About NARM
NARM supports a health care system where every family in North America has access to skilled and responsible midwives. The individualized attention provided by the CPM in practice is of critical importance to her role as guardian of normal birth, and to the value of her compassionate maternity care.
NARM sets standards for Competency-based credentialing is based on documentation of comprehensive training and testing of knowledge and skills that are relevant to real-life job conditions, as determined by psychometric research within the profession.
The credential has been evaluated by independent researchers at Ohio State University and was determined to be a credential that exemplifies the established standards for educational testing as determined by the American Educational Research Association and the National Council of Measurement in Education.
In 2002, the CPM credential was accredited by the National Commission on Certifying Agencies (NCCA) and is evaluated yearly for adherence to the national standards, competency-based certification that allow a midwife to support a woman’s right to choose her birth attendants and place of birth and to involve those she identifies as her family in the birth experience.
Full NCCA reaccreditation is required every five years, which NARM has consistently received. In addition, NARM representatives have served on the NCCA Commission, the Standards Review Committee, and the Accreditation Services Council.
CPMs practice as autonomous health professionals working within a network of relationships with other maternity care professionals who can provide consultation and collaboration when needed.
As numerous studies have affirmed the safety of planned, midwife-attended birth at home, in hospitals, and in freestanding birth centers, NARM recognizes the potential for improved outcomes that include lower costs and fewer interventions to childbearing mothers and their babies when attended by Certified Professional Midwives.
As the CPM emerges as a sought after professional maternity care provider in out of hospital settings, NARM is dedicated to advancing the profession by supporting advocacy efforts for legal recognition at the state and federal level. NARM dedicates a significant percentage of its annual budget for development of advocacy training, offering workshops, participation in legislative, public health, and midwifery conferences, creating promotional materials, and serving on advisory committees for state and federal level initiatives to support the CPM.
Our Mission . . . .
NARM's Mission Statement
NARM’s mission is to provide and maintain an evaluative process for multiple routes of midwifery education and training; to develop and administer a standardized examination system leading to the credential “Certified Professional Midwife” (CPM); to identify best practices that reflect the excellence and diversity of the independent midwifery community as the basis for setting the standards for the CPM credential; to publish, distribute and/or make available materials that describe the certification and examination process and requirements for application; to maintain a registry of those individuals who have received certification and/or passed the examination; to manage the process of re-certification; and to work in multiple arenas to promote and improve the role of CPMs in the delivery of maternity care to women and their newborns.
The credential is . . . .
The CPM Credential
The Certified Professional Midwife credential, issued by NARM, is accredited by the National Commission for Certifying Agencies (NCCA), the accrediting body of the Institute for Credentialing Excellence (ICE, formerly NOCA). The mission of ICE is to promote excellence in credentialing for practitioners in all occupations and professions. The NCCA accredits many healthcare credentials, including the Certified Nurse-Midwife. NCCA encourages their accredited certification programs to have an education evaluation process so candidates who have been educated outside of established pathways may have their qualifications evaluated for credentialing. The NARM Portfolio Evaluation Process (PEP) meets this recommendation. The CPM is the only NCCA-accredited midwifery credential that includes a requirement for out-of-hospital experience.
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