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:
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
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
The project's dedicated midwife, Adele Martin - having built up trust with pregnant mothers - is the one who has to step in.
From BBC ● Oct. 6, 2026
She was a midwife entirely by the power of her own say-so, which was more than enough.
From "Educated" by Tara Westover
"The person I trained with trains medics, so it's not just non-medic doing these trainings. There's doctors, nurses, midwives, they are all actually doing the same training as well."
From BBC ● Nov. 1, 2026
“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 trust says 16 newly appointed midwives are due to start between November 2026 and January 2027.
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
Her mother, an anthropologist, is doing fieldwork on midwives in Thailand.
From "The Namesake" by Jhumpa Lahiri
The actually existing Mets were also midwifed by Gotham honchos.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 27, 2026
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
The sense of shared national endeavor that midwifed the Writers Project feels like a relic from another millennium.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 6, 2020
And he midwifed the most important alliance in American history.
From Slate ● Oct. 2, 2017
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
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.
