One could clobber together an excellent education with all the free resources out there, plus the stack of books recommended by NARM, plus a study group and a high quality local apprenticeship. There are definite advantages to a formal program that I don't want to minimize, but clearly formal education is still inaccessible to many. With internet access becoming possible and sometimes common even in remote and impoverished corners of the earth, that accessibility issue is changing. You could give yourself a great education, but you still have to come up with the bucks if you want an education that the wider public will regard as legitimate.
Purely anecdotally, there doesn't always seem to be a direct relationship between the depth of knowledge and understanding that a midwife had and how she (or he, I suppose) obtained her (or his) education. I've heard tell of very scary midwives that excelled in formal programs and went on to practice recklessly, and also know a number of midwives who have taken on the responsibility of educating themselves completely and have earned the esteem of local hospitals with the quality of their knowledge and practice.
Anyway, I'm excited to have found another up-to date and research based set of educational modules available to anyone with web access and time.
Love this post and thanks for the resource. "Clobbering" a good education is exactly what I am doing in the way you described. I feel like because it is all on my shoulders I push myself even harder than those who are attending a program telling them what to study.
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