What is the Average Midwife Salary?

     There are many different types of midwives (we will discuss the two main types present in the US today) and pay potential for each type of midwife.  It makes a difference if you are a Certified Professional Midwife (CPM) or a Certified Nurse Midwife (CNM).  It makes a difference what you make as a midwife whether you are employed or run your own midwifery practice.  I know midwives that can qualify for Medicaid while running their own practices for the first couple years of getting going.  I know midwives that are millionaires from creating a multiple birth center franchise model within their community.

There isn’t any data out there with hard credibility for midwife salary except for Certified Nurse Midwives.  From my consulting experience and being in this industry for the last 20yrs, the average midwife salary for a Certified Professional Midwife is $60-80,000 while working for someone else and then $80-120,000 when working for themselves by being a business owner.

Per Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), Certified Nurse Midwife salaries continue to increase over the years. Data published by the BLS shows that the average annual wage for nurse midwives was $114,210 as of May 2021. That’s up from $106,910 three years earlier Based on my consulting experience and research analysis of current job postings for midwives across the US, a Certified Nurse Midwife working for a birth center or home birth practice gets offers around $80-100,000 a year. Certified Nurse Midwives can make more with working at the hospital for around $100-130,000 a year with benefits.  Once midwives start getting into administration roles with additional responsibilities like Midwife Director, average salary is closer to $140-170,000 a year.

When a midwife chooses to start her own business, the salary earned from the midwifery practice can be barely anything to highly lucrative income stream from their practice. You can choose many different midwife service lines to offer and each have more profits than others.  Mental health and maternity support tend to be lower revenue streams, but having the right negotiating tools for getting great insurance contracts can change that right around.  Women health clinics with more medical and procedural visit focus tend to make more money per visit than midwives focusing on prenatal, birth, and postpartum services.

Based on my extensive midwifery experience, the average midwife salary with being a business owner is $120-180,000 a year. Midwives that get employed have a max salary cap around $140,000 if keeping to traditional midwifery skill sets when searching current job postings.  There is a wide range of potential salary that a midwife can make based on educational background, where living, trainings, practice setting, and being an employee versus a business owner.  Midwives can truly make as little or as much money as they want based on their negotiating and business skills!