There are many related organizations with information that can be helpful to midwives. Some of these are listed below.The American Academy of Nurse Practitioners was founded in 1985 as the only full-service organization for nurse practitioners of all specialties. It has steadily expanded services to meet its mission to serve as a resource for nurse practitioners, their patients and other health care consumers; promote excellence in practice, education and research; provide legislative leadershipl advance health policy; establish health care standards; and advocate for access to quality, cost effective health care.

The American Academy of Pediatrics offers informative and up-to-date information on issues of interest to parents such as the safety and effectiveness of vaccinations, firearm-related injuries to children, and adolescent suicide. You can also get the AAP position statements from their site.


The American College of Nurse Practitioners was founded in 1993; it is focused on advocacy and keeping nurse practitioners current on legislative, regulatory and clinical practice issues that effect NPs in the rapidly changing health care arena. The mission of the college is to unite and represent, politicially and professionally, nurse practitioners across the United States and its territories. These efforts are to ensure an appropriate, prevention-based health care system to better meet the health care needs of individuals, families, and communities.


The American Medical Association maintains an extensive web page with many resources including the ability to download (or just review online) articles from JAMA. There is also other useful information, e.g., on legislative initiativesrelated to health care, and on developments in billing and coding.


The Association for Women’s Health, Obstetric, and Neonatal Nurses (AWHONN) represents nurses involved in all aspects of women’s health care. Their website contains their Standards and Guidelines (5th Ed.), position statements, and education guidelines as well as resources such as professional education videos, consumer education videos, continuing education offerings, and information on their fetal heart monitoring principles and practices workshop, which is offered regularly around the country.


The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is a valuable source of information for those interested in the epidemiology of pregnancy and childbirth; their site offers the latest data and statistics as well as up-to-date prevention guidelines. A CDC program called PRAMS, the Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System, is a surveillance project of the CDC and state health departments. PRAMS collects state-specific, population-based data on maternal attitudes and experiences prior to, during, and immediately following pregnancy. You can see the PRAMS questionnaire on the website.