Midwifery Care

During pregnancy, some people prefer having a certified nurse midwife on their care team. Certified nurse midwives are graduate-level nurses who have completed extra training and certification in comprehensive pregnancy care. Working with a certified nurse midwife is an option for you at Stanford Medicine Children’s Health, where we offer a full range of obstetric care services. Midwifery care is part of both our traditional one-on-one care and our group pregnancy care, CenteringPregnancy®, for uncomplicated pregnancies.

People choose midwives for a variety of reasons. Our certified nurse midwives can provide you with education on your pregnancy, offer preventive care, ensure that your concerns are heard, and help you carry out your desires for a healthy pregnancy and labor and birth that we can accommodate at Stanford Children’s Health. Our midwifery care approach is evidence-based, and our certified nurse midwives hold advanced, even doctorate, degrees.

Stanford Children’s midwifery care highlights

Our Stanford Children’s midwifery team is integrated within our larger obstetric team. We take a team approach to supporting you before, during, and after pregnancy. In other words, at Stanford Children’s you could have a certified nurse midwife along with other providers on your care team. Here are some highlights of our midwifery approach to care:

• The Stanford Children’s midwives are advanced practice nurse practitioners, certified to provide comprehensive prenatal, labor and delivery, and postpartum care as well as breastfeeding support.
• Our growing team of midwives make it a priority to attentively guide your prenatal and postnatal care, working as a team with our low-risk obstetric providers as needed.
• While our midwives tend to provide prenatal care for individuals with low-risk, uncomplicated pregnancies, if you have a high-risk pregnancy, our certified nurse midwives can partner with our maternal-fetal medicine physicians to care for you. 
• Our certified nurse midwives prioritize your understanding by helping to educate you and providing a variety of resources on pregnancy, labor, birth, postpartum, and newborn care.
• Our midwifery services are available Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.

If you are interested in having midwife-guided pregnancy care, let us know during your initial prenatal visit.