Nurse Midwife: what the job is, what it pays, and how to get hired.
The work, the skills that matter, the tools in demand and the pay range, from U.S. government data, plus every TryHired page for the role.
10% of nurse midwifes earn less than this amount.
- Annual
- $93,620
- Hourly
- $45.01
- Source
- BLS May 2025
25% of nurse midwifes earn less than this amount.
- Annual
- $116,510
- Hourly
- $56.01
- Source
- BLS May 2025
Half of nurse midwifes earn more than this and half earn less.
- Annual
- $134,040
- Hourly
- $64.44
- Source
- BLS May 2025
75% of nurse midwifes earn less than this amount.
- Annual
- $157,400
- Hourly
- $75.67
- Source
- BLS May 2025
90% of nurse midwifes earn less than this amount.
- Annual
- $188,320
- Hourly
- $90.54
- Source
- BLS May 2025
Nurse Midwifes diagnose and coordinate all aspects of the birthing process, either independently or as part of a healthcare team. The median pay is $134,040 a year ($64.44 an hour) (BLS, May 2025). The most commonly reported education requirement is a master's degree (81% of workers surveyed by O*NET).
- Median pay
- $134,040
- BLS May 2025
- Employed in the U.S.
- 7,920
- BLS May 2025
- Preparation
- Job Zone 5 of 5
- extensive preparation
- Most common education
- Master's Degree
- 81% of workers
Data Government data groups this job as Nurse Midwives (O*NET-SOC 29-1161.00). Figures on this page are for that occupation.
Nurse Midwifes at a glance
Nurse midwives in the United States earned a median annual wage of $134,040 in May 2025, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Source: BLS OEWS, May 2025
In its 2025–35 employment projections, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics lists a master's degree as the typical entry-level education for nurse midwives in the United States.
Source: BLS Employment Projections, 2025–35
BLS projects employment of nurse midwives in the United States to grow 11.5% from 2025 to 2035, with about 400 openings a year on average, including replacement openings.
Source: BLS Employment Projections, 2025–35
BLS estimated that 7,920 people were employed as nurse midwives in the United States in May 2025, not counting the self-employed.
Source: BLS OEWS, May 2025
Every page for Nurse Midwifes
What nurse midwifes do day to day
Data Core tasks rated most important by workers in the role (O*NET).
- 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.
Industries that employ it
Data Share of all nurse midwife jobs in each industry, 2025 (BLS Employment Matrix).
- Ambulatory healthcare services69.1% of all jobs in this occupation · +14.7% projected change here 2025–35 · mean wage $135,980
- Hospitals; state, local, and private23.4% of all jobs in this occupation · +3.8% projected change here 2025–35 · mean wage $145,540
- Educational services; state, local, and private1.8% of all jobs in this occupation · +2.3% projected change here 2025–35 · mean wage $132,260
Sources: BLS 2025–35 National Employment Matrix (share of the occupation's jobs, projected change) and BLS OEWS May 2025 industry estimates (mean wage). Different industry estimates are not a pay forecast for any person.
Ranked by importance to the job
Data O*NET importance ratings. The first three are core.
Knowledge areas: Medicine and Dentistry, Psychology, Customer and Personal Service, English Language, Biology, Sociology and Anthropology.
Software nurse midwifes use
Data Examples reported for the role; employer demand flags from O*NET.
- Epic SystemsMedical softwareHot technology
- eClinicalWorks EHR softwareMedical softwareHot technology
- Acrendo Medical Software Ob/Gyn EMRMedical software
- Allscripts Professional EHRMedical software
- Amkai AmkaiChartsMedical software
- Bizmatics PrognoCIS EMRMedical software
- Cerner MillenniumMedical software
- ChartWare EMRMedical software
- GE Healthcare Centricity EMRMedical software
- Greenway Medical Technologies PrimeSUITEMedical software
- Medscribbler EnterpriseMedical software
- MicroFour PracticeStudio.NET EMRMedical software
Also called: Nurse Midwive, Certified Nurse-Midwife (CNM), Staff Certified Nurse Midwife, Staff Nurse Midwife.
How this page is built
Tasks, skills, tools, education and related roles come from O*NET 31.0. Pay and employment come from the BLS OEWS May 2025 national estimates. The skill-match score is our calculation: Skill match is the cosine similarity of the two occupations' skill profiles: for each of 35 O*NET skills (10 essential, 25 transferable) we multiply importance by level and subtract the average across all occupations, then compare the direction of the two profiles. 100 means identical shape; 0 means unrelated or opposite (negative values are shown as 0). Only occupations that O*NET itself lists as related are compared.
- How a specific employer defines the job.
- Pay for self-employed workers (OEWS covers employees).
- Your own chances: data describes the occupation, not you.
- O*NET 31.0 Database, U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA), used under the CC BY 4.0 license. TryHired selected, ranked and combined the data; O*NET is not responsible for these pages.
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025 estimates (public domain).
How TryHired builds this data: sources, methods and downloads. Spotted an error? Report a correction.