UK AI Exposure · Professional occupations
Midwifery nurses
Midwifery nurses deliver, or assist in the delivery of babies, provide antenatal and postnatal care and advise parents on baby care. They work with other healthcare professionals and advise on and teach midwifery practice.
- Employees (UK)
- 46k
- Median annual pay
- £39,327
- Exposure score ?
- 2.0/10 Low 5.7/10 Moderate strict reading · with tools is 5.7/10 with-tools reading · strict is 2.0/10
- Wage exposure
- £362m £1.03bn
Higher exposure than 81% of the 379 UK occupations we scored.
What this score means
A handful of tasks in this role are touchable by AI, mostly around paperwork, scheduling and basic writing. The shape of the role stays the same - some parts just get faster.
If you're in this role, here's what to do now
Pick the two or three most repetitive things in your week and try an LLM on them. Most people underestimate what Claude or ChatGPT can already do for admin-shaped work. The time you get back is the dividend.
A meaningful slice of the task inventory is AI-reachable - the drafting, summarising, research and analysis parts especially. This role is at the point where the people who learn to direct AI well pull ahead of the people who don't.
If you're in this role, here's what to do now
Treat AI as a colleague you manage, not a tool you use. Identify the tasks where you'd describe the work to a capable junior - those are the tasks AI can do for you now. Spend your time on the judgment calls and the relationships instead.
Where a project with Alex usually starts for this role
These are the highest-importance tasks a language model can already handle directly today. In a typical engagement the first wins come from building workflows around these, so they stop eating your team's time.
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Document patients' health histories, symptoms, physical conditions, or other diagnostic information.
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Explain procedures to patients, family members, staff members or others.
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Document findings of physical examinations.
These are the highest-importance tasks AI can already handle when paired with the right tools and context. In a typical engagement the first wins come from building workflows around these — usually the difference between an LLM that can technically do the job and one that actually does it inside your business.
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Document patients' health histories, symptoms, physical conditions, or other diagnostic information.
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Prescribe medications as permitted by state regulations.
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Develop and implement individualized plans for health care management.
Every role has three or four wedges like these. Finding them takes an hour. Turning them into a workflow your team actually uses takes a few days. Talk to Alex about a project →
The full task breakdown
Every O*NET task for this occupation, split by what AI can already do unaided versus what still needs a human. Importance is O*NET's 1–5 rating of how central each task is to the role.
Tasks via O*NET "Nurse Midwives" (29-1161.00).
What AI can already do
4 of 21 tasks · unaided
Document patients' health histories, symptoms, physical conditions, or other diagnostic information.
Explain procedures to patients, family members, staff members or others.
Document findings of physical examinations.
Write information in medical records or provide narrative summaries to communicate patient information to other health care providers.
Where humans still hold the line
17 of 21 tasks
Provide prenatal, intrapartum, postpartum, or newborn care to patients.
Monitor fetal development by listening to fetal heartbeat, taking external uterine measurements, identifying fetal position, or estimating fetal size and weight.
Provide patients with direct family planning services, such as inserting intrauterine devices, dispensing oral contraceptives, and fitting cervical barriers, including cervical caps or diaphragms.
Prescribe medications as permitted by state regulations.
Develop and implement individualized plans for health care management.
Order and interpret diagnostic or laboratory tests.
Initiate emergency interventions to stabilize patients.
Educate patients and family members regarding prenatal, intrapartum, postpartum, newborn, or interconception care.
Perform physical examinations by taking vital signs, checking neurological reflexes, examining breasts, or performing pelvic examinations.
Provide primary health care, including pregnancy and childbirth, to women.
Consult with or refer patients to appropriate specialists when conditions exceed the scope of practice or expertise.
Read current literature, talk with colleagues, or participate in professional organizations or conferences to keep abreast of developments in midwifery.
Instruct student nurse midwives, medical students, or residents on the birthing process.
Establish practice guidelines for specialty areas such as primary health care of women, care of the childbearing family, and newborn care.
Plan, provide, or evaluate educational programs for nursing staff, health care teams, or the community.
Conduct clinical research on topics such as maternal or infant health care, contraceptive methods, breastfeeding, and gynecological care.
Manage newborn care during the first weeks of life.
Tasks via O*NET "Nurse Midwives" (29-1161.00).
What AI can already do
12 of 21 tasks · with tools
Document patients' health histories, symptoms, physical conditions, or other diagnostic information.
Prescribe medications as permitted by state regulations.
Develop and implement individualized plans for health care management.
Explain procedures to patients, family members, staff members or others.
Order and interpret diagnostic or laboratory tests.
Document findings of physical examinations.
Write information in medical records or provide narrative summaries to communicate patient information to other health care providers.
Consult with or refer patients to appropriate specialists when conditions exceed the scope of practice or expertise.
Read current literature, talk with colleagues, or participate in professional organizations or conferences to keep abreast of developments in midwifery.
Establish practice guidelines for specialty areas such as primary health care of women, care of the childbearing family, and newborn care.
Plan, provide, or evaluate educational programs for nursing staff, health care teams, or the community.
Conduct clinical research on topics such as maternal or infant health care, contraceptive methods, breastfeeding, and gynecological care.
Where humans still hold the line
9 of 21 tasks
Provide prenatal, intrapartum, postpartum, or newborn care to patients.
Monitor fetal development by listening to fetal heartbeat, taking external uterine measurements, identifying fetal position, or estimating fetal size and weight.
Provide patients with direct family planning services, such as inserting intrauterine devices, dispensing oral contraceptives, and fitting cervical barriers, including cervical caps or diaphragms.
Initiate emergency interventions to stabilize patients.
Educate patients and family members regarding prenatal, intrapartum, postpartum, newborn, or interconception care.
Perform physical examinations by taking vital signs, checking neurological reflexes, examining breasts, or performing pelvic examinations.
Provide primary health care, including pregnancy and childbirth, to women.
Instruct student nurse midwives, medical students, or residents on the birthing process.
Manage newborn care during the first weeks of life.
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Methodology
This role's exposure score comes from Eloundou et al's 2023 GPT task labels, aggregated by O*NET importance within each O*NET-SOC code, then bridged to UK SOC 2020 via ISCO-08 (ONS Vol 2 coding index) and US SOC 2010 (BLS crosswalk). Employment and median pay come from ONS ASHE Table 14.7a, 2025 provisional. ASHE covers employees only, so self-employed workers are not counted.
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