You will hear different, sometimes contradictory things about whether midwives are needed. Both can be true at the same time, just not in the same place.

Much of what is reported as a “midwife shortage” is demand-driven: hospitals and care settings reporting they cannot fill open positions, a pattern widely reported in the early 2020s. The WHO also calculates a separate, much larger shortage figure, but that number is based on a scenario where midwives work as primary care providers using their full scope of practice, which is often not the reality in a given country. So a global shortage figure does not automatically mean there is one where you are.

What actually matters locally depends on birth rates, health policy, funding, and how much of their scope of practice midwives are allowed to use there, and this can shift quickly, even within the same country. In some places, graduates currently face more competition than open positions.

If that is the case where you are: competition is higher, the hiring process can be more selective, and finding a specific niche or being open to a wider range of settings becomes more important. The Field Scan in this module is there to help you find out what the situation actually looks like, rather than relying on a general answer.