Certified Nurse Midwives

Midwives are an integral part of a woman’s health-care team and provide a variety of health-care services to women of all ages. Midwives view health care as a partnership to help guide women through important health decisions.

What is a midwife?

Midwife means “with women.” Today’s midwife offers health-care services to women at all life stages, from adolescence through menopause. Certified nurse midwives are skilled at providing care to women through the prenatal period, labor, birth, and in the postpartum period.

To offer the best care for women, MaineHealth employs certified nurse midwives at many hospitals and clinical settings. A certified nurse midwife is a registered nurse with a master’s degree in nurse-midwifery education.

Certified nurse midwives have passed a national qualifying exam and complete annual continuing education to maintain their licensing. They are licensed in both nursing and midwifery.

Certified nurse midwives can practice in a variety of settings (home, birth center, hospital). The certified nurse midwives employed by MaineHealth all work in a hospital setting, providing individualized, quality, evidenced-based medical care to women in all stages of life.

Prenatal Care and Childbirth

Certified nurse midwives deliver babies and provide hands-on support for the laboring woman. In the MaineHealth network, certified nurse midwives collaborate with ob-gyn physicians to best manage care for higher risk patients. Certified nurse midwives also prescribe pain medications and epidurals for those patients who desire.

A Lifetime of Care

Your midwife’s care may extend beyond pregnancy and childbirth. Services include birth control, annual checkups, pap tests, breast exams, sexually transmitted infection testing and treatment, preconception care, abnormal bleeding evaluation, and menopausal care.

Nurse midwives are available at Pen Bay Healthcare, Lincoln Medical Partner’s Women’s Center,  Waldo County General Hospital, and Memorial Hospital.

Find a MaineHealth midwife to provide complete, lifetime care for women.