Background & Objective : In order to prevent maternal mortality and morbidity, midwives should be able to implement community cares for women and their families. The aim of this study is to investigate midwives ’ knowledge, attitude and readiness to practice community oriented midwifery (COM).

  Methods : In this cross sectional study, all 280 midwives working in Kerman hospitals and health service centers were selected. The questioner for data collection had two parts. The first part intended to describe the characteristics of samples and the second part was used to evaluate midwives ’ knowledge, attitude, and readiness to practice community oriented midwifery. Correlation and chi - square tests were used to analyze the data.

  Results : Mean of knowledge score was 21.13 and 16.4% of the subjects had a good knowledge of COM. Mean of attitude score was 77.07 and 61.8% of the samples had a positive attitude towards COM. 79.2% of samples announced their readiness to practice COM.

  Conclusions : Based on the findings of this study it seems that the professional knowledge of midwives should be promoted, regarding COM.