Illinois recognizes two distinct types of licensed midwives, each with its own education path, certification process, and scope of practice. The route you choose depends on whether you want to work in hospitals and clinics or focus on out-of-hospital birth settings like homes and birth centers. Both paths require formal education, national certification, and licensure through the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation (IDFPR).
Two Paths: CNM vs. LCPM
The first path is the Certified Nurse-Midwife (CNM). CNMs are advanced practice registered nurses who can work in hospitals, birth centers, clinics, and home settings. They have prescriptive authority and provide a full range of reproductive and primary care. This is the more established route and requires a nursing degree before you begin midwifery training.
The second path is the Licensed Certified Professional Midwife (LCPM). Illinois signed the Licensed Certified Professional Midwife Practice Act into law on October 1, 2022, making this a relatively new option in the state. LCPMs practice exclusively in out-of-hospital settings and focus on physiologic birth. The practice of midwifery under this license does not include the practice of medicine or nursing, so LCPMs do not prescribe medications or perform surgical procedures.
Becoming a Certified Nurse-Midwife
The CNM path starts with becoming a registered nurse. You’ll need a Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) at minimum, followed by a graduate-level midwifery program accredited by the Accreditation Commission for Midwifery Education (ACME). Most programs today award a Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) or a Master of Science in Nursing (MSN).
The University of Illinois Chicago offers an ACME-accredited nurse-midwifery program available at three campuses: Chicago, Rockford, and Urbana. Graduates are academically eligible to sit for the national certification exam administered by the American Midwifery Certification Board (AMCB). Illinois requires current AMCB certification for licensure as an advanced practice registered nurse in the nurse-midwifery specialty. If you already hold a master’s degree in another nursing specialty, a post-master’s certificate program can qualify you as well.
The typical timeline from start to finish looks like this: four years for a BSN, one to two years of clinical nursing experience (most programs expect some bedside work before admission), and two to three years for a graduate midwifery program. All told, you’re looking at roughly seven to nine years of education and training if you’re starting from scratch.
Becoming a Licensed Certified Professional Midwife
The LCPM path does not require a nursing degree. Instead, you complete a postsecondary midwifery education program accredited by the Midwife Education and Accreditation Council (MEAC). These programs integrate academic coursework and clinical practice throughout the curriculum, including hands-on attendance at births in out-of-hospital settings. Programs typically take three to five years to complete, depending on whether you attend full-time or part-time.
After finishing a MEAC-accredited program, you take the certification exam through the North American Registry of Midwives (NARM) to earn the Certified Professional Midwife (CPM) credential. Illinois requires this national certification for LCPM licensure. The NARM exam tests clinical knowledge and judgment across prenatal, labor and birth, postpartum, and newborn care.
The Illinois Licensing Process
Both CNMs and LCPMs file their applications with IDFPR. For CNMs, you apply for an Advanced Practice Registered Nurse license with a nurse-midwifery specialty designation. You’ll submit proof of your graduate education, your current AMCB certification, and your active Illinois RN license.
For LCPMs, the application requires proof of completion of a MEAC-accredited program and your current CPM certification from NARM. You also need active certifications in cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and neonatal resuscitation, both of which must remain current throughout your career. The Illinois Midwifery Board, which includes five licensed certified professional midwives and one certified nurse-midwife who provides home birth services, oversees standards and licensing under this newer pathway.
Continuing Education and License Renewal
Illinois midwifery licenses renew on a two-year cycle. For LCPMs, starting with the 2028 renewal period, you must complete 20 hours of approved continuing education every two years. All 20 hours need to be finished in the 24 months before your license expires. If you’re renewing for the first time after initial licensure, you won’t need to meet continuing education requirements for that first cycle. You will, however, need to show active CPR and neonatal resuscitation certifications at every renewal.
CNMs follow the continuing education requirements set for advanced practice registered nurses in Illinois, which are separate from the LCPM rules. The AMCB also requires ongoing certification maintenance, so you’ll be meeting two sets of requirements simultaneously.
What Each License Allows You to Do
CNMs have the broadest scope of practice among midwives in Illinois. They manage pregnancies, attend births in any setting, provide gynecological care, prescribe medications, and order diagnostic tests. Many CNMs work in hospital labor and delivery units or OB-GYN practices, though some maintain home birth practices as well.
LCPMs are authorized to provide antepartum (prenatal), intrapartum (labor and birth), and postpartum care in out-of-hospital settings. During the initial prenatal visit, an LCPM takes your medical history, performs an exam, establishes your care record, and provides related services. LCPMs can also work alongside other healthcare professionals within their scope. They cannot prescribe medications or practice medicine or nursing. If complications arise during a birth, transfer to a hospital with a physician or CNM becomes necessary.
Choosing the Right Path
Your decision comes down to where and how you want to practice. If you’re drawn to hospital-based care, want prescriptive authority, and see yourself providing primary care beyond pregnancy, the CNM route is your path. It requires more years of education and a nursing foundation, but it opens the widest range of career options. CNMs work in private practices, hospitals, academic medical centers, community health clinics, and military facilities.
If your focus is on supporting physiologic birth in homes and birth centers, and you don’t want to go through nursing school first, the LCPM pathway offers a more direct route to that specific kind of practice. The 2022 law made Illinois one of a growing number of states that formally license CPMs, giving professional recognition and legal clarity to midwives working outside hospitals.
Both paths carry real professional weight. The key is matching the credential to the work you actually want to do, and then committing to the education and clinical training that credential requires.