Midwives Save Lives

Our Commitment

Midwives Save Lives focuses on professional development and community building. Our program aims to enhance the skills and knowledge of midwives while fostering a supportive environment for learning and collaboration. Through targeted outreach and culturally sensitive care practices, Midwives Save Lives works to address systemic barriers to healthcare access, ensuring that everyone, regardless of background, receives the care they need. By advocating for marginalized communities, the program contributes to creating a more equitable and inclusive healthcare system.

A CPM’s annual salary averages 54,000 per year. An International Board Certified Lactation Consultant (IBCLC)’s average salary ranges between 63,000 and 150,000 per year. By training midwives as IBCLCs, we boost a midwife’s salary, as well as their training and capacity to offer lactation support. The IBCLC training and ultrasound certification for midwives makes the midwives more marketable, for placement in well-paying jobs.

Unfortunately, midwives from underserved communities face significant financial barriers to achieving these standards. We solve this by providing grants to student midwives and apprenticeship-trained midwives to cover the cost of the Bridge Program. We also provide mentorship and quality coaching, not just to achieve certification but to produce productive, high-quality healthcare professionals.

Bridge Certification

A Certified Professional Midwife (CPM) may receive training by apprenticeship or by attendance at a Midwifery Education Accreditation Council (MEAC) approved college. The United States Midwifery, Education, and Association (USMERA) joint agreement requires CPMs who have trained under the apprenticeship route to undergo a 50-hour continuing education unit called the Bridge Program. This agreement meets with the International Confederation of Midwives (ICM) Essential Competencies for Basic Midwifery, standardizing the education of CPMs. Completion of the Bridge Program allows midwives to meet requirements for licensure in the tri-state area.

Ohio doesn’t regulate CPMs currently; however, the state has been working on legislation to license CPMs according to the USMERA and ICM standards. We expect this legislation to pass in the next two years. This legislation will be consistent with 34 other states which license CPMs. Ohio midwives have expressed a growing concern the regulations will create barriers for marginalized communities to access midwifery education and licensure. This program will help mitigate this, as well as elevate the education and excellence of midwives in our community, by offering these training and workforce development opportunities.

According to the World Health Organization, there is a shortage of over 900,000 midwives worldwide. We chose the bridge program because it meets the ICM and USMERA agreement for education requirements to become a licensed midwife. The Midwives Save Lives program would provide practicing and aspiring midwives in Cincinnati with workforce development training to become IBCLCs, ultrasound techs, and a pathway to licensure and credentialing as a midwife and IBCLC in the tristate. The Grow Midwives program includes membership in the African American Chamber of Commerce and career coaching with Tonya Dumas, who has 25 years of experience as a woman leader in Cincinnati, and Meghan Nowland, an experienced midwife, women’s health speaker, and lactation consultant. 

Tonya Dumas

The City of Cincinnati will benefit because this will create an incubation for midwives in our city. We’ll have a hand in lowering the infant mortality rate by providing excellent healthcare services to women and by increasing breastfeeding rates. Higher breastfeeding rates result in reduced rates of cancer, type 1 diabetes, hospitalizations, ear infections, illnesses, SIDs deaths, allergies, issues with orthodontia, urinary tract infections, issues with congenital heart disease, and more effective immunizations, higher IQ, improved lung health and increase workplace production (Davis et al., 1988)!