Recent ACNM meeting / Finished a Class

Last week I attended the ACNM meeting of my local chapter. As usual, it was a good meeting and meal. :) Before the meeting started, I had a couple of the CNMs come up to me and say hello.

Afterwards a daughter of a CNM came up to me to ask me questions related to nursing school. I also got to meet one of my classmates!! We had met online, but it was neat to finally meet in person! I also got to talk to some CNMs about finding preceptors and such, for when I start clinicals (in 2013). 

Clinicals are still a long way off, but the common tip I have heard from CNMs and students alike is to start searching EARLY! Oftentimes CNMs and nurse practitioners (NPs) will be booked for a while with many students wanting to request them as a preceptor.


What I love about this particular local chapter is that they are so willing to help you on your nurse-midwifery journey. There is a lot of networking that goes on within the ACNM chapter.


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I finished my Physical Assessment class this morning - YES! Now I can focus on my other class, the Theory one. I have two more assignments left in that class, and both are group work assignments. I get the impression that many students don't like group work, but thankfully I have had a really great group for my Theory class. :)

Abundance of Networking

Today I attended the chapter ACNM meeting. All of the meetings are very informative, with a great dinner by the sponsor, presentation by the sponsor, and the meeting itself - but today's was esp. very cool. I met several people who were very well-known in the field of nurse-midwifery (for the sake of privacy, I will not post names, but some of them you may be able to find out anyway if you are that interested).

- One was an OB-GYN who had recently won a prestigious award. Guess what? He is also one of the board members for Frontier. :) And I just discovered tonight that he was one of the former governors for Frontier Nursing Service (FNS)!

- One CNM I met is the president of the Midwifery Business Network.

- Another CNM I met did a lot of things (I feel bad, but I can't remember - but I know she is well-known!). Among those, she was a former dean of Frontier. :)

- I met a CNM who practices somewhat locally to me.

- (Did not get to speak with her personally, but) One was a midwife from Canada who spoke about the practice of midwifery there - pretty neat and of course, different than the US. She is working on trying to promote vaginal breech births. I've always been kind of open to the idea of [visiting, living in] Canada. I think their maternity leave has a lot to do with it. ;)

- I met another CNM who was from up north, and I knew she was spoken of very highly and even had very positive remarks about the dean of Frontier.

I think that is about it. Whew! What a great meeting.

Our sponsor also showed us a video about Mirena, including a video demonstration of proper insertion techniques (on a real person, too). Quite interesting! For anyone who may not know, Mirena is one of the many kinds of birth control. And yes, nurse midwives can insert them.

Random cool thing about the meeting: the doctor who received the award, he was wearing a tie that he said Kitty Ernst gave to him. :D It said "Carpe Diem" all over it, which means "Seize the day." Very fitting for us students and those who work in the birth realm. We really must seize the day and work to make change TODAY to improve the lives of mothers and infants.

ACNM meeting

Yesterday I went to a meeting of my local ACNM chapter. This was the second chapter meeting I had attended. At the first meeting I went to, I had only applied to Frontier and was waiting to hear back. At yesterday's meeting, I was able to share the good news that I was starting classes in January! The midwives were enthusiastic when I mentioned that.

For anyone who is a CNEP student, I encourage you to find your local chapter of ACNM, join, and attend the meetings. Depending on the size of your chapter, you may be surrounded by CNM students, practicing CNMs, and retired CNMs.

Yesterday I was able to talk to a CNM who knew of great midwives in an area not too far from me. I think she said she used to practice there? She said they had been taking students for years and to consider them when it was time for me to search for preceptors. Made me feel so relieved! She even gave me her business card. What's really cool is that I had met her once at my nursing school (she is a faculty member), and I knew she was a CNM. So I kind of "knew" her. :)

The ACNM website is located here. I don't know if I'm looking in the wrong spot, but I am unable to find a link that would lead you to find an ACNM chapter in your area. So I would do an internet search and try these search words:

1) Your City + ACNM
2) Nearest major city + ACNM
3) Your State + ACNM