The Datum Report

Occupation 2231 · Professional occupations

Midwifery nurses

Half of full-time midwifery nurses in the UK earn more than £46,990 a year, and half earn less.

Midwifery nurses deliver, or assist in the delivery of babies, provide antenatal and postnatal care and advise parents on baby care. They work with other healthcare professionals and advise on and teach midwifery practice.

How people enter it

A degree in midwifery is essential. Registered nurses can do a 12-18 month shortened course but graduates from other disciplines must undertake the full three or four year degree programme. Entry to midwifery training without a degree or HND is also possible. Applicants must have a minimum of five GCSEs (or equivalent) and at least two A-levels (or equivalent) for degree programmes.

What the work involves

• monitors condition and progress of patient and baby throughout pregnancy
• delivers babies in normal births and assists doctors with difficult deliveries
• monitors recovery of mother in postnatal period and supervises the nursing of premature and other babies requiring special attention
• advises on baby care, exercise, diet and family planning issues
• supervises more junior staff and directs the work of the midwifery unit
• plans and manages midwifery care services
• delivers lectures and other forms of training in midwifery practice

Also called

Delivery suite manager · Midwife · Midwifery manager

What it pays

How pay has changed

Median gross annual pay for midwifery nurses, full-time employees, 2023 to 2025. Each point is that year's ASHE April snapshot as published — revisions are not backfilled into earlier years, and a year ONS withheld is a gap rather than a joined line.

ONS, ASHE Table 14 - occupation by four-digit SOC (national). Table

Year-on-year change

The change from each year to the next, in per cent, computed from the figures in the chart above — so the two cannot disagree.

ONS, ASHE Table 14 - occupation by four-digit SOC (national). Table

Pay by region

Median gross annual pay for full-time employees, ranked, against the UK figure. 10 of 11 regions are published: ONS withholds a cell where the survey sample cannot support it, and those are shown as gaps rather than dropped — an absent region is not a region without the work in it.

ONS, ASHE Table 14 - occupation by four-digit SOC (national). Period 2025. Table

Every regional figure

ONS does not publish occupational pay below region. Cells the survey could not support are shown as withheld, with its reason — adding a region split to a specific occupation leaves roughly a tenth of cells publishable.

Common questions

Classified alongside this

Other registered nursing professionals · Registered children's nurses · Registered community nurses · Registered mental health nurses · Registered nurse practitioners · Registered specialist nurses