AI exposure: Midwives
Provide prenatal care and childbirth assistance.
Reading this score
computedAt 16.8% of weighted task load, Midwives sits at the 28th percentile, below the point where a job's centre of gravity has moved. 57.3% of what this role does is untouched, meaning current systems cannot produce that work at all, whatever the commercial incentive.
What holds the line here is verification cost. Across this occupation's 36 tasks it averages 2.56 out of 3, the highest of the five friction dimensions. In plain terms, checking the output costs more than producing it. Where an undetected error is expensive, dangerous or irreversible, the economics change. Someone has to verify the work, and verifying can cost as much as doing it. This is the friction most likely to fall as tools for checking improve.
The most exposed thing this job does is Compile and evaluate clinical practice statistics, at 66.7%. The least is Treat patients' symptoms with alternative health care methods such as herbs or hydrotherapy, at 0.0%. A gap of 66.7% between two parts of the same job is the reason this index publishes at task level. An occupation-wide number would have hidden both.
Within healthcare practitioner and technical occupations, this one is less exposed than the median of 18.5% across the group's 89 roles, with 54 scoring higher. Being in an exposed family does not make a particular job exposed, and the reverse holds too.
What would move this score. Of 36 tasks, 5 are currently banded exposed, 16 assisted and 15 untouched. For that distribution to shift materially would take a change in who is permitted to sign the work, which is a question for regulators rather than for engineers. The score is re-computed every quarter against a fresh capability reference, and the change is published rather than quietly applied.
Where the score comes from
judgedEvery task is scored through the standardised work activities it maps to. These are this occupation’s averages on the six rubric dimensions. Capability is what AI can do; the other five are what stands in the way.
| Dimension | Mean | Scale |
|---|---|---|
| Capability | 1.73 | 0-4 |
| Embodiment | 1.39 | 0-3 |
| Presence | 1.86 | 0-3 |
| Accountability | 2.52 | 0-3 |
| Context | 1.84 | 0-3 |
| Verification cost | 2.56 | 0-3 |
Task by task
36 tasks, O*NET 31.0| Task | Exposed | Assisted | Untouched | Importance | Band |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Compile and evaluate clinical practice statistics. | 66.7% | 33.3% | 0.0% | 3.50 | exposed |
| Maintain documentation of all patients' contacts, reviewing and updating records as necessary. | 53.3% | 46.7% | 0.0% | 4.42 | exposed |
| Provide information about community health and social resources. | 45.0% | 30.0% | 25.0% | 3.80 | exposed |
| Counsel women regarding the nutritional requirements of pregnancy. | 40.0% | 35.0% | 25.0% | 4.30 | exposed |
| Recommend the use of vitamin and mineral supplements to enhance the health of patients and children. | 40.0% | 35.0% | 25.0% | 3.81 | exposed |
| Complete birth certificates. | 35.0% | 40.0% | 25.0% | 4.02 | assisted |
| Establish and follow emergency or contingency plans for mothers and newborns. | 30.0% | 45.0% | 25.0% | 4.59 | assisted |
| Assess the status of post-date pregnancies to determine treatments and interventions. | 30.0% | 45.0% | 25.0% | 4.42 | assisted |
| Develop, implement, or evaluate individualized plans for midwifery care. | 30.0% | 45.0% | 25.0% | 3.88 | assisted |
| Provide, or refer patients to other providers for, education or counseling on topics such as genetic testing, newborn care, contraception, or breastfeeding. | 27.1% | 35.4% | 37.5% | 4.09 | assisted |
| Evaluate patients' laboratory and medical records, requesting assistance from other practitioners when necessary. | 25.0% | 37.5% | 37.5% | 4.46 | assisted |
| Incorporate research findings into practice as appropriate. | 23.3% | 26.7% | 50.0% | 4.19 | assisted |
| Obtain complete health and medical histories from patients including medical, surgical, reproductive, or mental health histories. | 20.0% | 30.0% | 50.0% | 4.47 | assisted |
| Collaborate in research studies. | 20.0% | 30.0% | 50.0% | 3.31 | assisted |
| Identify tubal and ectopic pregnancies and refer patients for treatments. | 18.8% | 43.8% | 37.5% | 4.69 | assisted |
| Refer patients to specialists for procedures such as ultrasounds or biophysical profiles. | 16.7% | 33.3% | 50.0% | 4.23 | assisted |
| Test patients' hemoglobin, hematocrit, and blood glucose levels. | 13.3% | 36.7% | 50.0% | 4.32 | assisted |
| Provide information about the physical and emotional processes involved in the pregnancy, labor, birth, and postpartum periods. | 13.3% | 36.7% | 50.0% | 4.27 | assisted |
| Provide patients with contraceptive and family planning information. | 13.3% | 36.7% | 50.0% | 4.09 | assisted |
| Inform patients of how to prepare and supply birth sites. | 13.3% | 36.7% | 50.0% | 4.03 | assisted |
| Perform post-partum health assessments of mothers and babies at regular intervals. | 10.0% | 40.0% | 50.0% | 4.36 | assisted |
| Estimate patients' due dates and re-evaluate as necessary based on examination results. | 8.8% | 28.7% | 62.5% | 4.16 | untouched |
| Assess birthing environments to ensure cleanliness, safety, and the availability of appropriate supplies. | 7.5% | 5.0% | 87.5% | 4.19 | untouched |
| Monitor fetal growth and well-being through heartbeat detection, body measurement, and palpation. | 6.7% | 18.3% | 75.0% | 4.60 | untouched |
| Identify, monitor, or treat pregnancy-related problems such as hypertension, gestational diabetes, pre-term labor, or retarded fetal growth. | 6.2% | 31.2% | 62.5% | 4.57 | untouched |
| Set up or monitor the administration of oxygen or medications. | 3.8% | 8.8% | 87.5% | 4.40 | untouched |
| Monitor maternal condition during labor by checking vital signs, monitoring uterine contractions, or performing physical examinations. | 3.3% | 21.7% | 75.0% | 4.71 | untouched |
| Conduct ongoing prenatal health assessments, tracking changes in physical and emotional health. | 3.3% | 21.7% | 75.0% | 4.61 | untouched |
| Perform annual gynecologic exams, including pap smears and breast exams. | 3.0% | 13.7% | 83.3% | 4.00 | untouched |
| Provide necessary medical care for infants at birth, including emergency care such as resuscitation. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.62 | untouched |
| Suture perineal lacerations. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.37 | untouched |
| Assist maternal patients to find physical positions that will facilitate childbirth. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.21 | untouched |
| Provide comfort and relaxation measures for mothers in labor through interventions such as massage, breathing techniques, hydrotherapy, or music. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.16 | untouched |
| Collect specimens for use in laboratory tests. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.06 | untouched |
| Respond to breech birth presentations by applying methods such as exercises or external version. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 4.02 | untouched |
| Treat patients' symptoms with alternative health care methods such as herbs or hydrotherapy. | 0.0% | 0.0% | 100.0% | 3.50 | untouched |
Task text and importance ratings sourced from O*NET 31.0. Shares computed. The occupation score is the importance-weighted mean.
Occupations either side of this one
The four closest scores in the same occupational family, then the four closest anywhere in the index.
Read this carefully. Exposure is not displacement. A high score means current AI systems can produce this work, not that anyone will stop paying a person to do it. Adoption depends on economics, regulation and inertia that this index deliberately does not model. How the score is built.
What this means in practice
Most of this work is not reachable by current systems, so the immediate pressure is on the administrative edges of the role rather than its core: the scheduling, the reporting, the written records. That is where time is recovered.