A certified nurse-midwife or C-N-M is a registered nurse with at
least one year of specialized training in obstetrics (ob-STET-
tricks). He or she is licensed by the state and recognized by
the American College of Nurse-Midwives as qualified to provide
health care to mothers and babies during a normal pregnancy,
labor, and delivery. A C-N-M typically works in conjunction with
a regular obstetrician (OB-stuh-TRIH-shun). Some benefits of
using a nurse midwife include lower cost without sacrificing
quality care, and often, more personal service. Nurse-midwives
tend to see fewer patients, and they can spend additional time
discussing issues such as family planning, breast-feeding, fetal
development, discomforts of pregnancy, and labor-delivery plans.
The main limitation of utilizing this type of care is that a
nurse-midwife is only trained to manage healthy pregnancies. A
midwife may co-manage, with a physician, pregnant patients who
have underlying medical problems. If complications occur in an
otherwise normal p