North American Registry of Midwives shares this definition:
What is a Certified Professional Midwife (CPM)?
A Certified Professional Midwife (CPM) is a knowledgeable, skilled and professional independent midwifery practitioner who has met the standards for certification set by the North American Registry of Midwives (NARM) and is qualified to provide the Midwives Model of Care. The CPM is the only international credential that requires knowledge about and experience in out-of-hospital settings.
This midwife has undergone training, has had a preceptor and apprenticed births and passed an exam that NARM requires. You can be assured she has had excellent training. These midwives provide care for home births only.
American College of Nurse Midwives offer these descriptions:
Certified Nurse-Midwives (CNMs)
The practice of nurse-midwifery was established in the United States in the 1920s by such early leaders as Mary Breckinridge and Hattie Hemschemeyer; since then nurse-midwives have been recognized for their contributions to reducing infant and maternal mortality, premature births, and low birth weight rates. Their skills as primary care providers are evidenced by their low rates of infant mortality, cesarean birth, episiotomy, and use of epidural anesthesia and their high rates of success in vaginal birth after cesarean. These facts are made more impressive when considering that 70% of women who receive care from nurse-midwives are considered vulnerable to poor health outcomes by virtue of age, socioeconomic status, education, ethnicity or location of residence.
Certified midwives (CMs)
The mechanisms to educate and credential certified midwives (CMs) were approved in 1994. These standards were developed in order to ensure that CMs are educated in a manner that is equivalent to the CNM. CMs are not registered nurses, but may hold other professional designations as health care providers such as a physician assistant or physical therapist. Licensed to practice in New York, New Jersey and Rhode Island, individuals choosing this career path are pioneers in the profession, much like the early nurse-midwives who practiced in the U.S.
These midwives practice in hospitals and birth centers. In some states you are able to have a CNM or CM provide care at a home birth.
Midwives Alliance of North America offers these definitions:
A direct-entry midwife is an independent practitioner educated in the discipline of midwifery through self-study, apprenticeship, a midwifery school, or a college- or university-based program distinct from the discipline of nursing. A direct-entry midwife is trained to provide the Midwives Model of Care to healthy women and newborns throughout the childbearing cycle primarily in out-of-hospital settings.
The term "Lay Midwife" has been used to designate an uncertified or unlicensed midwife who was educated through informal routes such as self-study or apprenticeship rather than through a formal program. This term does not necessarily mean a low level of education, just that the midwife either chose not to become certified or licensed, or there was no certification available for her type of education (as was the fact before the Certified Professional Midwife credential was available). Other similar terms to describe uncertified or unlicensed midwives are traditional midwife, traditional birth attendant, granny midwife and independent midwife.
A licensed midwife is a midwife who is licensed to practice in a particular jurisdiction (usually a state or province).
So, you need to determine what type of midwife is the right one for you. My well woman care is done by a CNM although I am beyond my childbearing years. I like care from a woman, although all midwives are not women. I also like the way the seem to take more time with me and understand the normalcy of womanhood. We know that midwifery is the type of care that the nations that have a better infant and maternal mortality rates. We know that usually midwifery offers less interventions. They view birth as a normal passage for a healthy woman. If a woman becomes high risk, her care is transfered to a physician.
My first grandson was born at home into the hands of a wonderful CPM, Debbie Pulley. She is the one who guided me in my calling as a doula. She is wonderfully trained and experienced. My youngest granddaughter was born in the hospital under the guidance of a wonderful CNM, Susan Fisher. She is a fantastic midwife who trusts births and provides wonderful care to her patients. One of my friends is the midwife who brought water birth to Atlanta. She is Margaret Strickhouser, CNM. She has changed birth in the metro area forever. There are now three hospitals in the metro area that provide water birth as an option they provide.
I have never been to a birth with a DEM, LM or Lay midwife. When women come to me and ask about midwifery care, I refer them to the ones I have done births with personally. I share the benefit of midwifery care. I warn that some midwives have had so many restrictions put on them that they practice more like physicians with their high levels of intervention. We often refer to them as "medwives."
You get to decide where to birth and who to choose as a care provider. Only you will know what the right location and person to assist you will be. I would like to remind you that midwifery is considered the model of care if you are a healthy woman seeking a birth with less intervention. Midwives at hospitals are able to provide you with the same medications that a physician provides. But the care you receive along your journey is often quite different due to the time and consideration they will offer.
Citizens for Midwifery – the only national consumer-based group promoting the Midwives Model of Care! CfM works to provide information and resources that promote the local midwife, as well as midwives and midwifery care across the country! Visit their website for more details on their resources. Citizens for Midwifery
Georgia has a wonderful resource at Georgia Midwifery Association in finding midwives to assist you with your care. There is also a great organization Georgia Friends of Midwives that is a consumer group that advocates the preservation and expansion of safe, accessible and affordable childbirth alternatives, including the informed choice of a midwife-attended birth in the home setting.
Gentle birthing to you in finding the best fit for your care!
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