How we verify

Midwife & Birth Center Index is compiled from public records, not from who paid to be listed.

Sources

• NPPES NPI Registry (CMS) — The federal registry of National Provider Identifiers; the monthly bulk file and weekly updates are our only listing source.
• American College of Nurse-Midwives: the CNM and CM credentials — Education, certification and scope of certified nurse-midwives and certified midwives.
• North American Registry of Midwives: CPM certification — How the Certified Professional Midwife credential is earned and renewed.
• Commission for the Accreditation of Birth Centers — Accredits freestanding birth centers and publishes a search of accredited centers.
• American Association of Birth Centers: what is a birth center — The birth center model of care.
• Medicaid.gov: mandatory and optional benefits — Nurse-midwife services and licensed freestanding birth center services are mandatory Medicaid benefits.

We read the NPPES monthly bulk file, plus CMS's weekly updates, and keep active NPIs whose primary taxonomy is Clinic/Center, Birthing (261QB0400X), Midwife (176B00000X), Advanced Practice Midwife (367A00000X) or Doula (374J00000X), in the United States and its territories.

Doulas are listed as organizations only: individual doulas often register a home address, so we leave them out. Birth centers are organizations only. Individual midwives are listed at the practice location they gave NPPES.

Records whose NPI was last updated before 2013 are left out as dormant. Organizations with the same name, address and ZIP are merged into one listing, even across specialties, with the other NPIs shown as a fact.

Credentials are what each provider typed into NPPES. We tidy the spelling (APRN-CNM becomes APRN, CNM) but do not check them. The CNM and CPM/LM groups are based on the registered specialty and those self-reported credentials. A license number and state are shown when the provider entered them; NPPES does not check them against the state, so we label them "on NPI record". We do not show birth center licensing or accreditation, because no national file of either exists.

The "listings at this street address" fact counts listings on this site whose NPI record gives the same street address and ZIP. Other practice locations come from the NPPES secondary practice location file.

We do not publish ratings, reviews, prices or outcomes, and we never infer anything about a provider's license from the absence of a number. Order within a city: birth centers first, then practices and doula organizations, then midwives with a license number on record, then the most recently updated NPI records, then alphabetical. This is not a ranking of quality. Featured listings appear in a separate, labelled box and never change that order.

What a badge means

NPI active: the federal NPPES registry lists an active NPI with Clinic/Center, Birthing, Midwife, Advanced Practice Midwife or (organizations only) Doula as the primary registered specialty. Specialties and credentials are self-reported, so this is not a license check or accreditation. We only publish positive matches. A listing without a badge is not an accusation — most gaps are name variations between registries.

Freshness

Data was last refreshed on 2026-10-16. CMS publishes the full NPPES file every month and weekly update files in between; we apply both every week, so listings are at most about a week behind, and every page shows the date of the data.

Corrections

Email sabrsystemssoftware@gmail.com or claim your listing on the for-business page. We fix verified errors within two business days.