Centra is home to one of the largest midwife practices in the state, employing 18 Certified Nurse Midwives (CNMs) at CMG Forest Women’s Center and CMG Southside Women’s Center. Midwives are advanced practice providers specifically trained in both nursing and midwifery. They are licensed to provide prenatal care, deliveries and gynecologic care from adolescence through menopause.
In the past year, midwifery in Lynchburg has been celebrated through local history, and just last month, significant legislation was passed to expand access and address workforce needs. This new legislation aims to improve care accessibility, especially in rural areas and promote equity within the midwifery practice.
A Deeply Rooted History in Lynchburg
In the early part of the 19th century, midwifery was the customary practice for pregnancy care and childbirth in the United States, but by the early 1900s, laws in Virginia and across the U.S. became more restrictive on who could be a midwife, requiring more training and licensing. Today, about 12% of U.S. births are attended by midwives.
The Lynchburg Museum exhibit, “Women with Women: A History of Midwifery in Lynchburg and Central Virginia,” opened in October 2023 and ran through June 2025. The exhibit shows artifacts, photos and the names of nearly 200 midwives from the 1840s to the present day who have practiced or currently practice in Lynchburg and central Virginia. For example, Harriet Burton, a local 19th-century African American woman attended four times more births than any other midwife on record.
Expanding Access and Care through Legislation
On May 2, 2025, Governor Glenn Youngkin signed legislation to bring greater equity in insurance reimbursements for midwives while better serving the women they care for. The signed bills include: House Bill 1923, Senate Bill 1352 and House Bill 1904. These bills reflect a commitment to improving maternal healthcare, supporting midwives in their practice and addressing the state’s maternity care provider shortage, allowing hospitals to adopt these measures if necessary. These bills will take effect on July 1, 2025.
Major Legislation Takeaways
- Midwives can now practice autonomously and receive 100% reimbursement at the fee schedule, marking Virginia as the first state to recognize all forms of this practice.
- If insurance companies reimburse midwives, they will now reimburse all midwifery care the same. For instance, CNMs and Certified Midwives both have the same licensing and midwifery education. However, a CNM is also a nurse. Now, all Certified Midwives and CNMs will receive the same level of coverage through insurance. This coverage includes both pregnancy care and gynecologic care for women.
- Through this insurance equalization, this new legislation will allow healthcare systems to hire both Certified Midwives and CNMs to the practice, allowing for more flexibility in staffing needs and addressing hiring shortages.
- Midwives can now serve on a 24-hour on-call duty roster for nursery care when physicians are unavailable, addressing staffing shortages in rural areas. For example, in a labor and delivery unit, the existing regulations require an OBGYN to be on call 24 hours a day and a physician with pediatric services to provide newborn care. This bill will allow rural hospitals' advanced practice providers to administer whole maternity and newborn care when a physician is unavailable. This will enable hospitals to use their clinicians rather than utilizing LOCUMs or emergency services to fulfill those needs.
The Provider Perspective
Katie Page, a CNM at Centra Medical Group Women’s Center, also serves as the Legislative Committee Chair for the American College of Nurse-Midwives, the professional association representing advanced practice midwives, including CNMs and Certified Midwives in the United States. In her role with the organization, Katie advocates for legislation to advance midwifery practice by expanding the workforce, visibility and access to care.
“This work is really personal to me,” Katie explained. “I’ve been a member of this community serving as a midwife since 2013, and my whole purpose and passion as a clinician is to provide person-centered, accessible, quality care to everyone who needs our services.” According to Katie, Centra midwives have attended nearly 1,000 births annually over the last two years – 23% of births at Centra Virginia Baptist Hospital, and 63% of births at Centra Southside Community Hospital.
“There’s this saying among midwives that everyone deserves a midwife, and some people deserve a doctor, too,” Katie joked. “Essentially, it says that our approach to care is individualized, relationship-centered and person-centered. I love taking that perspective in how I serve the families and people seeking care with us and how I get to work and serve as a professional in this organization. The way that I get to advocate for everyone in the community and beyond the people that I directly provide care for is really special. I feel really honored to be able to do this work,” Katie remarked.
