Midwives work with healthy women and newborns. Their role is to ensure surveillance, follow-up and care during pregnancy, childbirth as well as during the postnatal period (up to 6 weeks), for the mother and the newborn.

During pregnancy, the midwife:

• may offer birth and parenting preparation sessions;
• performs clinical examinations;
• gives advice if needed, answers questions; it prescribes ultrasounds, screening tests and various laboratory analyzes;
• checks the clinical parameters to ensure the smooth progress of the pregnancy (obstetric and gynecological ultrasound procedures or screening);

During childbirth, the midwife:

• monitors the progress of labor and ensures the well-being of the baby;
• provides independent supervision of labor and delivery;

After childbirth, the midwife:

• provides post-natal follow-up for the woman and her baby
• it supports and monitors breastfeeding;
• she couples him in his new role;
• she offers perineo-sphincteric rehabilitation.

Midwives are certainly associated with pregnancy, but they can also follow women throughout their lives, for example by prescribing their contraception.

Note that in Quebec, no midwives work independently. They work in a birth center or a midwifery service.

In France, they can work as employees (in hospitals, local authorities, private health establishments) or on a self-employed basis.

The consultation with a midwife does not involve any particular risks for the patient. It is her role to explain to the woman or more generally to the parents the modalities, the possible difficulties of the gestures or the interventions which she will have to practice. In the event of a complication, she will call a doctor or an appropriate care service.

To access the profession of midwife in France:

The studies to be followed to become a midwife last 5 years:

• the first year is common to health studies (PACES);
• and the next 4 take place at a midwifery school.

To access the profession of midwife in Quebec

You must take a baccalaureate in midwifery practice for 4 years. The training is provided at the University of Quebec at Trois-Rivières (UQTR) (3).

To find a midwife:

• in Quebec, you can consult the website of the order of midwives in Quebec (4);
• in France, via the website of the National Council of the Order of Midwives, which offers a directory (5).

Midwifery services are covered by the Assurance maladie (France) and the Régie d ‘assurance maladie du Québec (RAMQ).

Anecdote

A midwife refers to “a person knowing about the woman”. The word “woman” thus designates the patient, and not the healthcare professional. So a man can be a midwife!