Prospective Students

Becoming a midwife is a journey of great joy and great challenges! It is a vocation, not a career. There are many paths, and each has its own pros and cons. In any case, it is a journey of a thousand miles.

If you are considering whether or not midwifery is for you, we offer you the following resources:

If you are considering becoming a CPM, we strongly recommend enrolling in a MEAC-accredited school. You can find more information about these schools here. Our practice prefers to work with students who have at least a year of midwifery school under their belt. As well, we prefer that students have worked as a doula for some time so that they can ascertain whether on-call life is for them before beginning their midwifery education.

In addition to our preferences, there are a number of requirements for becoming an apprentice with our practice:

  • Must be a self-directed learner. 
  • Must have a passion for learning.
  • Must be familiar inside and out with NARM’s requirements and understand the processes of the CPM, MANA’s core competencies, MEAC core competencies, and MEAC’s role in midwifery education. 
  • Must be involved in the local midwifery community. 
  • Must be enrolled in a MEAC school (certain exceptions may be made for enrollment in schools currently in the process of applying for MEAC accreditation). Preference will be given to Midwives College of Utah students.
  • Must be a trained doula.
  • Must have a reliable car (that can handle Colorado mountain roads in the winter) and child care support if applicable.
  • Must be able to leave within 15-20 minutes (less in some cases) of getting called for a birth.
  • Must be willing to attend all prenatal and postpartum visits that we attend, on our schedule. (This usually entails at least 3-4 days/week, though maybe not 4 full-time days.)
  • Must come to clinic days 30 minutes before appointments start and stay an hour after they end.
  • Must be a self-starter, willing to help with the running of the practice (helping with paperwork, returning phone calls, etc.).
  • Must be willing and available to teach classes/facilitate groups as your experience permits (this will increase over time)–we do not charge for these classes/groups so this is not paid work.
  • Must be willing to do extra reading/studying as we recommend (though this is not usually extensive).
  • Must be willing to follow our rules regarding client contact.
  • Must understand that certain purchases will need to be made during your apprenticeship over time. Items you may be required to buy include a laptop, books, equipment, organizational memberships, and registrations for events.

If this sounds incredibly demanding, that’s because it is, as is the job of being a home birth midwife.

Our practice usually has an apprentice midwife. An apprenticeship generally takes 3-5 years, so there are not often openings for new students. When we have an opening, we will post it (at the top of this page), so it is safe to assume we do not have an opening most times if you do not see it posted. Since Gina is a core faculty member at Midwives College of Utah, we give strong preference to students enrolled there. Because there are more students than clinical placements, we cannot even meet the need for all local MCU students.

While we want to support prospective students–after all, we ourselves were prospective students once upon a time–it is too time consuming to meet with everyone wanting more information about becoming a midwife. We hope that these resources will be of some help to you as you navigate this journey.