Education

Fetal Heart Monitoring for Out-of-Hospital Midwives (3 hours, $60)

Midwives in the state of Utah must complete at least 2 hours of CEUs on fetal heart monitoring every 2 years in order to renew their license. Many midwives struggle to apply fetal monitoring standards and guidelines to their out-of-hospital practice because the guidelines were designed for continuous electronic fetal monitoring. This course was developed by Suzanne Smith, MSM, CPM, LDEM to enable midwives to adequately monitor babies and follow the NICHD guidelines outside the hospital setting. We have received many requests to continue offering this course, therefore Innate Midwifery is now doing so online so midwives and students can take it at their convenience.

This course is designed to teach midwives and students to effectively monitor the fetal heart using intermittent auscultation in the out-of-hospital setting.  Make sure you’re up-to-date with current terminology and guidelines, your documentation is defensible and your babies are safe!  As part of this program you will be granted access to a free, online tool to record the fetal heart monitoring you do at the labors you attend.

Upon completion of this course, you will receive 3 credit hours (0.3 CEUs) approved by the Midwives Education Accreditation Council (MEAC), which are acceptable for NARM recertification.  This program also meets the requirements for 2 contact hours of continuing education in Fetal Heart Monitoring required to renew licensure as a Direct-Entry Midwife in the state of Utah.

Course Objectives

After taking this course, you will be able to:

  • State what year the current NICHD guidelines were adopted for fetal heart monitoring.

  • Identify and state defining criteria for all relevant NICHD terminology and fetal monitoring guidelines, including:  baseline, amplitude, variability, variability types, sinusoidal pattern, acceleration, early/late/variable deceleration, prolonged acceleration/deceleration, baseline change, tachysystole, bradycardia, tachycardia, periodic, episodic, abrupt, gradual, intermittent, recurrent, artifact, Category I, II, and III strips

  • List at least five intrauterine resuscitation measures

  • Describe how to mentally record the data necessary to adequately monitor the fetal heart using a handheld doppler, and demonstrate how to use a free publicly available fetal heart monitoring tool designed for midwives to record this data in the client’s medical record.

Start The Program

The fee for this course is $60.  Once you have registered for the course and completed the payment (through Venmo @innatemidwifery), we will email you the links to the video lecture, handout, fetal heart monitoring tool, and the post-test within 24 business hours.  You have 2 weeks from the date the links are sent to you to complete the course.  You will receive a certificate within 24 business hours once you have successfully completed the course. Registration fees are not refundable, even if you do not finish the course.

This course is MEAC accredited.

Midwifery Student Placement

Innate Midwifery is a clinical training site, therefore we are committed to helping you acquire clinical skills. Our preceptors have trained more than a hundred students so you know you can count on knowledgeable professionals to guide you through your clinical internship. We work with a wide variety of students, some may be attending MEAC accredited schools or some other midwifery programs, while others may be getting their academic education by going through the PEP process.

We follow a traditional apprenticeship model so we usually have two students working with us at any given time. One student is in the assistant under supervision (AUS) phase while one is in the primary under supervision (PUS) phase of their education. Because we value continuity of care, we do not offer placement directly in the PUS phase. All students begin with us in the AUS phase and upon successful completion may be invited to continue to the PUS phase.

During their apprenticeship period with us, we expect our students to be fully dedicated to our practice and therefore don’t anticipate students to have time to work or attend births with other preceptors. Students are expected to attend assigned clinic days, as well as all births. This means you will be on call 24/7 during your apprenticeship.

If you feel ready to take on this serious commitment and would like more information about pursuing an apprenticeship with us, feel free to email a letter of intent and your resume to innatemidwifery@gmail.com