In order to join the GEM Midwifery Academy, you must first complete a doula training program (either from GEM or from another organization) and also you must take GEM's Intro to Midwifery Course as a pre-requisite to joining the academy. Once you have completed those two things, then you can fill out the GEM Midwife Academy application and schedule an interview with the Academy Director, Jana, for a one-on-one video call to make sure GEM is indeed the right fit for you!
Yes & No...
YES, GEM Midwifery Academy IS a valid self-study educational program to obtain the Certified Professional Midwife credential through the "PEP" process with the North American Registry of Midwives (NARM).
However, GEM Midwifery Academy is NOT a "MEAC" Accredited program. Therefore, depending on the laws of the state or country you intend to practice in, the GEM Midwife Program may not qualify as a valid educational program.
Therefore, you need to first learn about the midwifery laws of your region before proceeding!
Yes, if you are wanting to grow your knowledge in birth work and be a part of the community, you are welcome to do so even if you do not plan to complete or obtain a midwife credential for professional practice.
Yes, the GEM Academy curriculum is a self-study program that can be completed from anywhere in the world. If outside the US, we recommend you complete the International Registry of the Midwife (IRM) requirements to become a certified international midwife (CIM).
When you join the GEM Midwifery Academy, you will get access to the GEM Midwifery Academy cirriculum via an online platform called Thinkific. You will also get access to a bi-weekly live class call on Zoom with fellow students and a teacher midwife, as well as being added to a GEM Midwife Student WhatsApp chat group to interact with student peers and midwife teachers continuously, and lastly you will have access to digital midiwfery texts and a medical research database for study and reference.
The GEM Midwifery Academy is designed as a 2-year academic self-study program, however, you will be able to complete assignments faster or slower based on your capacity and ability to do so at the pace you want. Importantly in most cases, when a student is simultaneously working in apprenticeship with a practicing midwife, it is normal for completion of both academic and practical apprenticeship together to take 3-5 years (and at maximum 10 years if choosing a slow pace) to complete in order to receive midwifery certification! (Practical apprenticeship must be completed in conjunction with academic studies whether during, after, or in some cases before academic studies)
**Few women are able to complete both academic and practical apprenticeship portions of midwifery study in 2 years or less, BUT it is "possible" if you are able to commit 100% of your time (like a single woman without kids and not working another job!) to midwifery study and work with a busy midwife doing 5-10 births per month or more…OR if you are already starting out with significant previous midwifery knowledge and birth experience from another profession and work with a busy midwife!**
The GEM Midwifery Academy is a monthly membership subscription model that costs $100 per month.
Automatic online payments via debit or credit card. The program is a subscription model and works as a month-per-month payment until you finish the academic assignments
*You may complete all assignments long before completing apprenticeship, in which case you will no longer need to pay GEM membership and you can continue completing PEP paperwork and learning through apprenticeship only until completion. However, GEM will provide a chat group for GEM Midwifery Academy graduates who want to continue to have peer & GEM Midwife communication even after completing all academic work!
Yes, you need to first subscribe and pay to get access to the cirriculum platfom to start lessons. You will not have access to subscribe to the academy until you have complete pre-requisites, applied, interviewed, and been accepted into the Midwife program.
Yes, you can pause your subscription at any point and then re-enroll in GEM Academy when the timing is best for you.
Grading is competency-based, one-on-one check-ins with Jana via Zoom call where she reviews your assignments and asks you important questions from each topic to verify that you have gained and retained the knowledge from each assignment.
The GEM Midwifery Academy program is broken down into eight 12-week quarters over the course of the two years. Each module consists of twelve assignments intended to each take one week to complete. You can go at your own pace, meaning you may go slower [completing one assignment in 2 weeks or more], or faster [completing two assignments in 1 week or less]. There are completion check-ins with a midwife after every completed course module and a bi-weekly group video call where you can ask questions as you go along.
We encourage all GEM students to start as doulas to start learning through real birth expriences. Doula work is extreeeeemely valuable in preparing you as a midwife! The first phase of your clinical practice paperwork is 10 births in any role, which means attending a birth as a sister, mom, friend, DOULA, or anything else, counts! So doula-ing is the best place to start.
*If* you have already been a doula for 10 or many more births, and desire to pursue midwifery, then you are ready to start the GEM Midwifery Academy.
First of all, the Certified Professional Midwife (CPM) credential is not a license but a certification from the North American Registry of Midwives (NARM), which is a private midwifery credentialing business located in Tennessee, USA. NARM is not government run and does not "regulate" midwives! Rather it is an organization that was started by homebirth midwives in the 1990’s to create a standardized process for qualifying out-of-hospital midwife training and credentialing that has now become generally accepted as the standard in the USA.
Now, separately from midwife certification, some states have created midwife licensure which can be obtained by completing individual state requirements, which is state government managed. In some states, the CPM certification is all that is required to obtain Midwife Licensure with the state by some kind of registration process with the state. In other states there are other requirements in addition to CPM certification and in some cases midwifery licensure can be obtained even without a CPM certification by completing other requirements. It just depends on each individual state's laws. In some states midwifery is still illegal and there is no pathway to licensure nor legal practice within the state for professional out-of-hospital midwifery EVEN if you were to obtain the CPM certifiction credential.... although in those states usually nurse-midwives, family physicians, or obstetricians may practice homebirth legally if they choose to.
I explain more about state laws and requirements for midwives in the GEM Intro to Midwifery Course.
When you finish all modules of the GEM Midwifery Academy program, you will receive a certificate of completion of GEM Midwifery Education. However, in order to recieve your Midwifery Certification and Credential as a Certified Professional Midwife (CPM) you must ALSO complete midwifery apprenticeship paperwork process through the certifying organizations of NARM or IRM in order to qualify for testing. After you pass the exam, the midwifery certification and midwife credential is awarded by NARM or IRM directly.
In many cases, after completing your midwifery training and gaining the CPM and/or CIM credential, women will start their own private practice midwifery business. Alternatively, in some regions where midwifery care is more popular, particularly in bigger cities, you may be able to get a job working for another midwife in her homebirth practice OR get a job at a local free-standing (out-of-hospital) birthing center that hires certified professional midwives (*some birth centers only hire certified nurse midwives).
