--- title: "Nurse Midwife" description: "Diagnose and coordinate all aspects of the birthing process, either independently or as part of a healthcare team. May provide well-woman gynecological…" canonical: "https://nuecareer.com/careers/nurse-midwife" last-updated: "2026-10-09T10:57:55.138Z" --- # Nurse Midwife **Category:** Healthcare Practitioners and Technical · **SOC code:** 29-1161 · **O\*NET-SOC code:** 29-1161.00 Diagnose and coordinate all aspects of the birthing process, either independently or as part of a healthcare team. May provide well-woman gynecological care. Must have specialized, graduate nursing education. Also advertised as: Certified Nurse-Midwife (CNM); Nurse Midwife; Staff Certified Nurse Midwife; Staff Nurse Midwife. ## At a glance - **Median annual wage:** $134,040 (BLS OEWS, May 2025) - **Median hourly wage:** $64.44/hr - **Wage range (10th–90th percentile):** $93,620 to $188,320, with the middle half between $116,510 and $157,400 - **Total US employment:** 7,920 - **Typical entry education:** Master's - **Preparation required:** Considerable preparation — O\*NET rates this "Job Zone Five: Extensive Preparation Needed" - **Projected growth:** +11.5% over 2025–2035 (BLS EP, 2025–2035) - **Annual job openings:** 400 openings a year - **AI-resilience score:** 50/100 — a NueCareer heuristic over O\*NET work activities and context, not a BLS or O\*NET figure ## Pay National wage distribution, BLS OEWS, May 2025, across 7,920 US jobs. | Percentile | Annual wage | | --- | --- | | 10th | $93,620 | | 25th | $116,510 | | 50th (median) | $134,040 | | 75th | $157,400 | | 90th | $188,320 | | Mean (average) | $136,980 | ### Pay by state The 15 highest-paying states, by median annual wage. The cost-of-living-adjusted column divides the state median by that state's BEA Regional Price Parity, so the columns answer different questions: the first is what the job pays there, the second is what that pay buys there. | State | Median annual wage | Cost-of-living adjusted | Employment | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | CA | $203,840 | $184,104 | 870 | | HI | $170,110 | $154,714 | Not published by BLS | | MA | $159,800 | $151,101 | 280 | | WA | $158,970 | $148,552 | 170 | | NJ | $153,970 | $141,510 | 120 | | VT | $151,030 | $154,178 | 60 | | OR | $146,900 | $142,123 | 240 | | NY | $144,510 | $133,904 | 360 | | NH | $142,960 | $137,244 | 60 | | AZ | $140,960 | $140,012 | 80 | | MD | $140,120 | $133,500 | 240 | | NE | $138,880 | $154,135 | Not published by BLS | | CO | $137,610 | $133,535 | 180 | | VA | $135,710 | $134,228 | Not published by BLS | | RI | $135,180 | $132,167 | 80 | 24 more states with published wage data are omitted here. The full table for all 39 states is at https://nuecareer.com/careers/nurse-midwife/salary-by-state, or as JSON at https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/nurse-midwife. ## Outlook BLS projects employment to move from 8,200 in the 2025–2035 base year to 9,100 by the end of the cycle — a gain of 900 jobs, or +11.5%. Much faster than average: 11.5% against 3.5% projected for all occupations over the same cycle. About 400 openings a year are expected on average, counting openings from growth as well as from workers leaving the occupation permanently. Source: BLS EP, 2025–2035. ## How to get in - **Typical entry education:** Master's degree (BLS Employment Projections). - **Preparation level:** Considerable preparation — O\*NET's preparation band for this occupation is "Job Zone Five: Extensive Preparation Needed". - **Related work experience typically required:** None. - **Typical on-the-job training:** None. ### Education people in this job actually hold O\*NET surveys incumbents, so this distribution describes who is in the job today and can differ from the BLS entry requirement above. | Education level | Share of workers | | --- | --- | | Master's Degree | 81.3% | | Post-Master's Certificate | 15.6% | | Post-Baccalaureate Certificate | 3.1% | ## What the work involves - Provide prenatal, intrapartum, postpartum, or newborn care to patients. - Monitor fetal development by listening to fetal heartbeat, taking external uterine measurements, identifying fetal position, or estimating fetal size and weight. - Document patients' health histories, symptoms, physical conditions, or other diagnostic information. - Provide patients with direct family planning services, such as inserting intrauterine devices, dispensing oral contraceptives, and fitting cervical barriers, including cervical caps or diaphragms. - Prescribe medications as permitted by state regulations. - Develop and implement individualized plans for health care management. - Explain procedures to patients, family members, staff members or others. - Order and interpret diagnostic or laboratory tests. ## Skills and knowledge ### Essential skills - Active Listening — importance 4.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale - Speaking — importance 4.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale - Critical Thinking — importance 4.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale - Reading Comprehension — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale - Active Learning — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale - Monitoring — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale - Writing — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale - Learning Strategies — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale ### Transferable skills These are the skills that carry into other occupations, and they drive the related-occupation and career-change rankings on this site. - Social Perceptiveness — importance 4.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale - Coordination — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale - Service Orientation — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale - Complex Problem Solving — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale - Judgment and Decision Making — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale - Instructing — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale - Systems Analysis — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale - Time Management — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale ### Knowledge areas - Medicine and Dentistry — importance 4.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale - Psychology — importance 4.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale - Customer and Personal Service — importance 4.2 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale - English Language — importance 4.2 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale - Biology — importance 4.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale - Sociology and Anthropology — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale ### Abilities - Written Comprehension — importance 4.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale - Oral Comprehension — importance 4.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale - Oral Expression — importance 4.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale - Problem Sensitivity — importance 4.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale - Deductive Reasoning — importance 4.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale - Written Expression — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale ## Who it suits O\*NET rates every occupation on the six Holland (RIASEC) interest areas, on a 1–7 scale. This occupation's strongest areas are Social (S), Investigative (I), Conventional (C). | Interest area | Score (1–7) | | --- | --- | | S — Social | 5.96 | | I — Investigative | 4.25 | | C — Conventional | 3.40 | | R — Realistic | 3.24 | | E — Enterprising | 2.97 | | A — Artistic | 1.94 | ### Personality fit These scores are **derived by NueCareer**, not published by any government agency: they are cosine similarities between a personality type's trait profile and this occupation's O\*NET interest and work-style ratings, expressed 0–100. Treat them as a starting point for exploration, not as evidence that a type belongs in a job. | Type | Fit score (0–100) | | --- | --- | | ESFJ | 66.7 | | ISFJ | 63.9 | | ESFP | 62.9 | | ENFJ | 59.3 | | ISFP | 56.0 | Best-fitting types: ESFJ, ISFJ, ESFP. ## Related occupations O\*NET's primary related occupations, in its own ranked order. - [Midwife](https://nuecareer.com/careers/midwife) — median $65,790 - [Nurse Practitioner](https://nuecareer.com/careers/nurse-practitioner) — median $132,300 - [Registered Nurse](https://nuecareer.com/careers/registered-nurse) — median $97,550 - [Acute Care Nurse](https://nuecareer.com/careers/acute-care-nurse) — median $97,550 - [Obstetrician and Gynecologist](https://nuecareer.com/careers/obstetrician-and-gynecologist) — median $292,910 - [Clinical Nurse Specialist](https://nuecareer.com/careers/clinical-nurse-specialist) — median $97,550 - [Critical Care Nurse](https://nuecareer.com/careers/critical-care-nurse) — median $97,550 - [Advanced Practice Psychiatric Nurse](https://nuecareer.com/careers/advanced-practice-psychiatric-nurse) — median $97,550 - [Nurse Anesthetist](https://nuecareer.com/careers/nurse-anesthetist) — median $236,590 - [Licensed Practical Nurse](https://nuecareer.com/careers/licensed-practical-nurse) — median $64,400 ## Sources - **O\*NET** — O\*NET 31.0 Database, August 2026. https://www.onetcenter.org/database.html - **BLS OEWS** — BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025. https://www.bls.gov/oes/ - **BLS EP** — BLS Employment Projections, Table 1.2, 2025–2035. https://www.bls.gov/emp/ - **BLS OOH** — BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook, 2025–2035 edition. https://www.bls.gov/ooh/ - **BEA RPP** — BEA Regional Price Parities by State, 2024. https://www.bea.gov/data/prices-inflation/regional-price-parities-state-and-metro-area --- This bank includes information from the O\*NET 31.0 Database by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA). Used under the CC BY 4.0 license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). O\*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA. NueCareer has transformed the data by joining it to BLS wage and projection data and deriving facet, personality-fit and AI-resilience scores. BLS and BEA data are public domain (17 U.S.C. §105). O\*NET content is used under [CC BY 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). How these figures are sourced and derived: https://nuecareer.com/careers/methodology JSON representation of this page: https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/nurse-midwife