There is a strong commitment from preceptors to give back to the profession through the teaching of the future generation of midwives. Many of the barriers to precepting could be addressed by ACNM, the Accreditation Commission for Midwifery Education, and individual midwifery education programs.

Despite areas of excellence, US perinatal care outcomes lag behind most developed countries. In addition, a shortage and maldistribution of health care providers exists. The American College of Nurse‐Midwives and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) partnered to obtain funding to develop interprofessional education modules and other learning activities for midwifery students and obstetrics and gynecology residents in 4 demonstration sites. The multidisciplinary 2016 ACOG document Collaboration in Practice: Implementing Team‐Based Care was adopted as a framework. Core competencies of values and ethics, roles and responsibilities, interprofessional communication, and teams and teamwork developed by the Interprofessional Education Collaborative were used to guide the work. Seven modules have been developed including guiding principles, patient‐centered care, role clarification, collaborative practice, history and culture, care transition, and difficult conversations. Learners participate in laboratory and simulation activities and work together in clinical care settings. Stakeholder experiences as well as barriers to implementation are discussed. Learning materials and activity descriptions are open resourced and shared on a project website for use by programs interested in implementing an interprofessional curriculum. Ongoing formal evaluation including pilot testing of a program evaluation method is described.

This study provides a greater understanding of midwifery management practices when caring for women with obesity and opportunities to improve care. The results suggest that midwifery management alters with increased BMI, specifically in the care of women with extreme obesity. Suggestions for future study include research on management of pregnant women with obesity and extreme obesity with outcome data examining management strategies that provide safe, satisfying care.

To promote nurse-midwifery education, it is important for educators to know the value students bring to clinical training sites and academic institutions, the value nurse-midwifery graduates bring to taxpayers who help support nurse-midwifery education, and the value an education in nurse-midwifery brings to the graduate. The first purpose of this study was to develop a model to include all costs and benefits of nurse-midwifery education to: 1) students; 2) clinical sites where nurse-midwifery students obtain clinical experience; 3) academic institutions that house nurse-midwifery education programs; and 4) others (most often taxpayers) who may contribute to nurse-midwifery education. The second purpose of the study was to develop a prototype nurse-midwifery education program to illustrate the use of the model. Considering the four entities together, the costs, benefits, and net benefits to society were estimated. Data were collected to estimate all costs and benefits to the four entities as they function within this prototypical program. For the prototype, all entities realize a net benefit from the investment in nurse-midwifery education. For society, the benefit-cost ratio is 1.57. Nurse-midwifery students show the highest benefit-cost ratio (2.05) of the four entities, followed by the clinical sites, others (primarily taxpayers), and academic institutions.

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Helping clients select and use appropriate family planning methods is a basic component of midwifery care. Many women prefer nonhormonal, nondevice methods, and may be interested in methods that involve understanding their natural fertility. Two new fertility awareness-based methods, the Standard Days Method and the TwoDay Method, meet the need for effective, easy-to-provide, easy-to-use approaches. The Standard Days Method is appropriate for women with most menstrual cycles between 26 and 32 days long. Women using this method are taught to avoid unprotected intercourse on potentially fertile days 8 through 19 of their cycles to prevent pregnancy. They use CycleBeads, a color-coded string of beads representing the menstrual cycle, to monitor their cycle days and cycle lengths. The Standard Days Method is more than 95% effective with correct use. The TwoDay Method is based on the presence or absence of cervical secretions to identify fertile days. To use this method, women are taught to note everyday whether they have secretions. If they had secretions on the current day or the previous day, they consider themselves fertile. The TwoDay Method is 96% effective with correct use. Both methods fit well into midwifery practice.

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