Masters in Midwifery, Obstetrics, Gynecology & Women's Health

Dear all,

I came looking for masters in the field of Midwifery, Obstetrics, Gynecology & Women's Health and came across the Msc Nurse Midwifery (https://online.uc.edu/programs/graduate/nurse-midwifery.html) and Msc Women's Health Nurse Practitioner (https://online.uc.edu/programs/graduate/womens-health-np.html), which seem to be offered at reasonable prices for "out of state" - online programs (12k - 15k USD) by the University of Cincinnati.

My question know is:
Any remarks about the online programs of the University of Cincinnati?
Are there other similar programs I did not find via search engines?

Many thanks in advance!

 

University of Cincinnati has an onerous application through CAS. Last time I used CAS I had to manually enter every course I took with grade and course description.

Midwifery tracks depend on your background. The Traditional midwife has programs that are accredited by MEAC and also offers pathways that are online or through apprenticeship ultimately allowing application to take the NARM. Many States have regulations for licensing and practice varying from prohibited to no license to license and certification.
http://meacschools.org/becoming-a-midwife/
http://narm.org/

CNM versus CM. The CNM requires an RN license and BSN. There are Certified Midwife (CM) schools that accept you without an RN.
http://www.midwife.org/Become-a-Midwife

If you have an RN and are looking for schools that lead to a CNM track, you not only get trained in Midwifery but Obstetrics, Gyn and Women's health and it leads to an Advanced Practice RN with Midwifery privileges. This track is great if you want hospital privileges and desire to prescribe and perhaps First Assistant in Gynecological surgery and c-section. I recommend Frontier Nursing University in KY. They have a unique campus and in my opinion are the "IVY league of Midwifery" although Yale has a Midwifery program as well! Frontier offers hybrid training combining distance learning with campus intensives and clinical training. Check them out first!
https://frontier.edu

There are also many other schools like Stony Brook University in NY, George Washington, etc. Simply do a search.

https://portal.midwife.org/education/education-programs?reload=timezone

 

Hi copper, thank you for your extensive answer, this will give me a good starting point already.

Nevertheless, my situation is a little bit different.

I am Brazilian and currently enrolled in a Brazilian Bachelor of Nursing. For me a foreign master is more about improved teaching and employment opportunities with a foreign degree in Brazil.

Therefore practicing as a nurse in the USA is not of highest priority for me.

 

Bem vinda! So you are asking about US schools that offer Masters programs in Midwifery online? There are in-residence schools as well as distance learning schools but I am pretty sure it will be necessary to obtain a student visa as well as get your RN evaluated so you can take the US NCLEX for license in a State in USA. The U.S. State and /or territory you want to practice or study in requires you to make application for a license as a RN. http://www.cgfns.org/

Most schools require a U.S. Registered Nurse license to apply for midwifery school. Be advised, although these programs say "online", it is not likely you can complete it 100% online from Brasil. Most programs require onsite campus visits, workshops and of course, clinical experience being precepted by a licensed midwife, nurse practitioner and/or Obstetric Physician.

It is possible however, to obtain a non clinical masters in nursing 100% online. Non clinical degrees include nursing education, nursing administration, healthcare informatics, etc.
https://www.gradschools.com/graduate-schools-by-subject

 

Great, that is really helpful insight! Thanks a lot again.

 

If you're already a nurse, your personal philosophy around childbirth will determine the best fit for you. If you're pro-midwifery woman-centered-model-of-care then you should consider Frontier. That's the top school hands down. You can get your CNM and an additional NP for good measure.
This is an interesting field. I can't think of any other field where you could be considered "too medical" except in childbirth. You'll be in an entirely different classification than PAs. It is the exceptional MD that promotes midwifery of any kind, and so in midwifery, you run the risk of being viewed as too medical by your patients- that's the kiss of death. Low intervention midwives will always beat out high intervention midwives, because women who want high intervention don't go to midwives, they go to OBs. Anyway, Frontier buys you an extra dose of hippy love that you won't get at Cincinnati.

 

Have you been to the campus in Hyden, Kentucky? It is absolutely amazing and very unique! Excellent and very experienced faculty! Although my specialty isn't midwifery, it used to be called Frontier School of Midwifery. They offer numerous clinical specialties now, so they changed the name to Frontier Nursing University. I heard they considered changing the name to Frontier University but the initials would be out of place.

 

I have not, but I'm a bit of a birth junkie from way back, and have a close friend who has. I was attended by a midwife in 1994 (a CNM practice under an OB at a hospital) and then used lay midwives for my next 2 a-legal births <cough> followed by another CNM at an in-hospital birth center. I worked as a doula for about 10 years and formed a non-profit with 2 of my doula colleagues for women to receive volunteer labor support. Our program paired women who needed births for their doula certification with moms who couldn't pay or were in need. I did lots of LLL work and taught childbirth ed- all as a volunteer, a very special time in my life. So, a good portion of my friends are nurses, doulas, midwives, etc. and so for a *short time* that was a path I strongly considered - But, the first doula I ever trained is a dear friend of mine now, she graduated from Frontier in 2015.

 

Fascinating.
I love this fascinating diversity of birth assistance philosophies. Part of me is trying to think whether there's a business opportunity in birth tourism in there. Come for the women-centric care and get birthright citizenship for your child as a free gift. Chances are there is a business or two in choice locations already doing this, but on the down-low.

 

You're being scarcastic.... right? On the off chance that you're not, I'll humor the concept and answer you properly. The flaw in your plan is that our infant mortality rate in the USA is so poor that no one would ever travel TO the USA to deliver inside our medical system.

 

Not completely. As you can imagine, I am a bit of an immigration junkie. To your serious response I would say that birth tourism, in addition to being the overblown moral panic to the Right, is also, like, a thing. And, of course, the number 1 source country for this kind of travel is China - where infant mortality is higher than in US. Of course, this is more about the 14th Amendment than about quality of care, but most of the rest of the world have it way worse, and picking US for care is actually kind of a no-brainer, if one can afford it. I would not want a loved one to give birth in a Ukrainian hospital, if an alternative is available- and not just because the mortality rate is somewhat higher there.
Also, one of the lesser-known Trump crackdowns at the Southern border exploits the fact that a few midwives in Texas got caught selling US birth certificates to mothers giving birth in Mexico. So the mechanics are not exactly unknown. Me, I would rather learn about someone doing this legally and ethically.

 

Sorry to see this discussion turn political. Overwhelmingly, licensed Healthcare Providers work day in and day out without any bias towards race, religion, ethnicity, political party, gender identification, etc. When a person seeks healthcare, the last thing on our minds is legal residence issues or creating some scam to get US birth certificates! It appears there were some "bad apples" as mentioned in a 2012 CNN article: https://www.cnn.com/2012/06/05/us/texas-immigration-midwives/index.html

I'm not convinced these were licensed Nurse Midwives as the author lumps all midwives into one category. Many State laws vary in regard to regulation of Direct Entry and Traditional Lay Midwives from no training to apprentice training to accredited college training. From no registration to mandatory license, registration and certification. For that matter, many a Taxi Driver has delivered a baby without complication. Can they sign a birth certificate?

 

Well, FWIW, the current problems are apparently caused by arrests and convictions that happened a while back - so you are right, there's a good chance the actual perp midwives were not CNMs; likely they benefited from even laxer oversight back then. And make no mistake: these are a fringe of a fringe of this profession.

I personally am very pro-immigration, and I understand people who engage in creative schemes in the area. For example, I see nothing wrong with the practice of birth tourism, which is, after all, legal (I would completely understand if US would tighten visa rules to stem the practice in the future if it becomes too prevalent, though - this is normal regulating). However, selling false birth certificates is a serious crime that screws things up for potentially all of us. People who peddle illegal stuff to vulnerable immigrants are the firld's equivalents of mill operators: scum of the earth. Unfortunately, every community have a few of those.

What I meant in my first comment is that the profession's combination of unique philosophy and reasonable fees have the potential for catering to foreigners in an above-the-board fashion. Current birth tourist stereotype is either a wealthy individual paying top dollar for hospital care, or shadier contingent lowering expenses by things like Medicare fraud. It shouldn't be this way. In fact, I would guess that there exist a few birth centres along the border doing exactly this, on the down-low but without committing multiple felonies.

 

I'm sorry, although interesting comments, I didn't realize Degreeinfo was a forum for political discussion. The title "Degreinfo" sounded like an invitation for a dialogue about academia. I guess these type of forums are a carryover from the 1990s and barely have a pulse nowadays. Cheers!

 

Welcome, copper. Here at DI, like any other Internet forum, there is one common principle: Every thread gets hijacked. Every thread.

We welcome new members like yourself. Even if they register and coincidentally post in a thread that appeared on the day they registered. Even if they know how to throw around a token phrase in Portuguese.

Having said that, you appear to be intelligent when it comes to the education field, even if you have provided a patronizing whine in the form of our "barely [having] a pulse nowadays." You're quite correct, though - some of us have been members of DI since its inception, and a few of us have had our fill of "dialogue about academia." Personally, I'm here for the entertainment, some of which you have now provided.

So can the at-tee-tude, but stick around. Remember that you're simply an anonymous troll until you have proven yourself because, in this field, there is too much at stake for those who are seeking educational advice. You haven't made a bad start (I especially liked your riff in another thread likening NYC to Sodom and Gomorrah), but don't spoil it by being a pompous, presumptuous, patronizing putz. (Damn, I love alliteration.)

 

From today's NYTimes

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/16/opinion/sunday/maternal-mortality-rates.html?action=click&module=Opinion&pgtype=Homepage

 

There's a lot of current research on how African American women do not receive the same level of care as other American women due to implicit bias. Serena Williams' complications brought more awareness to this issue because she's a wealthy woman who can afford the best medical care. Black women are three to four times more likely than white women to die from pregnancy complications. It's not political. It's sociological and epidemiological.

https://thehill.com/blogs/pundits-blog/healthcare/347780-black-americans-dont-have-trust-in-our-healthcare-system

Since it may be difficult to find a black OBGYN, many African American women are starting to look for black nurse midwives and certified midwives who can recognize signs and advocate for their treatment.

Despite the objections, this is mostly accurate.

 

This is very disturbing indeed.
However, I will bet you anything that the outcomes are still better than in many, many countries, that probably account for a majority of world population. And even poor corrupt countries normally have a somewhat wealthy elite.
I've read studies on how midwives in other countries deliver better results than what US system manages to get. Makes sense.