Midwifery Program Overview
Through Bastyr’s midwifery program, you will learn to be a guide for families in the birthing process. You will train in all aspects of midwifery care, from preconception through pregnancy, labor, birth, and the postpartum period for parents and newborns.
Upon graduation, you’ll be prepared to serve families within your community, ensuring that they look back on their birth experience feeling empowered and respected. You will learn how to care for clients with normal, low-risk pregnancies, labors, births and postpartum periods, as well as normal newborn care.
Learn alongside world-class faculty in the classroom and at clinical preceptor sites. In addition to learning how to provide evidence-based care, they'll guide you in understanding and addressing racism in health care, as well as learning the deep history of the midwifery profession, health policy, legal and ethical frameworks, and how to build a midwifery practice.
*This program is not eligible for international students due to low residency schedule design.
MSM (Master of Science in Midwifery) & eligible to take the board exam to become a CPM. May be eligible for licensure (varies state by state)
3 years (11 quarters) hybrid program (on campus once/month, completion of two years of experience in preceptorships)
Master of Science in Midwifery Highlights
20:1 Student to Faculty Ratio
Social Justice Lens
Direct-Entry Midwifery (no nursing required)
Becoming a Midwife: Midwifery Program Outcomes
Upon completion of Basytr’s Master’s in Midwifery, students will be prepared to:
- Demonstrate the ability to autonomously provide care to clients with normal, low-risk pregnancies, labors, births, and postpartum periods, as well as normal newborn care, in a variety of settings with a primary focus in home and birth center locations; and provide this care in alignment with the Midwives Model of Care™ that promotes birth as a healthy and normal physiologic process
- Assess, diagnose, and appropriately manage common complications in the antepartum, intrapartum, and postpartum periods
- Recognize complications that require consultation, referral, or transfer of care to other providers within the healthcare system, and collaborate effectively for positive client outcomes
- Act as advocates and agents for racial and cultural equity by demonstrating the integration of the principles of reproductive justice
- Communicate with clients in a way that validates the client’s knowledge and experience while encouraging personal responsibility in shared decision-making and informed choice
- Exercise information literacy skills through research activities, policy development, involvement in political processes, and the promotion of midwifery through state, provincial, and national professional organizations
- Demonstrate professional behaviors related to client confidentiality, collegial courtesy, self-reflection, integrity, and ethical interactions
Midwifery Degree Program Details
- Minimum cumulative GPA of 2.75 required to be considered for admission.
- A grade of C or better is also required in all basic proficiency courses.
- Students may apply to the program while completing prerequisite coursework, but must have a plan for completing prerequisites before the start of the program in the fall.
For Applicants With a Bachelor’s Degree in Any Field*
- General Psychology - 3 quarter credits
- Introductory Nutrition - 4 quarter credits
- General Chemistry (allied-health-major level with lab) - 4 quarter credits
- Microbiology - 4 quarter credits
- Anatomy and Physiology series - 8 quarter credits
- College Algebra or Statistics - 4 quarter credits
- Labor Support Course/Doula Training (Birthing Advocacy, DONA, or ToLabor approved) - not a college course
- Childbirth Educator Training (Birthing Advocacy, ICEA, or Lamaze approved) - not a college course
*From a regionally accredited college/university
For Applicants Without a Bachelor’s Degree
Basic Science and Proficiency Prerequisites
- General Psychology - 3 quarter credits
- Introductory Nutrition - 3 quarter credits
- General Chemistry (allied-health-major level with lab) - 4 quarter credits
- Microbiology - 4 quarter credits
- Anatomy and Physiology Series - 8 quarter credits
- College Algebra or Precalculus or Statistics - 4 quarter credits
- Labor Support Course/Doula Training (Birthing Advocacy, DONA or ToLabor approved) - not a college course
- Childbirth Educator Training (Birthing Advocacy, ICEA or Lamaze approved) - not a college course
General Education Requirements
- English Literature or Composition - 9 quarter credits
- Public Speaking - 3 quarter credits
- Social Sciences - 15 quarter credits
- Arts and Humanities - 15 quarter credits
- Natural Sciences - 4 quarter credits
- Electives - 17 quarter credits*
*The number of elective credits may vary depending on the exact number of quarter credits earned in the other prerequisite categories. Total prerequisite credits must equal at least 90 quarter credits.
* The Simkin Center at Bastyr University offers Childbirth Educator Training and Birth Doula Training. Learn more here.
Bastyr accepts graduate and undergraduate transfer credits earned at accredited colleges and universities. Learn what you need to make this process go smoothly.
For more information on loans and scholarships, visit financial aid.
Some available job opportunities in maternal health are as follows:
- Certified Professional Midwife (CPM)
- Licensed Midwife
- Registered Midwife
- Owning a private practice focusing on birth center and/or home births
- Developing or working in a community birth center
- Participating as part of an integrated maternity care team
- Working internationally to teach and provide care
- Serving as a national policy advocate
Student Testimonials
With both traditional and evidence-based learning, this [program] prepared me to give excellent care upon graduation and licensure. I feel absolutely prepared to go into practice with this education. I have cultivated lifelong friends and a network of fellow midwives who support me as I support them in this difficult and captivating career path.
Tanya Taiwo
LM, CPM, MPH, Ph.D.
Dr. Khemet Taiwo is an epidemiologist whose dissertation research examined the role of maternal prenatal stress on child neurodevelopment and how these stressors interact with environmental…
Wendy Gordon
DM, MPH, CPM, LM
Wendy Gordon is an associate professor and Chair of the Department of Midwifery at Bastyr University. Dr. Gordon has been a midwife since 2005 and has been teaching midwifery since 2007. Dr…
Kristin Effland
LM, CPM, MA
Prior to working at Bastyr University, Kristin worked with the Wenatchee Midwife Service as well as working as a midwife at Gentle Hands Midwifery in Bellingham, WA. She trained in Seattle,…
