May 5. The observance highlights the vital role midwives play in health care and encourages more registered nurses to consider midwifery as a career.
What Is a Midwife?
Midwives are qualified health care providers who receive comprehensive training and must pass an examination to become certified. In the United States, certification is offered by the American College of Nurse-Midwives (ACNM) and the North American Registry of Midwives (NARM).
What Midwives Do
A midwife will:
- Provide family planning and preconception care
- Conduct prenatal exams and order tests
- Monitor physical and psychological health during pregnancy
- Help develop birth plans
- Advise on diet, exercise, medications, and staying healthy
- Educate and counsel on pregnancy, childbirth, and newborn care
- Give emotional and practical support during labor
- Admit and discharge patients from the hospital
- Deliver babies
- Refer patients to doctors when needed
Midwives may deliver babies at birthing centers or at home, but most also attend births in hospitals, according to WebMD.
History of Midwifery
Some of the first records of midwifery date back to about 2,000 years before Christ. The word “midwife” itself dates to around 1300 and means “with woman” — _mid_ meaning “together with.”
The idea for a day to recognize and honor midwives came out of the 1987 International Confederation of Midwives conference in the Netherlands. International Midwives’ Day was first celebrated on May 5, 1991, and is now observed in more than 50 nations worldwide.
Midwifery Today
The Midwives Alliance cites a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) report that the number of midwife-attended births in the U.S. reached an all-time high in 2009 and continues to climb. Millennials are more likely than their parents’ generation to choose a midwife for delivery.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported 6,250 practicing certified nurse-midwives in the United States in 2018. The average annual earnings for a midwife in the U.S. are about $104,000.
How to Observe International Day of the Midwife
- Watch for and attend events sponsored by midwife groups
- Sponsor a brown bag lunch and invite a midwife to speak about her work
- Read or watch _Call the Midwife_ — the memoir by Jennifer Worth and the BBC series based on it — for insight into midwifery and maternity care in the 1950s
- Follow and share on social media using #IDM and #Midwives
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