Midwives Myths

Common Midwifery Myths

Popularity of Well-Woman Care Providers Grows, Profession Still Misunderstood

If you are considering a midwife to guide you through the big day, you’re not alone. More than 300,000 women will choose midwife-assisted births this year, a number that has risen nearly every year since 1989, according to the National Center for Health Statistics. While a growing number of hospitals, including HealthONE, now offer patients the midwife option, public misperceptions persist. Below, Swedish Medical Center’s Susan McConaughy (above, left) and Rose Medical Center’s Jenny Baxter (both Certified Nurse Midwives) address some of those myths.

Myth: A midwife is a midwife.

Fact: Unlike “lay midwives,” Certified Nurse Midwives (CNMs) and Certified Midwives (CMs) are accredited by the American College of Nurse-Midwives, which requires a graduate degree in a university-based midwifery program. CNMs, who work in HealthONE hospitals, also earn advanced nursing degrees. “We are certified at the national and state level, are medically insured, and have hospital privileges,” McConaughy says.

Myth: A midwife offers only non-medical support during childbirth.

Fact: CNMs are medical professionals who function in the hospital like their OB-GYN colleagues, monitoring medical devices, ordering drugs — or IVs if necessary — and assuring the health of mother and baby. One difference: “Midwives are able to spend more time with their patients, both during the prenatal care and during birth,” Baxter says.

Myth: Choosing a midwife puts a baby at risk if a serious medical issue arises.

Fact: CNMs are highly skilled in identifying and handling medical problems during prenatal care and labor, and they also partner with a physician to handle surgeries, high-risk patients and any procedure beyond their education. “Any kind of emergency procedure available to a doctor is just as available to a midwife and will happen just as quickly,” Baxter says.

Myth: Midwives assist only in at-home births.

Fact: Greater than 90 percent of midwife-assisted births are in a hospital, and HealthONE midwives don’t do home births.

Myth: Choosing a midwife means choosing natural childbirth.

Fact: “The goal of the midwife is to help a woman achieve the kind of birth she would like to have, whether that means natural childbirth or birth with the assistance of medicine or anesthesia,” Baxter says. More than 40 percent of McConaughy’s patients actually choose and achieve a medication free birth, she says.

Myth: Insurance does not cover midwife births.

Fact: Most insurance policies cover CNMs, including Medicaid and Medicare, although a home birth with a lay midwife is unlikely to be covered, McConaughy says. “Insurance companies have very stringent qualifications that we meet.”

Myth: Midwives serve only pregnant women.

Fact: “We do all kinds of well-woman care and serve as (and are federally approved as) primary-care providers,” McConaughy says. “We do everything from annual exams to treating bladder infections to providing birth control. I have women who have been committed to me for 25 years.”