The Business of Being Born Message Board

Q: I have a degree in women’s studies and am considering becoming a midwife.  My only reservation is being on call 24-7. I was wondering how may babies an average midwife delivers in one month and in that month, how many of the deliveries occur at night.  What are the hours of work typically like? 

Thank you,

Lauren

A: Dear Lauren,

There is incredible variety in the types of jobs available to midwives, and therefore it is difficult to answer your question with a “typical” schedule.  I have worked in settings in which I was not on call at all, simply working Monday through Friday 9-5, and settings in which I was on call one out of every two nights, plus in the office several days a week.  As long as you are willing to relocate, or flexible in your job expectations, there is probably a setting that will suit your needs.

The amount of time on call depends, of course, on the type of practice and the number of other midwives.  In my current practice, we offer 24/7 midwifery coverage for our patients, and we have four midwives.  This means that I am on call every fourth night, which in real-time means every Monday for 24 hours, my “set” call day, plus every fourth Friday for 24 hours and every fourth weekend for 48 hours.  In addition, we staff two offices so I am in each office one day a week.  The amount I actually work depends on the number of women in labor that particular week.  During my hours on call, I could be working the entire time or I could simply visit a few postpartum patients and field a few phone calls.  The unpredictability is part of the appeal, I suppose.

Academic jobs and urban clinics often offer more predictable hours, with more of an expectation of set work times and generally little to no time on call.  In many urban settings, for instance, midwives are expected to be in-house for the entirety of their time on duty.  Being on call 24/7 would typically only happen if one were a practitioner in a solo practice. Relatively few midwives practice in this way, for obvious reasons!

As for the typical number of births, again this varies too much from practice to practice to answer.  I will say that in my 15 years of experience, the vast majority of labor calls do come in the middle of the night.  As long as you realize that this comes with the territory, and that sleep deprivation is a way of life, midwifery can be an incredibly rewarding career choice.

Best wishes in your journey–
Carolyn Havens Niemann, MSN, CNM