Midwifery is extremely valuable to the society as well as the nursing career.
This is because it provides ample support and care to pregnant women, husbands, birthing partners and the family as a whole.
Midwives monitor and regulate the health of a pregnant woman together with the fetus during the prenatal stage.
Moreover, they offer personal reassurance as well as medical monitoring to both the pregnant woman and birthing partner during labor and the birthing process.
In addition, midwives help mothers to take care of their babies for a few days after birth.
They help the mothers to breastfeeding their children, monitoring their health especially if the mothers were injured during child birth, monitoring the vital signs of the baby and caring for the babies kept in incubators.
This implies that the midwifery career will always be in demand both in the country and overseas.
On the same hand, there is a plethora of working settings that an individual can be employed including delivery wards, home birthing, home visiting and premature baby wards.
Therefore, midwives have a stable source of employment and income.
On the average, depending on the type of practice, location and experience a new entrant to the career earns between $35,000 and $60,000.
In addition, the career is fulfilling and rewarding.
It is amazing to be part of the extraordinary wonder of child birth.
As a result, there are a lot of individuals eyeing this career especially now that the economy is in shambles.
There is an urgent need for a secure source of employment.
However, such individuals can only enter this niche of the health care profession via appropriate training.
This is in regards to the stipulated rules and regulations of the American College of Nurse-Midwives (ACNM) body.
There is a wide array of accredited learning institutions including both colleges and universities that offer midwifery courses and programs.
There are also online learning institutions offering the same courses and programs to individuals that have very busy schedules, to enable them learn at their own pace.
However, it is prudent to ensure that the chosen schools have received accreditation from professional regulating bodies.
Most of the learning institutions train individuals to attain the proper certification and accreditation.
However, there are some that offer general information to individuals that prefer entering the career through apprenticeship.
Therefore, individuals can either choose to do a bachelors degree, which runs for a minimum of three years or an associate certification program for two years.
There is also an opportunity of enrolling for the six month certification course.
However, the choice made will entirely depend on the qualifications, skills and educational background of an individual.
For instance, a high school graduate is supposed to apply for the full term midwifery program while an allied medical practitioner can apply for the six month certificate course.
In addition, individuals will be required to complete the mandatory clinical training hours by attending onsite training.
This enables students to gain the appropriate knowledge and competence of delivering a baby.
They will also have sufficient exposure to the clinical setting.
On the same hand, they need to pass the licensure exams so as to gain legal authorization of practicing in the midwifery profession.
On the other hand, they should be patient, caring, have the ability to work with different people and appropriately handle stress.