The North American Registry of Midwives (NARM) is an international certification agency whose mission is to establish and administer certification for the credential "Certified Professional Midwife" (CPM). CPM certification validates entry-level knowledge, skills, and experience vital to responsible midwifery practice. This international certification process encompasses multiple educational routes of entry including apprenticeship, self-study, private midwifery schools, college- and university- based midwifery programs, and nurse-midwifery. Created in 1987 by the Midwives' Alliance of North America (MANA), NARM is committed to identifying standards and practices that reflect the excellence and diversity of the independent midwifery community in order to set the standard for North American midwifery.
NARM affirms that skilled and responsible midwives should be readily available to all families in North America. NARM affirms the autonomy of the independent midwife, the critical importance of her role as guardian of normal birth, and the value of her compassionate, skilled, and woman-centered care. NARM affirms a woman's right to choose her birth attendants and place of birth and to involve those she identifies as her family in the bonding of the birth experience. NARM affirms the safety and viability of planned, midwife-attended birth at home, in hospitals, and in freestanding birth centers.
Certification shall not be construed as defining midwifery in its entirety. NARM acknowledges that midwifery encompasses attributes that defy measurement. NARM intends CPM certification to sanction and build a foundation to support midwives' work while recognizing that their individuality of practice best reflects the needs of the communities they serve. Through CPM certification, NARM seeks to advance the midwifery model of care, to facilitate its integration as a vital component of the health care system, to ensure its wide availability to pregnant women and their families, and to preserve their freedom of choice.
In response to numerous state initiatives that call for the legalization of midwifery practice and the increased utilization of midwives as maternity care providers, midwives across the United States have come together to define and establish standards for international certification. The North American Registry of Midwives (NARM), the Midwives' Alliance of North America (MANA), and the Midwifery Education and Accreditation Council (MEAC) have joined together to create this internationally accepted direct-entry midwifery credential to preserve the unique, woman-centered forms of practice that are common to midwives attending out-of-hospital births.
These guidelines for certification approval have been developed with reference to national certifying standards formulated by the National Organization for Competency Assurance (NOCA). NARM has received psychometric technical assistance from Mary Ellen Sullivan, testing consultant; the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation Psychometric Research Unit: the Minnesota Board of Medical Practice; and Schroeder Measurement Technologies, Inc.