1
: a person who assists women in childbirth compare nurse-midwife
2
: one that helps to produce or bring forth something
… thou art the midwife to my woe …—
William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare
midwifed
ˈmid-ˌwīft 
or midwived
ˈmid-ˌwīvd
; midwifing
ˈmid-ˌwī-fiŋ
or midwiving
ˈmid-ˌwī-viŋ
or midwived
ˈmid-ˌwīvd
; midwifing
ˈmid-ˌwī-fiŋ
or midwiving
ˈmid-ˌwī-viŋ
: to assist in producing, bringing forth, or bringing about
The month has midwifed all manner of creative genius …—Steve Rushin
Steve RushinExamples of midwife in a Sentence
Noun
a trained and certified midwife
Recent Examples on the Web
Sacbee.com, 14 Oct. 2025
Pharmacists, midwives and other health professionals at the Kaiser hospitals would participate in the strike.
—Grant Stringer, Mercury News, 14 Oct. 2025
Andreas Kluth, Mercury News, 26 Sep. 2025
At the summit, Putin also sought to revive the Russia-India-China trilateral forum, that, in an earlier era, helped midwife BRICS and the SCO and gave China, India, and Russia an arena to coordinate on multilateralism and trade.
—Shyam Saran, Time, 10 Sep. 2025
See All Example Sentences for midwife
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Noun
Anesthetists, midwives and other health care workers picketed outside Kaiser Permanente’s hospital in Roseville, Tuesday morning, joining a smattering of union chapters in California, Oregon and Hawaii in a five-day strike.
—Sacbee.com, 14 Oct. 2025
Pharmacists, midwives and other health professionals at the Kaiser hospitals would participate in the strike.
—Grant Stringer, Mercury News, 14 Oct. 2025
Verb
But the American leaders who midwifed the UN as World War II was still raging were somber realists, not utopians.
—Andreas Kluth, Mercury News, 26 Sep. 2025
At the summit, Putin also sought to revive the Russia-India-China trilateral forum, that, in an earlier era, helped midwife BRICS and the SCO and gave China, India, and Russia an arena to coordinate on multilateralism and trade.
—Shyam Saran, Time, 10 Sep. 2025
See All Example Sentences for midwife
Cite this Entry
“Midwife.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/midwife. Accessed 6 Nov. 2025.
Copy CitationMedical Definition
midwife
noun
mid·wife
ˈmid-ˌwīf
: a person who assists women in childbirth see nurse-midwife
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