New York Certified Nurse-Midwife license renewal and CE requirements

Summary

New York does not require continuing education for CNM license renewal, which happens every three years. A New York license is good for life, but a licensee must register periodically to practice or use the title. Midwifery registration runs in three year periods. The Department mails a renewal application about four months before the registration expires, and online renewal is available in the final five months of the period or up to four months after it ended. The cycle is keyed to the month of birth: the Office of the Professions states that the second registration after licensure, or after reactivation, is a transitional period that ends with the month prior to the date of birth, between two and three years from the first registration, which allows the Department to adjust the triennial registration cycle to coincide with the month of the date of birth. The fee and any continuing education for that transitional period are prorated. Thereafter registration periods are three years. A licensee not practicing in New York may register inactive at no charge instead. New York also mandates specific subjects. Pain management, palliative care and addiction course work or training: 3 hours every renewal cycle (prescribers licensed under Title 8 of the Education Law to treat humans who hold a DEA registration number to prescribe controlled substances, which reaches a midwife with prescriptive privilege and a DEA number but not one without).

New York Certified Nurse-Midwife renewal and continuing education rules

"Not stated" means the board's pages and rules we read do not address it. We do not fill in typical values.

New York sets no continuing education requirement for midwives. The Office of the Professions publishes a single list of the professions that have a continuing education requirement in New York, and midwifery is not on it. Nursing is not on it either, which is why the New York registered nurse and nurse practitioner records also carry no hour total. New York's two mandated trainings do not reach the midwife license: the infection control and barrier precautions training under Education Law 6505-b is scoped to athletic trainers, dentists, dental hygienists, licensed practical nurses, optometrists, podiatrists and registered nurses, and separately to physicians, physician assistants and specialist assistants under Public Health Law 239, and midwives appear in neither list; the child abuse identification and reporting training list likewise names registered nurses and nurse practitioners but not midwives. The one recurring education obligation that can reach a New York midwife comes from the Department of Health rather than the Education Department, and is scoped to prescribers who hold a DEA registration. It is recorded below. New York midwifery licensure requires a graduate degree from a program accredited by the Accreditation Commission for Midwifery Education or registered by the Department as licensure qualifying, and prescriptive privilege requires a three credit pharmacology course including instruction in drug management of midwifery clients and in New York State and federal prescription and record keeping law, but those are one time entry requirements rather than renewal continuing education. Certification by the American Midwifery Certification Board is not required for a New York midwife license and is not accepted in place of anything, so no AMCB figure appears here.

Required CE topics for New York certified nurse-midwifes

State-specific subject mandates. Where a mandate applies only to some licensees, the scope is listed.

Documentation and audit

Common questions

How many CE hours does a New York CNM need to renew?

New York does not require continuing education for CNM license renewal, which happens every three years. New York sets no continuing education requirement for midwives. The Office of the Professions publishes a single list of the professions that have a continuing education requirement in New York, and midwifery is not on it. Nursing is not on it either, which is why the New York registered nurse and nurse practitioner records also carry no hour total. New York's two mandated trainings do not reach the midwife license: the infection control and barrier precautions training under Education Law 6505-b is scoped to athletic trainers, dentists, dental hygienists, licensed practical nurses, optometrists, podiatrists and registered nurses, and separately to physicians, physician assistants and specialist assistants under Public Health Law 239, and midwives appear in neither list; the child abuse identification and reporting training list likewise names registered nurses and nurse practitioners but not midwives. The one recurring education obligation that can reach a New York midwife comes from the Department of Health rather than the Education Department, and is scoped to prescribers who hold a DEA registration. It is recorded below. New York midwifery licensure requires a graduate degree from a program accredited by the Accreditation Commission for Midwifery Education or registered by the Department as licensure qualifying, and prescriptive privilege requires a three credit pharmacology course including instruction in drug management of midwifery clients and in New York State and federal prescription and record keeping law, but those are one time entry requirements rather than renewal continuing education. Certification by the American Midwifery Certification Board is not required for a New York midwife license and is not accepted in place of anything, so no AMCB figure appears here.

How often does a New York CNM license need to be renewed?

Certified Nurse-Midwife licenses in New York renew every three years. A New York license is good for life, but a licensee must register periodically to practice or use the title. Midwifery registration runs in three year periods. The Department mails a renewal application about four months before the registration expires, and online renewal is available in the final five months of the period or up to four months after it ended. The cycle is keyed to the month of birth: the Office of the Professions states that the second registration after licensure, or after reactivation, is a transitional period that ends with the month prior to the date of birth, between two and three years from the first registration, which allows the Department to adjust the triennial registration cycle to coincide with the month of the date of birth. The fee and any continuing education for that transitional period are prorated. Thereafter registration periods are three years. A licensee not practicing in New York may register inactive at no charge instead.

What specific CE topics are required for New York nurse-midwives?

Pain management, palliative care and addiction course work or training: 3 hours every renewal cycle (prescribers licensed under Title 8 of the Education Law to treat humans who hold a DEA registration number to prescribe controlled substances, which reaches a midwife with prescriptive privilege and a DEA number but not one without). Citations: pain management, palliative care and addiction course work or training (Public Health Law 3309-a(3)).

Do New York nurse-midwives have to submit CE certificates at renewal?

Licensees attest to completion at renewal rather than submitting certificates.

Sources

Last verified September 10, 2026. Every value above was read from one of these.

• Midwifery, New York State Education Department, Office of the ProfessionsState board page, accessed September 10, 2026
• License Requirements for Midwifery, New York State Education Department, Office of the ProfessionsState board page, accessed September 10, 2026
• Training and Continuing Education, New York State Education Department, Office of the ProfessionsState board page, accessed September 10, 2026
• Mandated Training Related to Infection Control, New York State Education Department, Office of the ProfessionsState board page, accessed September 10, 2026
• Mandated Training Related to Child Abuse, New York State Education Department, Office of the ProfessionsState board page, accessed September 10, 2026
• NYSDOH Mandatory Prescriber Education, New York State Education Department, Office of the ProfessionsState board page, accessed September 10, 2026
• Online Registration Renewal, New York State Education Department, Office of the ProfessionsState board page, accessed September 10, 2026

Surprising regulator, and the sharpest version of the credential trap in this group. New York does not license a certified nurse-midwife. It licenses a Midwife under Title 8, Article 140, section 6955 of the Education Law and Subpart 79-5 of the Commissioner's Regulations, administered by the Office of the Professions with its own State Board for Midwifery, and any use of the title Midwife in New York requires that license. The license requirements page was read in full: it requires a master's or higher degree in midwifery accredited by the Accreditation Commission for Midwifery Education or registered by the Department as licensure qualifying, or a Department determined equivalent, and it does not require a nursing license at any point. So a New York midwife need not be a nurse, and there is no separate credential for the ones who are. This record therefore describes the Midwife license and says so rather than inventing a nurse-midwife figure. The absence of a continuing education requirement was established positively, not by failing to find one: the Office of the Professions publishes an explicit list of the professions that have a continuing education requirement in New York, and midwifery is absent from a list that runs from architecture to veterinary technician. The infection control and child abuse pages were each read in full and each publishes its own list of covered professions; midwifery is on neither. Disagreement with an existing record, and the point this record was asked to settle. The ny-crna record records renewal basis birth_month while the ny-rn and ny-np records record other. birth_month is correct and other is wrong. The Office of the Professions online registration renewal page states that the transitional second registration period ends with the month prior to the date of birth and that this allows the Department to adjust the triennial registration cycle to coincide with the month of the date of birth. That is the same registration machinery for every Title 8 profession, midwifery and nursing included, so ny-rn and ny-np should be corrected to birth_month. Two smaller gaps: the Department of Health prescriber education is cited from the Office of the Professions page that states it, because the Department of Health page itself was not read; and nothing read states a record retention period or an audit process for midwives, so those fields are null.