A Florida Licensed Midwife (LM) is a direct-entry, Certified Professional Midwife (CPM) who has completed a three-year midwifery education program and passed the North American Registry of Midwives national exam.

Licensed midwives are trained and certified in CPR, neonatal resuscitation, administration of routine antibiotics and antihemorrhagics, and evaluating routine vital signs. LMs are autonomous health care practitioners who provide comprehensive, holistic maternity care to healthy, low-risk women in the out-of-hospital setting. LMs have been licensed and regulated in Florida since 1931. They are experts in out-of-hospital birth in both the home and birth center setting.

Licensed midwives provide all routine medical care throughout pregnancy, labor, birth and postpartum. If you have specific questions about the services or procedures our licensed midwives provide, please call the office or schedule a consultation. Briefly, our licensed midwives provide the following skills:

  • Monitoring blood pressure, pulse, fetal heart tones, and temperature during prenatal, birth, and postpartum care
  • Drawing all routine blood work (in-house) and ordering ultrasounds
  • Evaluating fetal position utilizing Leopold maneuvers
  • Testing for Group Beta Strep (GBS) and Gestational Diabetes Screening, both in the third trimester
  • Providing IVs to deliver antibiotics and/or fluids as needed in labor
  • Offering informed consent for artificial rupture of membranes  (“breaking of waters”), as needed
  • Suturing tears after birth (under local anesthesia)
  • Administering antihemorrhagics in the event of postpartum hemorrhage
  • Using oxygen as needed
  • Performing a routine newborn exam after birth (including weight, measurements, and monitoring newborn vital signs)
  • Providing Vitamin K and Erythromycin eye prophylaxis under informed consent
  • Screening for congenital heart defects at 24-48 hours postpartum
  • Performing infant metabolic screening (in your home)
  • Collaboration with physicians and hospital staff in the event of complications

And much, much more…

What is the Midwives Model of Care ™?

The Midwives Model of Care™ is based on the fact that pregnancy and birth are normal life events. The Midwives Model of Care includes:

  • Monitoring the physical, psychological and social well-being of the mother throughout the childbearing cycle
  • Providing the mother with individualized education, counseling, and prenatal care, continuous hands-on assistance during labor and delivery, and postpartum support
  • Minimizing technological interventions and
  • Identifying and referring women who require obstetrical attention.

The application of this model has been proven to reduce to incidence of birth injury, trauma, and cesarean section.

From: MANA.org