Glossary
Nurse Midwife Terms & Vocabulary
15 essential nurse midwife terms with plain-English definitions: the vocabulary you’ll hear in training and on day one.
Key nurse midwife vocabulary
These 15 terms come up constantly in nurse midwife training, on the job and in interviews. Knowing them helps you follow instructions, document accurately and sound prepared.
- AMCB
- American Midwifery Certification Board.
- Apgar score
- Newborn assessment at birth.
- Birth center
- A non-hospital birth facility.
- CNM
- Certified nurse-midwife.
- Consultation
- Seeking a physician’s input.
- Dilation
- Opening of the cervix.
- Doula
- A nonmedical birth support person.
- Effacement
- Thinning of the cervix.
- Fetal heart tones
- The baby’s heart rate.
- Gestational age
- Weeks of pregnancy.
- Lactation
- Breastfeeding.
- Postpartum
- After birth.
- Postpartum hemorrhage
- Heavy bleeding after birth.
- Prenatal care
- Care during pregnancy.
- Shoulder dystocia
- A baby’s shoulder stuck during birth.
Practice these terms
Test yourself with the free Nurse Midwife practice test: it includes vocabulary questions built from this list. For a complete course, see Nurse Midwife training.
Browse terms from every career in our career glossary.