midwife
A trained health worker who helps women during pregnancy and when they give birth, and who delivers babies.
A trained healthcare professional who specializes in caring for women during pregnancy, childbirth, and the weeks immediately after birth, and who delivers babies.
To help a woman give birth when you are working as a midwife.
To assist a woman in giving birth in the professional role of a midwife.
To help an idea, plan, or project start and grow, especially in the early and difficult stages.
To help create, launch, or develop something new, such as a project, agreement, or organization, especially by guiding it through its early stages.
A person or thing that strongly helps start an idea, event, group, or change.
A person or thing that plays a key role in creating or bringing about an idea, event, institution, or change.
- Base: midwife
- Plural: mid-wives, midwives
- Base: midwife
- 3rd Person Singular: midwifes, midwives
- Present Participle: midwifing, midwiving
- Past: midwifed, midwived
- Past Participle: midwived
- Irregular past participle: midwived Verb
play midwife to [something]
1to help bring something about
To help something important, like a project or agreement, start and succeed, especially by guiding it at the beginning.
- International agencies played midwife to the fragile peace deal.
- A group of senior managers played midwife to the company’s restructuring plan.
- Local activists played midwife to the creation of the new national park.
the midwife of [something]
1main cause or creator of something
Used to say that a person or thing strongly helped create or start something important, like a law, a movement, or a change.
- Political unrest was the midwife of the new democracy.
- Many consider her the midwife of modern environmental law.
- Rapid technological change has been the midwife of today’s digital economy.