Loyola University New Orleans Highlights Nurse-Midwifery Program During National Midwifery Week

WGNO's Moving New Orleans Forward visits Loyola to explore how the university is preparing nurse-midwives to help improve maternal health in Louisiana

As National Midwifery Week shines a spotlight on the role midwives play in improving care for mothers and babies, Loyola University New Orleans is helping prepare the next generation of nurse-midwives to serve families across Louisiana and beyond.

WGNO's Moving New Orleans Forward recently visited Loyola's College of Nursing and Health to learn more about the university's Master of Science in Nursing Nurse-Midwifery program and the growing need for highly trained maternal health providers.

Loyola launched its nurse-midwifery program in 2023 in response to a shortage of educational opportunities for aspiring nurse-midwives in Louisiana and throughout the South. The program prepares registered nurses to become certified nurse-midwives, advanced practice providers who care for patients across the lifespan, including during pregnancy, childbirth and the postpartum period.

"We started the program in 2023, really because there were no and very, very few nurse midwifery programs in the southern United States," Michelle "Shelli" Collins, Ph.D., CNM, dean of Loyola's College of Nursing and Health, told WGNO.

For Collins, who is herself a practicing certified nurse-midwife, expanding access to nurse-midwifery education is about much more than creating a new academic program. It is part of Loyola's effort to help address serious maternal health challenges facing Louisiana.

"There's a crisis in our country in maternal child health," Collins told WGNO. "Particularly in our state, we're one of the worst states for outcomes for healthy moms and healthy babies. We have to fix that and this is one way that we can raise awareness to how we can address that."

Lillian Funke, MSN, MPH, APRN, CNM, director of Loyola's Nurse-Midwifery Program and a practicing certified nurse-midwife, explained that the profession extends beyond the care many people traditionally associate with midwives.

"Mostly what people think about in midwifery is childbearing. Pregnancy, having that baby, post-partum care," Funke told WGNO. Nurse-midwives, however, are advanced practice clinicians prepared to independently provide a broad range of health care services while collaborating with physicians when patients require medical intervention.

That model can be especially important in communities where access to maternal health care is limited.

Loyola's program combines advanced nursing education with the university's Jesuit commitment to caring for the whole person. Students gain the clinical knowledge and experience necessary to become advanced practice providers while preparing to meet patients with compassion, respect and an understanding of the communities they serve.

The program has already begun making an impact. Loyola celebrated an important milestone in 2024 when a student in the new program attended the first birth of her clinical training under the supervision of a certified nurse-midwife preceptor. The university subsequently established a scholarship honoring the baby, symbolizing the connection between the families Loyola's students serve today and the future of maternal health care in Louisiana.

Collins continues to practice clinically as an advanced practice registered nurse and certified nurse-midwife, attending births at Ochsner Baptist Hospital in New Orleans. Funke also maintains an active clinical practice in New Orleans, bringing current patient-care experience directly into Loyola's classrooms and curriculum.

For Loyola, National Midwifery Week is an opportunity both to celebrate the profession and to call attention to the work still ahead.

By educating more nurse-midwives and preparing them to serve communities throughout Louisiana, Loyola aims to help expand access to high-quality maternal care and contribute to healthier futures for mothers, babies and families across the state.

Watch the WGNO Moving New Orleans Forward segment:
National Midwifery Week at Loyola University New Orleans

Learn more about Loyola's MSN Nurse-Midwifery program:
Visit Loyola University New Orleans' College of Nursing and Health.