Going to school to be LPN, then Certified Nurse-Midwife??

I start school in fall 2008 to be an LPN. After that I'm planning on moving to Nashville to work part time as an LPN & goto school at Vanderbilt to be a Nurse-Midwife. How long will I have to go to school to be a Certified Nurse-Midwife and will it help since I will be an LPN? Or would I just be wasting my time on LPN school? I'm wanting to do it this way so I can get a good paying job so I would have enough money for rent, food, support my daughter (whos 19mos), etc when I did move to nashville to go to vanderbilt

You should look into getting a 2 year RN degree instead of the LPN. You WILL make more money as an RN than an LPN. You're looking at nearly 4 years after the LPN anyway. Might as well get the RN and make more money with the part time work you do while in school. Just checked out the Vanderbilt program and it looks like the RN route saves you 1 semester over the LPN route. You'll probably be better prepared for the midwife thing getting your RN and you will make more per hour while moonlighting during your midwife training. Keep in mind i'm not a nurse, just know a lot of nurses, and in my experience the RNs are much more knowledgeable than the LPNs.

why a midwife