Admissions: Frequently Asked Questions
A midwife is a primary health care provider who is legally licensed to give supervision, care and advice to clients during pregnancy, labour and the postpartum period, to conduct deliveries on their own and to care for the newborn child.
Midwives usually work in communitybased group practices. They attend births in hospitals, at client's homes, and in birth centres. They provide care throughout pregnancy, labour, birth and up to six weeks postpartum to the client and their baby.
No. Midwifery is an autonomous profession separate and distinct from nursing and medicine. While there are basic skills that are common to all three professions, midwifery has a unique scope of practice and model of care.
Midwifery students come from a wide variety of educational backgrounds. Many of them have received previous university undergraduate degrees while others have graduate degrees, college diplomas, or are mature students. Prospective students are strongly recommended to have completed a minimum of one year of university education.
Past experience may be taken into account during the selection process, but it is by no means a necessary requirement for acceptance into the Program. Applicants are assessed for those qualities that will enable the individual to become a good midwife. Places in the program have been offered to applicants from many different walks of life.
Please consult the Association of Ontario Midwives for more information.
With demand for midwives exceeding supply, there are many opportunities for graduates to fill positions in Ontario and other provinces in Canada. Once students complete the Program, they must write the Canadian Midwifery Registration Exam (CMRE) and then they are eligible to apply to the College of Midwives of Ontario for registration and are required to work in an established midwifery practice for one year. Toronto Metropolitan University graduates have successfully found positions in midwifery practices across Ontario and other parts of Canada.
The educational program is based on the following beliefs and values:
WE BELIEVE that midwifery has the potential to be one of the most important components of women’s health care in Ontario. Midwives’ expertise in the care of normal pregnancy and childbirth arises from their understanding of childbearing as a social, cultural and biological process and from their ability to competently exercise clinical skills and decision-making. Midwifery education must provide the base for sound professional practice.
WE BELIEVE that midwives are the best persons to teach the professional practice of midwifery. In addition WE BELIEVE that the educational program has a special responsibility to foster partnerships between midwives and other health care providers for the benefit of students and women who seek midwifery care.
WE BELIEVE the educational program is an integral part of the evolution of the profession of midwifery in Ontario and Canada. The program must help create future leaders and teachers. It must establish practice and teaching as a continuum so that learning environments become available across Ontario.
WE BELIEVE the educational program will best assure the acquisition of knowledge, skills and values, and foster critical thinking if the academic setting is respectful of students, is committed to scholarly enquiry and emphasized the lifelong ability to learn and change.
WE BELIEVE that accessible education, which is both flexible and culturally sensitive, requires high quality distance education.
WE BELIEVE that the collaborative model of program development and management described herein provides both a reflection of and a model for professional practice in the field of midwifery.
In addition to meeting the competitive academic requirements for the program, MEP applicants are required to submit the Midwifery Self-ID and Admissions Survey. The Survey is used to gather information on applicants' clinical placement region preferences and their desire to participate in the voluntary Equity Admissions Self-ID and/or Indigenous Admissions Processes. The Survey is due by February 1st and is access through an applicant's ChooseTMU Applicant Portal