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:
On a spring afternoon in Wangaratta, nobody seemed to have a bad word to say about the former nurse and midwife turned politician.
From BBC ● Oct. 21, 2026
Former nurse and midwife Helen Haines entered parliament in 2019, earning respect across the political divide for her efforts to stamp out corruption and bolster transparency.
From Barron's ● Oct. 20, 2026
She grew up in the south west of Victoria on a dairy farm with four brothers before training as a nurse and a midwife, according to a biography on her website.
From BBC ● 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
On the next birth, she used the bulk of her fee to hire a second midwife, to supervise her.
From "Educated" by Tara Westover
“Cárdenas was, in a real sense, one of the midwives of Mexico’s democratic transition,” said Kathleen Bruhn, a political science professor specializing in Mexico at the University of California.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 29, 2026
The number of midwives employed in the acute maternity units at Daisy Hill and Craigavon has fallen since October 2019.
From BBC ● Oct. 27, 2026
The trust says the way midwifery care is delivered has changed, with more midwives now working in the community.
From BBC ● Oct. 27, 2026
Because she required specialist care, midwives at Daisy Hill in Newry wanted to send Natasha Daryaie to Craigavon Area Hospital but were told there was no room.
From BBC ● Oct. 27, 2026
For the sugar-dusted twin midwives of her dream.
From "The God of Small Things" by Arundhati Roy
The actually existing Mets were also midwifed by Gotham honchos.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 27, 2026
L.A. didn’t just invent noir; it midwifed speculative fiction.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 11, 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
Even so, especially at moments of great change, it needs to be midwifed.
From New York Times ● Sep. 11, 2020
Unable to reach his sons, Dad called Rob and Diane Hardy, because Mother had midwifed five of their eight children.
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
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
