Considering a Hospital Birth with Certified Nurse Midwives?

The practice of nurse-midwifery was established in the United States in the 1920s by such early leaders as Mary Breckinridge and Hattie Hemschemeyer; since then nurse-midwives have been recognized for their contributions to reducing infant and maternal mortality, premature births, and low birth weight rates.

Their skills as primary care providers are evidenced by their low rates of infant mortality, cesarean birth, episiotomy, and use of epidural anesthesia and their high rates of success in vaginal birth after cesarean. These facts are made more impressive when considering that 70% of women who receive care from nurse-midwives are considered vulnerable to poor health outcomes by virtue of age, socioeconomic status, education, ethnicity or location of residence.