midwife
Americannoun
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midwives
plural
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a person trained to assist women in childbirth.
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a person or thing that produces or aids in producing something new or different.
verb (used with object)
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to assist in the birth of (a baby).
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to produce or aid in producing (something new).
to midwife a new generation of computers.
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of midwife
First recorded in 1250–1300; Middle English midwif, from mid “with, accompanying” ( Old English; see also meta-) + wif “woman” ( Old English wīf; see wife)
Explanation
A midwife is someone whose job involves helping women give birth to babies. Some pregnant women get their prenatal care from a midwife, as well as delivering their babies with a midwife's help. There are different categories of midwives — lay midwives attend home births, and nurse midwives also assist birthing women at hospitals and birth centers. In either case, a midwife is trained to understand the process of birth and techniques to make it easier and safe for mothers and newborn babies. Midwife literally means "woman who is with," or "woman assisting," from the Middle English mid, "with," and wif, "woman."
Vocabulary lists containing midwife
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Woodley’s work was informed by a cousin who’s a midwife, friends who are parents and a few births she’s attended.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 18, 2026
The nearest health centre was a long journey away, so Quiñonez's mother, a midwife, tried to ease the baby's pain with medicinal plants.
From BBC ● Aug. 4, 2026
The wider review into maternity failings in Nottingham began in September 2022, and was led by senior midwife Donna Ockenden.
From BBC ● Jul. 20, 2026
To better understand why some populations recover while others continue to collapse, researchers studied common midwife toads living around four lakes in the Pyrenees of France and Spain that had all experienced severe Bd outbreaks.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 15, 2026
“There is a midwife in the village some walk down that road. I will point your man the way,” said Jennet.
From "The Midwife's Apprentice" by Karen Cushman
"On the other, we are seeing newly qualified midwives facing uncertainty about their future employment. That simply does not add up."
From BBC ● Jun. 27, 2026
Edward Errington-Rozkalns, known as Teddy, died in November 2020 after "undoubted failings" led to midwives failing to monitor his blood sugar levels before sending him home.
From BBC ● Jun. 24, 2026
Many of the delegates are set to march on Saturday in Lisbon for the "One Million More" campaign, drawing attention to a global shortage of midwives.
From Barron's ● Jun. 12, 2026
Two delegates from the Bangladesh Midwifery Society, who convinced their government to hire 5,000 extra midwives, were also rejected.
From Barron's ● Jun. 12, 2026
The day the baby was born, I spied, in the dead of night, midwives, under a cloak of great secrecy, digging small holes near the house.
From "Kaffir Boy: An Autobiography" by Mark Mathabane
The actually existing Mets were also midwifed by Gotham honchos.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 27, 2026
He midwifed the country’s first farm labor bill, and was decades ahead of his time on renewable energy and climate change.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 15, 2023
The new country was cheered on in 2011 by the American diplomats who had midwifed its delivery and the Hollywood celebrities who championed its cause.
From New York Times ● Feb. 3, 2023
Nonetheless, it was born in the shadows, midwifed by people who feared for their social position and economic well-being.
From Salon ● Oct. 17, 2020
That winter, she midwifed two babies that I remember.
From "Educated" by Tara Westover
“There is lots to be proud of, including midwifing ten new plays by women playwrights from Los Angeles, into the American theatre through our Writers Workshop,” he wrote.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 2, 2022
In this new place, she's midwifing a future.
From Salon ● Dec. 19, 2021
And James will ironically be in the position of midwifing the next phase of America’s gun movement.
From Slate ● Sep. 3, 2020
However, Campbell is also sharply scrutinized for his role in midwifing and unleashing Dianetics.
From Nature ● Oct. 9, 2018
Bateson knew that he was witnessing, or, rather, midwifing, the birth of a profound revolution in biology.
From "The Gene" by Siddhartha Mukherjee
Langhorne was midwived in a Bethesda hospital, the middle of three sons to a father who ran a concrete company.
From Washington Post ● Oct. 5, 2015
I pretend neither to the spirit of prophecy, nor to any uncommon skill in predicting a crisis; much less to tell when it begins to be nascent, or is fairly midwived into the world.
From James Otis, the pre-revolutionist by John Clark Ridpath
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
