For Families

What is a New Hampshire Certified Midwife?

A NHCM is a midwife who has been certified through the New Hampshire Midwifery Council. The council is made up of 6 members: an obstetrician, a pediatrician, three midwives certified in NH, and one member of the general public who has familiarity with midwifery. These members serve without compensation and are administratively attached to the Department of Health and Human Services.

For more information on the midwifery statute and the midwifery rules:

An NHCM offers care throughout the prenatal time, during the labor and birth and postpartum period, as well as support for a woman and her family during the normal child-bearing cycle. She shares with trained midwives all over the world in the basic philosophies of the Midwifery Model of Care.

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Midwifery Model Of Care:

Monitoring the physical, psychological, and social well-being of the mother throughout the childbearing cycle
Providing the mother with individualized education, counseling, and prenatal care, continuous hands-on assistance during labor and delivery, and postpartum support
Minimizing technological interventions
Identifying and referring women who require obstetrical attention

The application of this woman-centered model of care has been proven to reduce the incidence of birth injury, trauma, and cesarean section.

Homebirth

For healthy parents and their healthy babies, the outcomes of planned out of hospital births in homes and freestanding birth centers are equivalent to the outcomes for low-risk women birthing in the hospital. In several other nations, including the United Kingdom, Canada, and the Netherlands, out of hospital birth is a standard option available for most parents. In New Hampshire, NHCMs (NH Certified Midwives) and CNMs (Certified Nurse Midwives) can both attend births at home.

Transfers from out of hospital care to medical care typically occur as a result of a lengthy labor or because the mother seeks pain medication; emergencies are very rare. Nonetheless, New Hampshire Certified Midwives are highly skilled; all midwives must be current in their Neonatal Resuscitation Program (NRP) and Basic Life Support (BLS) certifications, and are otherwise prepared for a variety of scenarios.

Click on the button below to read the largest study of planned, midwife-led home birth in the U.S. to date, reporting outcomes for nearly 17,000 women who went in to labor intending to deliver at home between 2004 and 2009.

Freestanding Birth Centers

There are currently four, licensed, freestanding birth centers in our state. They serve women in New Hampshire and surrounding areas; offering supportive, skilled midwifery care by NHCMs in a comfortable, homelike setting. Homebirth services are also offered by most centers listed below.

Birth Cottage (Milford, NH and Salem, NH)

Gentle Landing (Hanover, NH)

Monadnock Birth Center (Swanzey, NH)