certified nurse-midwifery toolkit
Are you tired of hearing myths associated with midwifery? Even though an increasing number of women are turning to nurse-midwives for their care, many myths still exist around the profession and what the care and birth experience entails. Help us bust these top midwifery myths by downloading the graphics below. Feel free to use our suggested social media captions, tag Frontier Nursing University and use the hashtag #MidwiferyMyths.
What is a Certified Nurse-Midwife? A Certified Nurse-Midwife (CNM) is a primary health care provider to women of all ages throughout their lives. CNMs focus on gynecologic and family planning services, as well as preconception, pregnancy, childbirth, postpartum and newborn care. They also provide primary care such as conducting annual exams, writing prescriptions, and offering basic nutrition counseling. Learn more about CNMs by clicking the button below.
Downloadable and Shareable Content
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Suggested Social Media Caption: Did you know certified nurse-midwives must have extensive education and are required to pass a national certification exam? The majority of certified nurse-midwives earn their bachelor’s degrees, begin working as registered nurses, and then go back to school for two to three more years to complete their master’s degree in nurse-midwifery. Some go on to earn a doctoral degree, the highest degree in clinical nursing practice.
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Suggested Social Media Caption: While nurse-midwives are the leading experts on coping with labor pain naturally, they can also prescribe medication or an epidural. Nurse-midwives work with the patient to come up with the best plan for pain relief, depending on their preferences.
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Suggested Social Media Caption: Nurse-midwives work with individuals and families throughout all stages of life, NOT just during pregnancy and birth as many believe. They have a variety of expert knowledge and skills including pregnancy, birth, the postpartum experience, menopause, and so much more!
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Suggested Social Media Caption: Did you know you actually do not have to choose between a nurse-midwife or an OBGYN. You can have both! Creating a team with your nurse-midwife and an OBGYN allows them to work together to meet all of your needs, and gives you a highly effective plan for care.
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Suggested Social Media Caption: Some people think nurse-midwives only perform home births and use natural remedies. The truth is, nurse-midwives practice in various settings and most have prescriptive authority to use both natural remedies and medications. From the privacy of your own home to hospitals, medical offices, free-standing birth centers, and clinics, certified nurse-midwives may practice in multiple environments to ensure patients have access to the wide range of services they desire.
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Visit and share our Midwifery Myth Busters page:
Myth Busters: Using a Nurse-Midwife
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Video Resources
Recent Blog Post
Boston Midwife Prepares to Open Alabama’s First Birth Center
Helpful Links
American College of Nurse-Midwives
American Association of Birth Centers
Discover Midwives
What is a Certified Nurse-Midwife
Five Common Myths about Nurse-Midwives
Find a Midwifery Practice
An important objective for Frontier Nursing University is to define the role of the certified nurse-midwife so the public understands the broad scope of services these professionals provide.
Carrie Belin is an experienced board-certified Family Nurse Practitioner and a graduate of the Johns Hopkins DNP program, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Georgetown University School of Nursing, and Johns Hopkins School of Nursing. She has also completed fellowships at Georgetown and the University of California Irvine.
Angie has been a full-scope midwife since 2009. She has experience in various birth settings including home, hospital, and birth centers. She is committed to integrating the midwifery model of care in the US. She completed her master’s degree in nurse-midwifery at Frontier Nursing University (FNU) and her Doctorate at Johns Hopkins University. She currently serves as the midwifery clinical faculty at FNU. Angie is motivated by the desire to improve the quality of healthcare and has led quality improvement projects on skin-to-skin implementation, labor induction, and improving transfer of care practices between hospital and community midwives. In 2017, she created a short film on skin-to-skin called 
Justin C. Daily, BSN, RN, has ten years of experience in nursing. At the start of his nursing career, Justin worked as a floor nurse on the oncology floor at St. Francis. He then spent two years as the Director of Nursing in a small rural Kansas hospital before returning to St. Francis and the oncology unit. He has been in his current position as the Chemo Nurse Educator for the past four years. He earned an Associate in Nurse from Hutchinson Community College and a Bachelor of Science in Nursing from Bethel College.
Brandy Jackson serves as the Director of Undergraduate Nursing Programs and Assistant Educator at Wichita State University and Co-Director of Access in Nursing. Brandy is a seasoned educator with over 15 years of experience. Before entering academia, Brandy served in Hospital-based leadership and Critical Care Staff nurse roles. Brandy is passionate about equity in nursing education with a focus on individuals with disabilities. Her current research interests include accommodations of nursing students with disabilities in clinical learning environments and breaking down barriers for historically unrepresented individuals to enter the nursing profession. Brandy is also actively engaged in Interprofessional Education development, creating IPE opportunities for faculty and students at Wichita State. Brandy is an active member of Wichita Women for Good and Soroptimist, with the goal to empower women and girls. Brandy is a TeamSTEPPS master trainer. She received the DASIY Award for Extraordinary Nursing Faculty in 2019 at Wichita State University. 
Dr. Sabrina Ali Jamal-Eddine is an Arab-disabled queer woman of color with a PhD in Nursing and an interdisciplinary certificate in Disability Ethics from the University of Illinois Chicago (UIC). Dr. Jamal-Eddine’s doctoral research explored spoken word poetry as a form of critical narrative pedagogy to educate nursing students about disability, ableism, and disability justice. Dr. Jamal-Eddine now serves as a Postdoctoral Research Associate in UIC’s Department of Disability and Human Development and serves on the Board of Directors of the National Organization of Nurses with Disabilities (NOND). During her doctoral program, Sabrina served as a Summer Fellow at a residential National Endowment of the Humanities (NEH) Summer Institute at Arizona State University (2023), a summer fellow at Andrew W. Mellon’s National Humanities Without Walls program at University of Michigan (2022), a Summer Research Fellow at UC Berkeley’s Othering & Belonging Institute (2021), and an Illinois Leadership Education in Neurodevelopmental and related Disabilities (LEND) trainee (2019-2020).
Vanessa Cameron works for Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nursing Education & Professional Development. She is also attending George Washington University and progressing towards a PhD in Nursing with an emphasis on ableism in nursing. After becoming disabled in April 2021, Vanessa’s worldview and perspective changed, and a recognition of the ableism present within healthcare and within the culture of nursing was apparent. She has been working since that time to provide educational foundations for nurses about disability and ableism, provide support for fellow disabled nursing colleagues, and advocate for the disabled community within healthcare settings to reduce disparities.
Dr. Lucinda Canty is a certified nurse-midwife, Associate Professor of Nursing, and Director of the Seedworks Health Equity in Nursing Program at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. She earned a bachelor’s degree in nursing from Columbia University, a master’s degree from Yale University, specializing in nurse-midwifery, and a PhD from the University of Connecticut. Dr. Canty has provided reproductive health care for over 29 years. Her research interests include the prevention of maternal mortality and severe maternal morbidity, reducing racial and ethnic health disparities in reproductive health, promoting diversity in nursing, and eliminating racism in nursing and midwifery.
Dr. Lisa Meeks is a distinguished scholar and leader whose unwavering commitment to inclusivity and excellence has significantly influenced the landscape of health professions education and accessibility. She is the founder and executive director of the DocsWithDisabilities Initiative and holds appointments as an Associate Professor in the Departments of Learning Health Sciences and Family Medicine at the University of Michigan.
Dr. Nikia Grayson, DNP, MSN, MPH, MA, CNM, FNP-C, FACNM (she/her) is a trailblazing force in reproductive justice, blending her expertise as a public health activist, anthropologist, and family nurse-midwife to champion the rights and health of underserved communities. Graduating with distinction from Howard University, Nikia holds a bachelor’s degree in communications and a master’s degree in public health. Her academic journey also led her to the University of Memphis, where she earned a master’s in medical anthropology, and the University of Tennessee, where she achieved both a master’s in nursing and a doctorate in nursing practice. Complementing her extensive education, she completed a post-master’s certificate in midwifery at Frontier Nursing University.
Dr. Tia Brown McNair is the Vice President in the Office of Diversity, Equity, and Student Success and Executive Director for the Truth, Racial Healing, and Transformation (TRHT) Campus Centers at the American Association of Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) in Washington, DC. She oversees both funded projects and AAC&U’s continuing programs on equity, inclusive excellence, high-impact practices, and student success. McNair directs AAC&U’s Summer Institutes on High-Impact Practices and Student Success, and TRHT Campus Centers and serves as the project director for several AAC&U initiatives, including the development of a TRHT-focused campus climate toolkit. She is the lead author of From Equity Talk to Equity Walk: Expanding Practitioner Knowledge for Racial Justice in Higher Education (January 2020) and Becoming a Student-Ready College: A New Culture of Leadership for Student Success (July 2016 and August 2022 Second edition).