midwife

American  

[mid-wahyf] / ˈmɪdˌwaɪf /

noun

• midwives
  plural

1. a person trained to assist women in childbirth.

2. a person or thing that produces or aids in producing something new or different.

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verb (used with object)

midwifed, midwived, midwifing, midwiving

1. to assist in the birth of (a baby).

2. to produce or aid in producing (something new).

   to midwife a new generation of computers.

midwife British  

/ ˈmɪdˌwaɪf /

noun

1. a person qualified to deliver babies and to care for women before, during, and after childbirth

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• midwives
  plural

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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)

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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."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

midwife midwives midwifed midwifing midwived

Haines entered parliament in 2019 after working as a nurse and midwife, becoming known for stances such as supporting stronger climate action.

From Barron's ● Oct. 19, 2026

"Recently, the pollution in Dili has been very severe," 30-year-old midwife Sonya da Costa Soares told AFP.

From Barron's ● Oct. 15, 2026

Anyone who is concerned should contact their midwife first or call the dedicated maternity information line on 028 3756 1325 which will be open between 14:00 BST and 17:00 on Monday to Friday.

From BBC ● Sep. 21, 2026

Holly Hawkesford is a midwife at Warwick Hospital and her son, Jasper, died seven hours after he was born in 2014.

From BBC ● Sep. 15, 2026

She was a midwife’s apprentice with a newborn hope of being someday a midwife herself.

From "The Midwife's Apprentice" by Karen Cushman

Julie said that bereavement midwives offered "good, compassionate care" for parents going through the review process, as well as those who return for subsequent pregnancies which can often be traumatising.

From BBC ● Oct. 13, 2026

She was immediately referred to the specialist FGM Clinic, run by midwives at Birmingham Women's Hospital.

From BBC ● Sep. 17, 2026

They have become friends with nurses and midwives at the special care baby unit who looked after Penny as well as them, after the loss of Bella.

From BBC ● Sep. 15, 2026

Ms Richards said: "Our midwives are stretched, and quite often that is often impacted into the postnatal care, into the community settings."

From BBC ● Sep. 7, 2026

Some of the midwives told her not to, but she likes to work so she went anyway.

From "Facing the Lion" by Joseph Lemasolai Lekuton and Herman Viola

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

"It's not going to stop with Black studies, it will continue to all the other subjects and knowledges that are midwifed and have been midwifed by Black studies."

From Salon ● Mar. 31, 2023

Spun off from Jemisin’s 2016 short story “The City Born Great,” the novel figures cities as living, sentient organisms that are “born” into human avatars, midwifed by the previous city to be delivered into sentience.

From New York Times ● Mar. 24, 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

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

Along with the classic documentary “Style Wars,” which Chalfant co-produced, “Subway Art” helped disseminate graffiti culture worldwide, midwifing local communities and cementing the style, slang, technique and mores of the New York scene.

From Washington Post ● Jan. 14, 2016

Mother charged about five hundred dollars for a delivery, and this was another way midwifing changed her: suddenly she had money.

From "Educated" by Tara Westover

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

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