The call to midwifery is a family affair. This includes both the years of training and running a practice as a Certified Professional Midwife (CPM). Both seasons require prayer, prioritization, and making decisions to help them run as smoothly as possible
CHAM students will be involved in rigorous studies as well as attending births. Current students have reported a daily average of 2-3 to get through their book work. Both parents and husbands need to protect that time for the student.
If a student is unmarried and heavily involved in her family’s daily activity, serious and prayerful consideration to priorities and lessening of familial responsibilities is highly encouraged. From past experience, allowing and planning for study time is something that must be recognized and addressed from the outset.
For married students, husbands need to be aware and in agreement with the study time, births, and extra cooking. While the instructors and fellow students in the school become a second family, the last thing we want is to interfere with family productivity. However, if given the time to gain and improve skills, over time, CPM’s can help build their family economy.
It is our recommendation that a married CPM build a practice slowly—no calling or practice is more important than building a family. In the experience of the director and a few practicing CPM’s, a practical number is taking on 4-8 births/year while raising their family. The number of births to undertake should be covered with much prayer. We do not encourage mothers with small babies to attend births for a season. We pray for the husbands for each student, whether they are single or married. Midwifery is a special calling, and parents and husbands need to begin this process in agreement, assisting the student throughout each phase of learning.
Students are encouraged to attend a birth each month. In the event that a student cannot find a monthly birth to attend, the school can organize a birth intensive during the summer where a student can log 6-12 births in the span of 3-6 weeks.
Additionally, students will need to practice whole food cooking principles. For some families, this is already in place; for others, this will be a paradigm shift.
Another thing that both parents and husbands will need to help with is being the accountability person for the student when it comes to quizzes and tests. The details and needs in this are will be explained both to the students at the Retreat, and the parents on the phone.
Just like a missionary has special aspects of their calling, so does a midwife. It truly is a calling. As the school continues to be built, we will look for ideas from parents and husbands on fine tuning this study time and keeping the family running.